Frightened Flyer, you diagnosed yourself with "Fear of Flying" and mentioned that part of it is fear of the unknown, fear of your own fear and I will attribute the remaining part to "irrational fears." It may be news for you, but you are neither the first nor the only one with Fear of Flying and it is something that can be cured by tricking the irrational part of your mind in accepting that flying is safe. The real good news for you is that scientifically founded treatment routinely achieves over 90% success rate. There are several routes for you to get over your Fear of Flying, but full discussion of that is better taken to a site dedicated to conquering Fear of Flying. I am happy to answer any of your questions here, but I like to invite you to join the discussion at takingflight.us and meet other people that are trying to get over (or did get over) FoF there.