Course Description

Over 15 years ago now Vancouver International Airport Authority asked YVR Chapel to offer a course designed to help people too afraid to fly to overcome their aviophobia. So, chapel founder Layne Daggett began offering our Fly Without Fear course. Since then we’ve had women and men of all ages and backgrounds take the course and find it life changing. Whether you need to fly for reasons of work, family or fun, this course can enable you to fly without fear. For basic course outline details see below, or check out our How it Works page for more.

The Fly Without Fear course is designed to be practical and personalized. It features small class sizes giving you plenty of time with your instructor for conversation, questions, and support. The course is also comprehensive, addressing both the rational and psychological factors that contribute to aviophobia. On the rational side, addressing airplane safety, we’ll cover the following:

We’ll have a senior pilot come into our class, explain airplane safety, and answer your questions.
We’ll take you onto a plane so you can familiarize yourself with the routine aspects of flying.
We’ll take you into the secure side of the airport so you can familiarize yourself with what you can expect at both ends of your flight.[1]

Additionally, to address the psychological side of aviophobia the course instructor will discuss the following topics with you:

What are the various kinds of fear that make flying difficult
How common they are and that they’re no sign of either weakness or stupidity
Where they originate
How they work
What can intensify them

Most importantly, we’ll give you cutting-edge psychological techniques to enable you to control your irrational thoughts and remain calm when flying.

By addressing both sides of your aviophobia—rational and psychological—we ensure that you have everything you need to adopt the mindset and master the techniques proven to work for thousands of fliers just like you. With them, you too will be able to fly wherever you wish.

Next course: February 21 & 28, 2026

[1] Please note: Though we had planned to add a flight simulation session to our course, that plan has changed as the main idea behind doing it was to include the motions you experience when flying. Unfortunately, the flight simulator at YVR doesn’t do motions. So it doesn’t serve our purpose.