Went on my first flight ~

[AlwaysSummer Day]

Alright so I am scared of heights and recently I had to take a plane home to Detroit. I was terrified at the prospect that I was trapped in this csj200 tin can while those rather bored looking flight attendants told us to keep our seatbelts on. I knew something would go wrong. I gripped the empty seat in front of me with enough force to choke Cthulhu itself. Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. The acceleration, takeoff, view out of the window, turning, deceleration, and landing were fun. A lot of fun. I may have to reevaluate my career choice.

It turns out I am only afraid of heights on rickity shit like wooden roller coasters and ladders. Oh and I am terrified of anything beyond the like 20th floor of a skyscraper. I struggle to look up at them let alone go that high. Planes though are apparently fun. Very strange.

Anyways anyone else scared of heights or enjoy flying?

[ValerieJean]

I am afraid of heights and will be forced into flying this year here soon. Hopefully gonna make it to HP World so I can geek out. But I have never been on a plane and I am rather anxious when I think about it.

But glad you had fun!

[Torgerias]

Alright so I am scared of heights and recently I had to take a plane home to Detroit. I was terrified at the prospect that I was trapped in this csj200 tin can while those rather bored looking flight attendants told us to keep our seatbelts on. I knew something would go wrong. I gripped the empty seat in front of me with enough force to choke Cthulhu itself. Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. The acceleration, takeoff, view out of the window, turning, deceleration, and landing were fun. A lot of fun. I may have to reevaluate my career choice.

It turns out I am only afraid of heights on rickity (#2) like wooden roller coasters and ladders. Oh and I am terrified of anything beyond the like 20th floor of a skyscraper. I struggle to look up at them let alone go that high. Planes though are apparently fun. Very strange.

Anyways anyone else scared of heights or enjoy flying?

Glad to hear you had a positive experience! I'm not afraid of heights and have always liked flying, but it seriously freaks me out when people leave the windows closed during landing. That's some serious sociopathic behavior if you don't need to have a frame of reference for when your plane is about to touch the ground...

(sorry to all the sociopaths who leave the windows closed, but you know who you are and are probably ok with it )

[kellendril]

Same here. Can't go up on a ladder more than 12' high without having serious issues. Planes, however, are fine. I guess they get a pass for some reason.

[RagingPeace]

Scared of all kind of heights here, though I think the problem with flying for me, is the fact that control is out of your own hands. What if the pilots decide to be trolls? I know Internet people, what says these pilots are going to be any different?!

[sir_blacksoutalot]

I was fine with heights up into my mid-30s. Then I started to get reeeeeeal nervous, especially going out on balconies in high-rise buildings. The older I've gotten (and that is now well beyond 30 I can assure you), the more squeamish I've become. And to think I once jumped out of a plane at 3500 feet for my first and only skydive. Hmmm, that was right about the time I started getting bad with heights...

[Moltrazahn]

Scared of all kind of heights here, though I think the problem with flying for me, is the fact that control is out of your own hands. What if the pilots decide to be trolls? I know Internet people, what says these pilots are going to be any different?!

Mostly because most pilots want to keep their jobs xP.
Also I don't think any airline sells more tickets by saying "we like to troll our passagers by pretending we are going to do a loop". Less accidents in air traffic per year then cars have in five.

Example. 2008.
Airline accidents: 20
Car accidents: 5 million.

Your more likely to be eaten by a shark on the sidewalk while it rains than a pilot to start pulling gags on you .

[freekender]

Mine is a more strange issue. I'm afraid, not of heights, but if I have the sensation I can fall. I can look down a 200 m abyss without fear if there is something solid between it and me but be scared of a 5 m fall with no protection.

Oh, and I enjoy flights. Even more if I can see the wing mechanisms movements from my seat. In my last recent flight two weeks ago my a friend and me were talking about them as we were watching them during the take off and landing. I'm sure some people sit around us wanted to strangle us...

[grymhild]

until a few years ago, I used to be VERY afraid of heights...

but then in 2011 I went on a high ropes course with a one of my women's meetup groups.

basically, it was in the woods and they had a lot of high tension wires between trees, and you had to walk across them.

I was TERRIFIED at first, even though we all had safety lines so that you couldn't really fall, but it felt like you could ... omg it was crazy.

I was ready to start crying, it was that bad - but I didn't want to lose my dyke cred in front of the other ladies, so i sucked it up and stayed.

well, the first half hour was horrible - but it made it easier that everyone was having a hard time

but then something amazing happened - i got over it!

I wasn't scared anymore, and then - omg - it was a BLAST!!!

and even after that was over, i could walk to the edge of a building with no rails and look straight down without getting scared

it was soooo liberating!

now the weird thing is, since it's been a few years, now the fear is starting to come back a little, it's no where near as bad as it was - but i can tell when i'm near a ledge that i'm getting more cautious again.

so - i need to go do a refresher course!

oh - here's a link to where we went

http://www.greatoakscamp.org/challenge-course.html

[Aspect of Sorrow]

control is out of your own hands

Unless you're trained, your outcome has catastrophic chances. I've a fear of heights that standing on ladders is problematic, but last year I trained at Apopka Florida for a private license, and while not fully instrument trained yet and not enough flight hours (under 100) I've a new appreciation for what is dealt with up there. In an automobile the minute changes can be felt for the direction you take, in an aircraft you've had a sudden drop of hundreds of feet before being able to react, and worse, which way is up if you're flying IFR (night / inclement weather) where you have to make judgement calls if one set of instruments fails and that transition is where most crashes also occur. Even trained commercial pilots have read air speed indicators wrong (frozen pilot tubes), where auto-pilot disengages, the auto-thrust disengaged, the turbulence forced the aircraft to bank right and the pilot overcorrected, sending the aircraft to stall for three minutes until it hit the ocean at 150 knots.

