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Show Flew the Atlantic-Sol- o! I :.'...','rP' By SUSAN OLIVER tain finally pulled out of it. We flew for another half an hour until we made an emergency landing in Gander. None of us felt like getting on the relief plane they sent for us, but somehow we did. On the final lap of the flight from Gander to New Yo?k we lost our oxygen supply. Arid when we landed, we were told about another plane that crashed in Long Island Sound just hours before. I'd had it with flying! For two years after that, except for one flight to New York which I slept through, I was toe terrified to get on another plane. As a result, I lost out on a lot of acting parts. Then one night I went to a night club to see Pat Collins, the hypnotist. I didn't know that one of my friends had told Pat about my fear of flying. When she saw me, she offered to help me get over it. She did nothing jazzy. Just sat me down, hypnotized me, and said, "Susan, you will remember that you used to love flying and that you used to feel safe." Two days later I got a call to fly to Texas for a tv show appearance. I was excited when I got on the plane. As we picked up speed heading down the runway, I had a feeling of exhilaration. My fear of flying was a thing of the past! Then, about three, years ago, a friend invited me to fly in his private plane. But those small planes didn't appeal to me, and it took months before I finally agreed to go. I was scared at first, but the day after flying with him I found myself signing up for pilot instruction. Two months later, after soloing, I got my private license. The idea of flying to Europe started a year later. I was studying Russian at the time and a friend suggested, "Why don't you fly to Russia?" I said, "Sure, why not?" When I started to check into it, I found out that while a few women e had flown planes across the Atlantic before, none had ever done it under the observance of the National Aeronautic Association, the well-kno- fell i How to recognize a girl with confidence: Observe her posture. She's always poised; she's never in a slump. Her walk is and proud. She is aivays well groomed. Her hair is clean and worn in a self-assur- style that suits her, not the latest fad. The same is true of her clothes. tad of course she uses Tampax tampons. They keep her fresh and free to be active every day of the month. Tampax tampons are made of pure surgical cot-- rjffTJS ton. And they're worn internally so our con- - E ,fZ& fident young woman never has to worry about odor or bulky pads and belts. She can swim, play tennis, do almost anything dance stt cares to, confident that Tampax tampons will keep her confident. -- r yK ... The Atlantic conquered, Susan is preparing for a dangerous Susan Oliver is best known to tv viewers for her lengthy guest appearance on "Peyton Place" and to movie-goefor such films as 8." Her most recent mojie is "A Man Called Gannon." Born in New York, educated at Swarthmore and in Tokyo, she holds five air speed records. "But-terfie- rs ld point-to-poi- nt Slowly MY single-engin- e climbed up from the granite peaks of Narsars-sua- k, the Greenland fjord. Above me, the sky was overcast I seemed to be trapped between them. I had to find a hole to get through. When I finally did, I lost all ground references. I had no navigation because the radio ship's radar beacon, way out in the Atlantic, was out of commission. At 13,000 feet, I had to rely on sheer dead reckoning for the next four hours, hoping that I was compensating correctly for the wind as I headed for Iceland across the vast-neof Greenland. I was flying solo, yet I was not really afraid, although once I was so scared of flying, I took the train wherever I went. ss M vara Wf mumm MMI TAMPONS AM MAOI ONLY W TAMPAX INCOWORA I lO. PAUMtR, MAM. IS Family Weekly, Jun S3, 1998 trans-Pacif- ic flight. There were good reasons for me to be scared, too. It all dates back to my flight in a Boeing 707 nine years ago a jet that took a 30,000-fodive suddenly, which nobody expected to survive. Until then, I had accepted flying like most people. True, three times my mother, an astrologer, had cautioned me not to get on a plane. And each time she was justified. The first time my plane had lost two engines in a violent storm. The other two times I took her advice and stayed off the planes. Both crashed. Thereafter I always checked with her except for that fateful flight from Paris to New York. Next to im on that flight was a HcUywood-typ- e character, tall, conceited, handsome. I didn't like him. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the plane went into this terrible dive. The "G" forces pulled my head forward until it felt like it would break off. My eyes and teeth felt like they were being pulled out. Like everybody else, I was sure we were going to die. People began to scream, and the strapping young man next to me screamed loudest of all. I don't know how long the dive lasted. Maybe no more than three minutes. It seemed like an eternity till the cap ot single-engin- only agency that could certify any speed record. In my naivety I had no idea what was involved, such as survival train- ing, familiarity with special compasses, how to use an automatic pilot and other special equipment. |