How Sez Sees It

I realised I haven't posted here for a while, so I am long overdue. I had thought about putting this one on my anxiety blog, but I feel the science part makes more sense here. A little about my fear I never used to have a fear of flying. Actually, the first couple of times I got on a plane I absolutely loved it and it was one of the best experiences of my life! Then something happened to me. I don't know what, but I think it was connected to an extreme bout of anxiety and stress I had in my early 20's because the first time I got on a plane with my now husband, I lost it entirely for the whole flight! This was about nine years ago now and I have been getting better every time, but it still weirds me out. I am hoping that this blog will be cathartic and allow me to get over some of this fear before I next get on a plane...which is very soon at the time of writing. The frustrating thing is that my husband is utterly obsessed with planes! Cannot get enough of them and des...

In a continuing story of greed vs nature this time it is the bosses of Ryanair and British Airways who would like to control the way of the world. A year ago the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland caused travel chaos after erupting for a couple of months and I myself was part of that when my planned trip to Dublin was cancelled due to no flights so I had a lovely holiday in Weymouth instead.  This year we see a repeat with the Grimsvotn volcano, but this time Willy Walsh and Michael O'Leary want to fly you through the ash. Apparently one of the BA planes has flown through the ash cloud and there was no 'visible damage'.  That isn't really the point.  The point is that the ash is very abrasive and will get into every space.  At, say, 36,000 feet the ash will stick to the engine turbines and under those temperatures form into a type of glass, clogging the turbines.  This can cause engine failure.  If you are lucky then after dropping around 15,000 f...