[Maecius]

Aspect of Sorrow, forever soothing our fears.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Roll Will.

[Solaris]

Teehee! I love flying As a matter of fact, for me it is a way of living. I would not be able to do without.

Being an airline pilot myself at a big airline I made my hobby my profession and guess what... I am terrified of heights! My knees were shaking when I watched down from above the grand canyon into the deep, seriously shaking... But with flying it is a whole different thing. You have a set of wings and roaring engines etc to keep you up. Jumping out of an airplane??? Are you insane? Why would you jump out of a good working flying machine!

Aaand yes, sitting in the back of an airliner does take the control out of your hands but just know you'll have 2 competent people in the cockpit with a lot of training. Before you even start flightschool you have to be tested. Mentally, physically, coordination skills, technical knowledge and a whole bunch more. From all those people applying only 5% make it. (So the chance of the pilot being a troll can be neglected XD Oh, and btw, every flightprofile is being monitored. Really, you don't want to try a barrelroll with an airliner ) Then... after training and tests and tests and tests (You may fail once for a test...fail twice and you are out) you finally have your licences and can search for a company. At that company you will be tested again. Tests are your life when you are a pilot really... Now at my company (and at every other renomated company) You get simulator sessions every 6 months in which they throw the nastiest crap at you. Your plane will break down on multiple systems, you lose engines, the weather gets from bad to worse and even beyond that, but you are well trained to handle it. In the UNLIKELY case of a real emergency, your pilots will routinely work it out. Most of the times you don't even notice in the back something is going on. Trust us, we're professionals

In an automobile the minute changes can be felt for the direction you take, in an aircraft you've had a sudden drop of hundreds of feet before being able to react, and worse, which way is up if you're flying IFR (night / inclement weather) where you have to make judgement calls if one set of instruments fails and that transition is where most crashes also occur.

Sure, in a car you lack the extra axe you move with in an airplane. But dropping hundreds of feet is a scanproblem for novice pilots. You will learn to anticipate. The same counts for IFR flying. Vertigo is something novice pilots will learn to deal with and the golden rule is: Always trust your instruments!



Instruments fail? Not so much...and if they do, not a big deal. You have extra sets of channels. (mostly 3 or 4 different channels) The computer picks out the one that is faulty and automatically switches to a proper channel giving you a notification on your panel. And if all that fails? We still have our emergency instruments that work. (They are mechanical and not electrical etc) Plus you also have your GPS that gives you the correct information.

Even trained commercial pilots have read air speed indicators wrong (frozen pilot tubes), where auto-pilot disengages, the auto-thrust disengaged, the turbulence forced the aircraft to bank right and the pilot overcorrected, sending the aircraft to stall for three minutes until it hit the ocean at 150 knots.

If the A/T or A/P go out you simply fly without. Every take off and almost every landing is done from hand.

I guess you are referring to the Air France crash? Well, on very, very, rare occassions it happens. Mostly in the past though. From every accident or crash that happened flight safety reports are made, pilots train these situations in the simulator and if needed technic of the aircraft is adjusted as well. So the likelyhood it happens again is limited as much as possible. Seen all the airplanes flying per day and the amount of actual accidents flying is still the safest way of transport. (And let's not forget the incidents that are very rare but still happen way more than the actual crashes but where the pilots just solve the problems) Mostly with accidents like these there is also a certain background story to it. I could go in detail here but then it would be a bit too much to type for now

I can say though, I flew exactly this flightprofile in the simulator not too long ago (blocked pitots etc and unreliable airspeeds) No problem if you go 'back-to-basic' pitch-power flying. You just KNOW that the nose of your airplane, with that particular speed, at that altitude and that amount of thrust can't fit and something is wrong with your airspeed.

So, for all those people that are scared to fly: No worries! It's the safest way of transport

For all those that love flying: Many happy landings to you!

[Aspect of Sorrow]

I'm jealous of the commercial equipment, we don't have the money generally to retrofit crop duster Cessnas with it. CAP is federally mandated iirc, and their Cessna fleets only have mechanical.

[RagingPeace]

Scared of all kind of heights here, though I think the problem with flying for me, is the fact that control is out of your own hands. What if the pilots decide to be trolls? I know Internet people, what says these pilots are going to be any different?!

Mostly because most pilots want to keep their jobs xP.
Also I don't think any airline sells more tickets by saying "we like to troll our passagers by pretending we are going to do a loop". Less accidents in air traffic per year then cars have in five.

Example. 2008.
Airline accidents: 20
Car accidents: 5 million.

Your more likely to be eaten by a shark on the sidewalk while it rains than a pilot to start pulling gags on you .

Oh, I know the numbers and I know the facts - I am completely unreasonable on this. Doesn't change the fact, that I'm scared shitless everytime I have to step into a plane