Well here's a topic I can certainly add value to.
Up to just over two years ago I was adamant I would never, ever fly again. I was convinced I would die, plumetting to the earth/sea to my death. I felt sure everyone felt the same, afterall, there are so many things that can go wrong on a plane, aren't there? My last flight prior to this ten year break was to Jamaica where I cried and sobbed all the way there and all the way back.
THEN I got offered a job in Belfast, which meant having the FLY. TWICE a week! So, I took it as I knew that I'd be flying with a colleague I love and trust. I'd never be able to fly alone.
The first flight I took (all of 35 mins) couldn't have been better. Smooth, perfect and more importantly, short. However, the moment we touched down my first thought was that I will never, EVER be able to get on a plane again! Well of course I did as I had to get home but on the day I landed I scoured the internet and found a site called Flying Without Fear. I ordered a book, a DVD and a set of CD's. When I got home I read the book cover to cover, twice. Watched the DVD and listened to the CD's which were superb. I used to be nervous of all the noises, things that were strange to me but clearly completely normal! I think I spent about £60, and it was worth it.
With regard to turbulence, I now look at it this way, and this is just as a PAX, as you've seen there are lots of superb answers from others above. So, my sensibility tells me that firstly the plane would never be flown into anything dangerous. I also understand that planes and wings are tested to levels that simply would never ever occur in the real world. Sure, it gives me a turn sometimes to look out the window and see the wings waggling away and bending all over the place, but if they didn't they'd snap off probably! Sometimes it's bumpy, sometimes bumpier than others, but it's just uncomfortable at best, and certainly not dangerous! Also the thing that gives me the greatest comfort is that the plane is flown by normal guys and girls for whom it's a day job. Same goes for cabin crew. They want to get home as much as we do!
Sadly, and I did this myself, when you're nervous you go looking for facts and figures. And you will find them, and lots of awful pictures and videos. What you won't hear on the news or find anywhere in the media is a screaming headline that says "TWENTY THOUSAND FLIGHTS WENT TODAY - ALL COMPLETELY NORMAL!". Of course, when accidents DO happen, and they do at times, it's newsworthy because it's so unusual! And I agree that you do have to consider it the same as getting in your car. I don't even think about, and yet hundreds of people every day are killed and injured in car accidents, or crossing the road.
So I'll close by saying that I'm still not cured so to speak, I'm not leaping up the steps two at a time! But I now take four flights a week, alone. I sit by the window, I listen to my iPod, I have a drink. I enjoy that the plane is either taking me to work or taking me home. If it's bumpy (very rarely, as we seem to get moved out of the way of it!), I just hold my drink so it doesn't spill! And when I get off at the end, I ALWAYS say thankyou to the cabin crew and any of the uniforms that are stood there.
Good luck!