I am usually on an airplane once a month, sometimes more often. I have been flying since I was eighteen years old. If you do the math, you’ll figure out I have flown hundreds of times.

Yet, each flight is as scary to me as my first flight in 1966 when my cousin Debbie had to fly across the United States from Los Angeles to get me so I could go back with her to spend time with my West Coast family. I refused to fly alone.

Now I prefer to fly alone so I can concentrate on every little detail. There have been times when I’ve thought the engines had stopped or I’ve smelled a fire. If the flight attendants congregate in one area, I want to eavesdrop to know what’s going on. I also examine every person who enters the plane. If a person looks suspicious to me, I watch their every move. The worst for me is when someone gets up in flight to get something from a piece of luggage from the overhead. I worry about what they are reaching for and does it have a trigger.

I was very surprised when I saw a recent article in The New York Times from columnist David Pogue that talked about the mysteries of air travel. At first I wondered why a personal tech writer was covering air travel, but then Pogue carefully explained that technology and the travel industry are getting more and more intertwined. Find out why air turbulence and lightening won’t crash a plane, and whether or not your mobile devices really interfere with navigation. There are lots of other areas covered. Here is your chance to learn more.