Obituary: Aviator Jeanne McElhatton, helped people overcome flying fears, dies at 90
Jeanne McElhatton loved being up in the air, looking down. And she loved to help a stranger get over a fear of flying and then climb aboard an airplane.
“She liked the routine and the discipline of flying, and she liked that she was good at it,” said her son, Russell. “But mostly she liked the unique perspective of looking at the world from an airplane.”
McElhatton, a pioneering and passionate aviator who got her pilot’s license at 17 by saving up her babysitting money, died May 14 in a Redwood City hospital after a stroke. She was 90.
She flew all makes and models of planes, gave flying lessons, taught ground school and, in 1976, founded the Fear of Flying Clinic that helped hundreds of white-knuckle non-fliers conquer their phobia and take their first plane ride.
McElhatton and her staff of counselors found that non-fliers often feared airplanes because they didn’t understand how they worked. She would have her clients visit the cockpit, talk to pilots and become familiar with the various noises, movements and features of a plane.
“We give them tools to work with,” she said in a 2012 interview with The Chronicle. “It’s not like mind-bending and that sort of thing. We teach them proper breathing — deep abdominal breathing. It distracts them, puts their concentration onto something other than their fear, and it gets the oxygen flowing properly.”
McElhatton’s program, conducted over two weekends at San Francisco International Airport, generally concluded with her clients taking a flight from the Bay Area to Los Angeles.
Nothing gratified her so much as having a non-flier take to the skies, Russell said.
“She wanted everyone to feel about airplanes the way she did,” he said.
In her more than 60 years behind the controls of an airplane, McElhatton took off and landed thousands of times, in airports big and small — in farmer’s fields, as far north as the Arctic and as far south as Valparaiso, Chile. The family took trips by plane the way other families took trips by car, her son said. He and his sister fought in the back seat, the way siblings do, but higher up.
Between 1959 and 1991, McElhatton participated in two dozen air races, including 12 Powder Puff derbies, the cross-country air race for women pilots.
McElhatton was a native of Oakland, a graduate of San Francisco State University and a resident of Redwood City. She worked as an aviation safety analyst for NASA. She also taught ground school at the College of San Mateo and Foothill College, and starred in a series of instructional videos.
She was still piloting in her eighth decade. At the age of 85, she flew to remote areas in Alaska and the Yukon. In the past few years, she continued to go aloft in the co-pilot’s seat. For years, the license plate on her car — never her favorite means of transport — was FLYNGAL.
Of her clinic clients, she often said that it was their newfound knowledge that conquered their fear.
“When they hear ‘ping ping’ during the flight, they think something’s wrong,” she said. “But (we taught them) it’s just the pilot asking the flight attendant to bring their coffee.”
McElhatton is survived by her son, Russell of Castaic (Los Angeles County); her daughter, Colleen Perruzzi of Crystal Lake (Nevada County); seven grandchildren; and one greatgrandchild. Another son, Terrence McElhatton, died in 2008. Her former husband, San Francisco TV and radio newsman Dave McElhatton, died in 2010.
A memorial celebration will be held at 6 p.m. July 14 at the Hiller Aviation Museum, 601 Skyway Road, San Carlos.