So, what happened today?

[Baleforce]

I’m a nervous flyer too. Although I’ve got much better, I still hate turbulence. One time I flew from Honolulu to Vancouver and the airline emailed us the day before and offered us the chance to move the flight due to bad weather/bad conditions, just what you want to hear as a nervous flyer. The plane tilted just as it got into the air on takeoff , it was horrible! People clutching the arm rest, the rest of the flight wasn’t too bad thankfully.

Have you ever gone on spoken to the pilot? That may put your mind at ease somewhat, if did for me. Pilots really aren’t worried about turbulence, it’s more that they want the passengers to be comfortable. But yeah, any noise that sounds off and I brick myself. I always feel more comfortable flying over land than sea but yesterday’s events throws that assessment into doubt.

I’ve never had anything crazy, but had some moments that had me panicking. That take off sounds horrible.

It’s the lack of control, or ability to do anything that I can’t handle.

If I have to fly over a couple of hours I’ll get the night flight and drink myself to sleep.

 

[Baleforce]

Funny that almost no one has a fear of driving as Steven Pinker says, despite it being far more dangerous. You don’t have any control when you get on a plane so that’s part of it.

Definitely a thing, haven’t got a clue how to fly a plane, but I’d feel safer if I was piloting it than as a passenger. Which is ridiculous, but true.

 

[Grays_1890]

Yeah I must admit it seems like the roads are getting worse. I travel on the A1/M25 or the A10 every day for work and at least once a day you’ll see someone drive across two lanes diagonally whilst not looking, changing lanes without indicating, hogging the middle lane or using their phone. If everyone just concentrated and didn’t speed then there would not be anywhere as many accidents.

I find the local roads are just as bad, loads of divs, I think the drug driving in this country is clearly bad, seen plenty of weekend cowboys on the Peruvian dandruff dive into their cars on early pop Fridays.

Give me a plane, an Aisle seat and 7 hours of silence and films over that all day long

 

[thfcsteff]

I spend a lot of time flying in all sorts of planes. Thankfully I have never been afaid of flying (it's an abstract enjoyment for me). I will say the worst turbulence I had was going to Rio once in '91 and the meal service/drinks cart hitting the ceiling as our belts kept us from headbutting the luggage bins. I've been on privates where we've passed by thunder banks (not a terchnical term LOL) which is a massive abstract. Somnething in my mind does not allow the physics of the situation to be a 'thing'...thus 42 years of fesr-free-flying. But how can any of us not read about that Air India crash and not feel a sense of 'wow' and utter sadness. As for the survivor, OMG...he will hopefully find buddhism!

 

[Robbo]

My wife was contemplating a work trip to India in August. She ended up not going, for other reasons, although I'm not 100% certain the plane crash didn't weigh in on the decision. The irrational part of me is relieved she said no.

I never used to be afraid of flying. Have spent many hours in small planes bumping along in bad weather along the Norwegian coast, as well as travelling the world, flying above water, in turbulent weather, etc. Basically never a worry.

Then in around 2010/2011 I was hit by a sudden fear of flying. I can't explain why. All of a sudden flying was horrible, and the only comfort I could get was when I sat there in what was probably just light turbulence, thinking I'd come to terms with the fact that I was now going to die.

Thankfully I have managed to work through it, and while I'm still not - and probably never will be - completely calm when it comes to flying, at least it's a far shout from the terror I felt on some flights during that first period.

 

[johnola]

I hate flying - hate hate hate.

It’s the fumes really - dementia in a can.

Also my brother puked on me mid Pacific four hours away from Auckland when I was 14.

 

[Kandi1977]

My wife was contemplating a work trip to India in August. She ended up not going, for other reasons, although I'm not 100% certain the plane crash didn't weigh in on the decision. The irrational part of me is relieved she said no.

I never used to be afraid of flying. Have spent many hours in small planes bumping along in bad weather along the Norwegian coast, as well as travelling the world, flying above water, in turbulent weather, etc. Basically never a worry.

Then in around 2010/2011 I was hit by a sudden fear of flying. I can't explain why. All of a sudden flying was horrible, and the only comfort I could get was when I sat there in what was probably just light turbulence, thinking I'd come to terms with the fact that I was now going to die.

