PassPort Price

[Gary406]

were flying away to the sun in 9 weeks time , my passport expires in 10 weeks time. means it will have expired while im on holiday.

just got a form to renew it and the fee is £77

WHAT THE F K

not to mention i'm sh*t scared of aeroplanes, all this money waisted to get on a plane , i have a BIG BIG fear of planes and i have to pay £77 to even get on it and get out the country

[Doggy]

Relax Gaz, I'm sure the statistics prove flying is really safe.

So long as you keep to an equal number of take-offs & landings, you'll be fine.

[TooT]

I just filled mine in the other day. We are thinking of going off somewhere in June.

Oh and to make sure its filled in correctly you can take it to the Post Office and they will check it for more ££

and then the photos £

[Gary406]

Relax Gaz, I'm sure the statistics prove flying is really safe.

So long as you keep to an equal number of take-offs & landings, you'll be fine.

ye , we went away 2 years ago and i hated every second on that plane. i know its safe i just dont like the actual plane. it makes me kringe even when i look at them parked up at the airport

[CalamityJames]

Relax Gaz, I'm sure the statistics prove flying is really safe.

So long as you keep to an equal number of take-offs & landings, you'll be fine.

ye , we went away 2 years ago and i hated every second on that plane. i know its safe i just dont like the actual plane. it makes me kringe even when i look at them parked up at the airport

I've flown to America a good 6 or 7 times now, and done a few plane flights around Europe and the UK and there's still that moment before takeoff and the no-mans-land when you go from being on the ground to in the air that I feel a tad scared, and the landing a bit too.

But it doesn't half get the adrenaline going!

[Gary406]

Thanks CJ you made me feel that little bit ................................................ worse

[waue1978]

I hate planes. Took one from Bournemouth to Dublin with this really nice guy sat next to me trying to make me feel at ease by telling me how he does the trip at least once a fortnight, they usually run pretty close to on time & he's never had a problem with them. We were 45min late taking off & we were in the air 90mins instead of the planned 1hr. At this point he was starting to look nervous after I'd told him that if ever anything was going to happen on a short haul flight, it would happen to the one I was on.

I swear the colour drained from his face when they told us we couldn't land in Dublin airport due to air traffic problems. We landed 30mins later at Shannon Airport - the other side of Ireland. Had to book another hire car at 80Euro (already had one pre-booked for Dublin & cost extra to leave this car at Dublin) & was shi**ing it waiting for the flight home.

Everybody says it's just like being on a bus, but a bus doesn't go up, down, tilt etc. Plus, if the engine goes on a bus, the worst thing you'll have to do is walk for a bit. Even on a ferry they have lifeboats & rubber rings.

If the engine goes on an aeroplane it isn't as if I can flap my arms & fly the rest of the way myself, although the landing would be much quicker...

[highlander]

Yeah, the passport prices are stupid.

Gary, flying is safer than driving. It just is. Seriously, right now, there are between 250,000 and 500,000 people in the air. Tens of thousands of flights occur on a daily basis, and that's just the commercial passenger flights - cargo planes, private aircraft, and military flights occur constantly too. There hasn't been any occasion in the past 20 years at least where there hasn't been any aircraft in the air, anywhere in the world. For the total distance covered by an airline passenger during a flight, if they were to take that same journey by road, they would be considerably more likely to be involved in an accident.

My advice to you is to ask for a seat over the wing, or just behind it, preferably in an emergency exit row, right - this way, you have lots of leg room, and won't feel too enclosed, and you can look out over the wing of the aircraft. If you hear any noises that make you nervous, look out over the wing and chances are, it'll be one of the control surfaces moving (leading/trailing-edge flaps, ailerons, or air brakes), or the thrust-reversers on landing. If you can't see what's making the noise, it's likely to be the wheels going up or down, or the engines increasing/decreasing thrust.

Flying is a great experience - if you get really into it, it can be a lot of fun.

[Gary406]

[highlander]

Waue1978, if an engine goes in a plane, it will be able to continue flying.

You can fly a 747 with 2 engines, albeit at a slower pace and a lower altitude. Same goes for twinjets - you lose an engine, the other must be capable of allowing the aircraft to continue flying.

In fact, an airliner cannot be certified for commercial operations (and therefore cannot go on sale to airlines) if it is unable to take off with a failed engine - so on twinjet aircraft, they must all have engines powerful enough for the aircraft to fly just with one engine. Trijets (DC-10/MD-11) must also be able to take off with one engine out. Quadjets (Boeing 707, 747, Airbus A340, A380) will be able to take off with two engines not running.

If worst comes to worst, and an aircraft loses all of its engines for some reason, it is perfectly capable of gliding - see the Air Canada 767 (twinjet) that ran out of fuel (a bizarre metric/imperial conversion mistake, which is now no longer possible) as an example. The aircraft became known as the Gimli Glider, and returned to active service with Air Canada pretty much straight away. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

Flying has become so commonplace that you shouldn't worry about it. It's statistically safer than being in a car, bus, train, or ferry. Yes, accidents can happen, but far (far!) more often than not, they don't. Don't worry about it. Jump on board and have a good time.

[Gary406]

thanks mate , thats put my mind at ease a little better

[STALLED]

My last flight was on a A380 - Amazing feat of engineering and so much more comfortable/roomy than a 747! Still, as the others have said - flying is perfectly safe. Admire it for the engineering feat that it is.

[sirwiggum]

Turn up at the airport at least an hour before the flight takes off.

Get treated as a suspect through the security gates, having to remove shoes and prove your laptop *is* a laptop.

Sit for at least an hour bored, maybe longer if the flight is delayed.

Eventually get herded on to tiny cramped seats (I'm 6 foot 3 and 17 stone).

Hope that the plane takes off safely.

Feel a bit queasy as the plane hits turbulence.

Pay a fortune for a tiny can of beer.

Try and read as there is no way you can sleep in such cramped conditions.

Plane is descending, nearing destination, hope that the descent is ok.

The plane seems to hover over the runway for miles. It's going to overshoot, isn't it? Running through your mind, eventually the plane touches down with a jolt - was anything broken? The plane then engages reverse thrust and flaps - it's going to overshoot isn't it!?!

Eventually it slows and you sigh a big sigh of relief.

Make it in to the airport, tired and grumpy and wait in a queue for passport controls. Usually 1 person and 200 passengers.

Wait on your baggage. Where is it? Has it been lost? Eventually, if you are lucky, it turns up looking like it was used in a game of elephant football.

I hate flying.

[Gary406]

i dont mind paying a fortune for the tiny cans of beer , its the only thing that puts my mind at ease.

i know i will be having about 5 pints of lager before i get on this time.

[sirwiggum]

i dont mind paying a fortune for the tiny cans of beer , its the only thing that puts my mind at ease.

i know i will be having about 5 pints of lager before i get on this time.

I did that on a flight to Cyprus to calm the nerves, and ended up boking when the microwaved shepherds pie came round