I guess It’s the bumpy ride at 25000 feet. :eek:
Well, why is a bumpy ride at 25000’ any more scarey than a bumpy ride in a car at 0’? What are you afraid might happen?
I’m afraid of falling 25000 feet.
I’m afraid of clowns also…
Like I’ve said before, I have approximately 800 hours in the back of the heaviest gross weight C-130 in the Air Force inventory. Coincidentally, our airplanes are also the oldest C-130s in the Air Force inventory. We’ve had engine shutdowns, one near-fire on the ground, a severe nosewheel shimmy, and we’ve lost all of our compasses/defensive systems/navigational equipment/radar simultaneously at 20,000 feet and way out in the middle of nowhere.
And you know what? I’m not worried. On commercial flights you’ll never see anything like that happen. So why are you worried? Is it the control issue? If so, realize that pilots have extensive training, regular proficiency checkrides, numerous no-notice checkrides, simulator time, and years of practical operating experience before they’re allowed to command the airplane. In addition, every single thing that needs to be done is run from a checklist, with no deviations. Emergency procedures are spelled out to the letter. There is support via radio on the ground.
There is nothing to worry about. In fact, get a window seat so you can look outside and enjoy yourself.
Okay…but…what about the clowns? :eek:
I see more clowns on the highway every 30 minute commute than I’ve every seen in a lifetime of flying.
Does that help?
No. In Las Vegas, Don Ho is the godfather of prostitution.
Well, it looks like I should have stayed the hell away from this thread! Ha!
OK, who’s the guy that has been in Vegas since the beginning of time? AHHHH. WAYNE NEWTON!!!
Sorry about yet another mistake. I’m going to have to get 30 lashes with a wet noodle or something.
Thanks for your comments, and Airman Doors, USAF you make a lot of sense, but when I walk onto that plane and smell the jet fuel and feel the plane shimmy and shake simply because a guy who weighs 250 pounds behind me stepped on board…well, the old nerves will start to jingle again. My father was in the Air Force and loved to fly…my mother used hypnosis and was able to overcome her fears. And prior to my Iceland adventure, it never bothered me either.
By the way, the Icelandic plane that had the engine catch on fire…I was told that when one engine catches on fire, they shut off all the engines in order to put out that engine fire. And they also told me that the only way to get the remaining three engines to re-start, in mid air, was to get enough speed to get the turbos going. This incident happened in about 1974 or so…so maybe newer jet engines have a nice little button that allows them to turn on and off in mid air.
At any rate…a week from tomorrow when I am back here at home in front of my computer, I will post a follow up to this thread and will get a good laugh…I hope…
What situation do you imagine yourself being in that you could end up falling 25000’?
Two things could cause you to fall to the ground. Either the aeroplane’s wings fall off, which is extremely unlikely, or a terrorist blows the plane up, you’re probably at more danger in your local night club.
Aeroplanes tend not to crash when cruising up at 25,000’, actually it’s more like 35,000’ but it doesn’t matter, crashes don’t happen in the cruise stage of flight. Crashes are far more likely to happen in the approach phase of flight, this phase is pretty short. You’d be far better off relaxing for most of the flight and then getting a little nervouse during the descent and landing, it makes more sense and you’ll spend less time worried.
DMark do you remember what type of aircraft you were in when they shut down the engines?
When you have an engine fire you certainly don’t shut down all the other engines, you shut down the one that has the fire and you use the extinguishers, hopefully the fire goes out and you continue home on the remaining engines.
Whatever Icelandic Airlines flew in the early 70’s. Same type of jet we took from Chicago to Keflavik airport. Back then, they were the “hippie airlines” and the cheapest route to Europe. I had flown them on my first trip to Europe and had no problems, despite bad weather on that trip.
I don’t mean to rag on Icelandic…I am still alive, so they must have done something right.
BTW, the next day I bought the International Herald Tribune and there was a little paragraph mentioning an engine failure and successful landing of an Icelandic plane in Luxembourg.
Thanks for this thread. I have to go on a 3 hour flight tomorrow. One of the problems with living in Australia- even flying takes forever to get anywhere.
A few years back I flew to Dublin, and from the time of me getting out of bed to getting back into it, it was 40 hours.
Perhaps a Boeing 707 or 720. I have a commercial type rating in both, but I didn’t fly for Icelandic Airlines so I don’t know what their engine fire procedures were - if it’s anything like what I’m familiar with (and I’d venture that Boeing doesn’t encourage a lot of variation or creativity in emergency procedures) the procedures are close to what I described above.
Aside - aviation has terms that seem unfamiliar or sometimes counterintuitive to others: stall roughly means “wings stop flying,” not “engine stops running.” Flameout means “engine stops running,” not “engine on fire,” etc. Sometimes this leads to misunderstandings in news coverage.
DMark
I’ve found that things like facts and logic aren’t great at fighting emotions. But, other emotions work well.
Airlines are large corporations. What is the one thing corporations care for above all else? Money. They perform all required maintenance and tests to avoid large fines and bad press. If a plane crashes, there are fines, negative publicity, people fly with other airlines, and juries award huge amounts to relatives. It may be expensive to keep a plane safe. But, it’s far more expensive for a plane to be unsafe. Crashes cost money. Corporations love money. Their greed keeps you safe.
The other thing in your favor is that the person in control of the vehicle doesn’t have a bunch of potentially drunk people passing within five feet of him going the opposite way. He/she also has way more training in controlling that vehicle that probably anyone on this board has in controlling a car. I haven’t heard of any pro race drivers here.
I’ve been flying by myself (as a passenger, mind you) since I was 7, but a particularly bad turbulence experience really spooked me. I realized that in my head, I was analogizing flying to driving, in which anything close to that kind of shaking around would’ve been very bad. So I posted a thread here. Essentially, it seems that ghastly-feeling turbulence is unlikely to be a problem because (a) there’s usually nothing within miles for a plane to hit, (b) aerodynamics results in a lot of self-correction, and © jets have enormous structural integrity.
Thank You One And All!
I have returned home, safe and sound, and believe it or not, I heard all your tips and suggestions in my head the whole way up and back, and it really helped!
And my reward for enduring the facing of my fears?
My boss told me today he will want me to fly up again in about 6 weeks, and probably every couple of months afterwards.
So…if you see a re-occuring thread entitled, “Remind Me Again Why Flying Is No Big Deal” every couple of months, it is just me again…humour me and please feel free to join in again.
And thanks again. It really helped!Hey, Glad you made it back.
I don’t know if this will help. I hope so. I learned as a skydiver* to think of altitude as safety money in the bank. The higher you are , the more time and room the pilot has to deal with whatever badness™ happens. So one way to minimise nervousness is to pay attention for the first 10 minutes, then relax, then pay attention again when you feel the flaps come down and the gear come out before you land.
If you want to regain a bit of a feeling of control, then chose an aisle seat over the wing, (strongest part of plane), when you sit down count the number of seats between the nearest and second nearest exits, and then rehearse in your head finding them in the dark/smoke. That way you’ll be prepared for an emergency evacuation. Of course if even the though of an emergency evacuation makes you apoplectic, then pretend you didn’t just read this…
*a group of people who would pay a great deal of money, and try to get out of having to go to their significant other’s special birthday party, for the chance to fall 25,000 feet. 
The reason there isn’t more skydivers isn’t the danger / scaryness of the sport, it’s the toll on relationships…