Reassurance
The flight back was the first to leave on time that I've been on since summer 2010, and that was miraculous enough - I think I prefer flights during the daytime. It was, however, quite turbulent as we caught up with nightfall quickly - nevertheless, we made it and I don't have to fly again for another year. The student who was sitting in our row now has a story about constantly having to reassure the 27-year-old with a stuffed rabbit next to him - something that he really was very good at thanks to his encyclopaedic knowledge of all the unusual and worrying noises a plane can produce. And yes, I did have a stuffed rabbit with me, and it helped a lot, even if it was roughly hourglass-shaped by the time we landed.
I can't help but feel that the whole process would be vastly improved with a general anaesthetic - the best flight of my life was the one that I entirely skipped due to taking prescription temazepam, with the minor inconvenience that by the end I'd forgotten where I lived. Much like Mr. T, the only way to get me on to a flight without complaint is to make sure that I'm fully unconscious first. (NB. This is the only thing that I have in common with Mr. T)
Come on, Scott Hudson, seriously.
Even though I had plenty of entertainment - most of it this time spent on discovering how utterly malevolent Best of ZZT Part 2 is in parallel to the first one - I find myself unable to really concentrate on anything during a flight. I hadn't realized until very recently that not everyone just had a heightened tension while flying - I had just assumed that it was a feeling that everybody had, as thirty thousand feet in the air is logically not a sane place for humans to be. It's not even the thought of height that does it, because once you're beyond a few hundred feet up distance just becomes meaningless - it's more about not knowing what's happening, being trapped and not being in control (even though on balance, the plane would probably be worse off with me in control).
I looked at a page written by a pilot to help people get over their anxieties, at http://www.fearofflyinghelp.com/ - sometimes its sense of humour is a bit less funny than it seems to think, but that just makes him seem more human. Among other things, it pointed out all the cross-checked things that would have to go wrong for there to be an issue during a flight, like the flight computer, both pilots, air traffic control on the ground - whereas if you're driving, you've got a three foot margin of error between you and the cars coming head-on at you, which may be driven by people on their phones and looking over their shoulder. It did actually help my fear of flying, though it also made me significantly more worried about going by car.
And the people who wrote this game are all bastards.