I've only been on a plane once, when I was eleven too, and before I got on, I was terrified.  But, when we actually started moving, it was so seamless, and almost magical, that I ended up not being scared at all, in fact, I really enjoyed it!  I've been wanting to go back on one ever since.  And really, I was truly was terrified before I went on.

And Admin is right, flying is much safer than driving.  :) 

My brother was even more nervous than I was, but really the only thing that bothered him was taking off and landing, and turning, because sometimes he gets dizzy from motion.  (he tried to avoid boats)  Really, unless you are afraid of heights, I wouldn't worry at all.  Oh, and even then, if you are flying over the ocean, it won't make much of a difference, because you can't really see anything.

Good luck, and have fun!!!  :D :D :D :D 

It's really not that bad at all. How long is the flight?

Flying rocks, Clair! I, personally, love it. It's a ton of fun. And it is really safe. And they give you peanuts and pretzels and soda and stuff like that. And if it's a long flight, they usually show a movie. And if you're a bookworm or a writer (which I assume you are, being on the Chatterbox) passing the time is no problem. Have fun, and don't worry! And try not to pack things that will look strange on x-rays in your carry-on bag. You know, cut down on electronics and such. It's a pain if they have to search your bag - takes time. I try to avoid wearing a belt or watch or whatever just to make sure you don't set off alarms. If you have braces, those never set off the alarms for me, even though I was really worried that they would, so don't worry about that. Again, have fun! The airline personel don't bite, you know. Airports and planes and such are very cool. I've been flying since I was a baby and my mom had to travel. I think I took my first flight without my parents - just my brother - when I was in, oh, something like second grade. I've never had trouble. Except one time when I wasn't feeling well when I got on, but that wasn't the plane's fault. :) Sorry, Admins, this is really long.

-EH the lover of flying

I've been on, um . . . about . . . eight different planes.  It's really neat, actually.  When you're on the plane, you don't lurch around at all--really, it's like you're going in an extremely straight line that only tilts very, very gently when you're landing.  If you have a window seat, it's cool to look outside--when you fly above cities or oceans you can see all the mini-buildings and gleaming water, or if you're traveling at nighttime, all the little city lights.  And sometimes the plane goes inside or over the clouds.  It's really weird!  But enough about scenery . . .  On the plane, bring a good book or magazine to pass the time, or if you suffer from motion sickness, an ipod or walkman with some good songs and, if you want, an audiobook or two.  When I flew to Hawaii, I brought two audiobooks (because I get motion sickness whenever I read in a moving vehicle): Before We Were Free and I, Coriander.  They were good.  If you want to bring an audiobook, they're probably available at your local bookstore, or worse comes to worse you can order them on the Internet, if you have walkman.  If you have an ipod, though, just go to iTunes and type the title of the book you want to bring into the search engine, and with the author's name if nothing shows up.  Then you download it into you're ipod, and, ta-da, you now have a whole novel on the thing.  On the airline I use, everyone has their own separate TV screens in the back of the chairs, and there's usually a wide selection of movies, including family ones, or at least a large group TV, if you don't want to do all that complicated stuff. :) I would also recommend bringing a few snacks, but no big apples or oranges (or raw meat, but who would want to bring raw meat on a plane?) and other fruits and vegetables.  You could bring some things like a bag of chips or popcorn or some apple and orange slices in a Tupperware or something.  There IS food served on the plane, but at least on Air Canada (the airline we use) the food isn't so good--mostly stuff from Burger King.  *grimaces*

Five hours isn't too bad. I once flew ten hours across the Atlantic Ocean to get to Ireland, and I had spent most of the day in a plane. I don't know how long I sat in a plane that day.

Many people say that the takeoff is scary, but it isn't really.

Recently I went to New Orleans and there were two flights, one from Portland to Denver and the other from Denver to New Orleans.

P.S. Do you get a window seat?