Thankfully I have managed to work through it, and while I'm still not - and probably never will be - completely calm when it comes to flying, at least it's a far shout from the terror I felt on some flights during that first period.

You have no idea why you suddenly felt uncomfortable about flying? That's strange and kind of "interesting". Must be horrible.
I've never been afraid of flying, and even applied for "fighter school" in the air force. Got pretty far in the process. Of about 3500 applications, around 250 got called up for the initial stage. Then about half were booted out at each stage.
I got as far as getting actual flight training in the Saab Safari, but didn't make it past that. Got myself a license to fly light aircraft though. Not sure why I didn't go into civil aviation from there, but I guess the disappointment of not making it as a fighter pilot was too big.
Had a serious engine failure on one of the flights in the Saab Safari. That was seriously scary! Don't think I've ever had a heart rate like that for such a long time. Thankfully I was with the most experienced instructor, and not flying solo. Didn't make me afraid of flying though. Quite the opposite, as I got to witness how calm and skilled these pilots are under such adverse situations. It was amazing to see.

 

[glasgowspur]

I love flying, in fact I love anything with height involved.
But I hate people, I hate airports and I loathe and detest people in airports, so I drive.
Five weeks tonight I'll be on my way to the channel tunnel driving to Spain for our hols.

 

[Daisuk]

I wasn't afraid of flying until the Air France crash back in 2009. A couple of friends of mine and I had taken the very same route just a year earlier with an Air France airplane - not that that really matters, of course - but it just made it more real to me somehow. I guess I started to dread thinking about those few minutes where you're actually belting towards ground scared brickless, must be absolutely terrifying. Hopefully you'd just pass out instead of having to endure that terror.

fudging horrible seeing the Air India crash, especially knowing there were lots of kids onboard. Incredible that one guy actually survived.

 

[Robbo]

You have no idea why you suddenly felt uncomfortable about flying? That's strange and kind of "interesting". Must be horrible.
I've never been afraid of flying, and even applied for "fighter school" in the air force. Got pretty far in the process. Of about 3500 applications, around 250 got called up for the initial stage. Then about half were booted out at each stage.
I got as far as getting actual flight training in the Saab Safari, but didn't make it past that. Got myself a license to fly light aircraft though. Not sure why I didn't go into civil aviation from there, but I guess the disappointment of not making it as a fighter pilot was too big.
Had a serious engine failure on one of the flights in the Saab Safari. That was seriously scary! Don't think I've ever had a heart rate like that for such a long time. Thankfully I was with the most experienced instructor, and not flying solo. Didn't make me afraid of flying though. Quite the opposite, as I got to witness how calm and skilled these pilots are under such adverse situations. It was amazing to see.

I have a theory it could somehow be related to past, unrelated trauma as well as a feeling of mortality - this was around the time I lost a close family member and the 22. July attacks struck Oslo. I was in the vicinity of the bomb less than an hour before it went off, and it got me thinking about the fragility of life.

Sounds like a scary experience dor you too, also interesting to hear abput the instructor being so calm. I don't know if you have to be a calm person to be a good pilot, or if the years of flying makes you calm, but keeping your head calm in these situations could be decisive. Oddly I thought about becoming a helicopter pilot in my twenties, before I figured out what I wanted to do. Quite happy I didn't end up in the air.

 

[Muttley]

I love flying, in fact I love anything with height involved.
But I hate people, I hate airports and I loathe and detest people in airports, so I drive.
Five weeks tonight I'll be on my way to the channel tunnel driving to Spain for our hols.

I've done a million air-miles and would say that it's the minority of people that just can't get their heads around travelling that are the biggest pain in the arse. It's really not that difficult.

 

[Grays_1890]

I've done a million air-miles and would say that it's the minority of people that just can't get their heads around travelling that are the biggest pain in the arse. It's really not that difficult.

Yeh same but I think its just the worst of human nature magnified at times. People in queues, under authority in airports and on planes and just acting with some human decency is what people sometimes struggle with.

I would say the majority of my flying experiences with people have been positive, but when its bad people can be horrendous

 

[markysimmo]

I hate the fact your travel day is like 9 hours for a 2 hour flight, long