Fearless Flying

Given that this slick multimedia package was developed by Northwest Airlines, it's not surprising that it looks and feels like an in-house corporate promotional video. Bundled with an accompanying booklet, "breathing relaxation tube" and a 30-minute audio tape of relaxation exercises, this production strives to be your one-size-fits-all starter kit for overcoming the fear of hurtling through the atmosphere with 100 or so total strangers in a jet-powered alloy tube. Opening with capable looking people leveling with viewers about the experience of flying, followed by a comprehensive tour of safety checks, and a chat with a pilot, the program's mental centerpiece consists of happy-talk sessions, as a succession of stalwarts of applied psychology offer calming rationalizations and visualization activities designed to reassure the skittish. While this approach is probably most effective for those reluctant fliers who find human resources seminars and management retreats rewarding, those who simply refuse to fly will likely not be swayed by assurances that all the "flight controls have triple redundancy." However, since the whole production feels stagy and forced (very much like another airlines-sponsored program, Overcome Your Fear of Flying [VL-11/91], created by American Airlines), and seems to be designed for individual use (recall the "breathing relaxation tube"), this is very optional for library collections. Aud: P. (M. Tribby)