afraid to fly?

[dhermann1]

My last 2 flights were in a friend's Cessna, over the mountains of northwest Pennsylvania. And there was that famous flight in a C-47 in low circles over the Kilauea Crater in 1969. Those were enjoyable flights (to say the least!). But what they've done to air travel today is a crime. Packed in like sardines, waiting around dreary airports. I was really angry the last couple times I flew commercially to realize that the airlines had finally taken all the fun out of flying for me. That was a tough job, but they did it.
But afraid? Not really. I'm still more nervous in an automobile in heavy traffic on a big suburban 6 lane highway.

 

[LizzieMaine]

After reading this news story from 1939, it's a wonder anyone dares to fly.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

I love to fly....


So does my friend the pooch...

 

[scotrace]

After reading this news story from 1939, it's a wonder anyone dares to fly.

Hahahaha!!!

 

[Cobden]

Flying...I won't say I love it, but I can deal with it.

Airports, on the other hand, I cannot. Horrible places, with long queues, and for short flights you spend more time the terminal then in the air, queuing to check in you're baggage which will be ignored because the handlers are on strike, being x-rayed and molested by security guards, meandering around shops that are purportedly duty free but actually charge the same amount as shops out and pocket all the duty for themselves or looking at electrical items that no-one in their right mind would buy at an airport (how would one fit a 42 inch plasma into the overhead locker?), drinking tea that tastes like it's been strained through a sock, walking to gates that are so far away you might have well have walked to you're destination, waiting at gates that have the same approach to chairs as the White Star Line had towards lifeboats, being hustled onto the 'plane and sitting for a few hours, before being dumped off at the other end, explaining to a particularly thick and heavily moustachioed immigration officer who doesn't speak English what a Diplomatic Passport is, waiting for baggage which has invariably been re-routed to Dnepropetrovsk to turn up on the conveyer belt, being molested (yet again) by a customs man, trying to explain to the hoards of porters that I don't have any local currency and they ain't getting their hands on my lovely hard pounds sterling, explaining to the unlicensed taxi drivers that I have a lift coming, explaining to the policeman why I am not going to bribe him to not arrest me for smoking outside, before getting into the car and away...

 

[Spitfire]

:eusa_clap lol lol lol , Cobden.

 

[scottyrocks]

I dont like to fly. Ive taken 3 round-trips, six flights, and none of them were horrible, but I didnt enjoy them either. I dont have a lot of experience, and Id like to keep it that way.

Ive had the discussion with flyers where Ive said that when in my car, or on my bike, if I lose power, I can just coast to a relatively safe stop. If the plane Im on loses power, even a few feet off the ground, the results can be disasterous, as been shown time and time again. It must be that gravity thing.

 

[jdbenson]

In the words of Micky Jupp

YOU'LL NEVER GET ME UP IN ONE OF THOSE
By Mickey Jupp

I'd rather work in the city in a pinstriped suit and bowler hat
If you break my arm I'll join the union, you know how I feel about that
Put me in a uniform if it comes to blows
But you'll never get me up
Never get me up
Never get me up in one of those

I'd rather serve time on the Foreign Legion
Or risk my neck travelling on the Southern Region
Put me in a uniform if it comes to blows
But you'll never get me up
Never gonna get me up
Never get me up in one of those

I can stay down here and get high
I ain't got no need whatever to fly
If the good Lord had meant us to get up in one of them things
He'd have given us the tickets as well as the wings

So if you don't mind I'll take my chances walking the street
'Cause I dig the feel of the ground under my feet
Put me in a uniform if it comes to blows
But you'll never get me up
Never get me up
Never gonna get me up in one of those

No you'll never get me up
Never gonna get me up
Never get me up in one of those

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Remember, you cannot compare commercial/airline flights with actual, private flying - the two are as different as day and night these days.

I've spent 35 years in the airline industry and I absolutely detest the cattle call process of security/boarding/seating on commercial airline flights. Over the decades the process has devolved into the 'Bataan Death March' of transportation. I fly for free, and it's hardly worth it! My wife and I bought a new Prius just so we could drive more often, save on gas, and avoid flying separated, in middle seats, with no meal, on the airline. (My Prius hasn't over-revved yet - so we'll save that for another thread, ok!)

But private aviation is real flying - you can see in front of you, you can see the instruments, the aircraft in flight is just finger-tip control. And, on most flight (VFR), you're low enough to actually appreciate the view.

My best ever flying experience was in the Bombardier's seat on a B-17 'Flying Fortress' over the Arizona desert. Two low passes over the airport before landing - what a view! What a memory!

-dixon 'wings' cannon

 

[dhermann1]

Ooohhhh! Oooohhh! Let's start a "My best Flying experience" thread!
I've mentioned my flight over the crater, but my best was in a friend's Cessna 150, from Linden airport in New Jersey, to Caldwell (as I recall). Just a tiny 2 seater, with the motor sputtering away RIGHT IN YOUR LAP. I really felt like part of the airplane. He let me do a couple of turns. Woohoo!
And as we landed, he slipped the plane sideways a little as we settled onto the little grass strip. Oh, man. I still remember it VIVIDLY after almost 30 years.
Ooops! I just remembered my flight in an ultralight 7 or 8 years ago. Now THAT was an experience! Right up there with the birds. Super fun.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Ok Dhermann1, That's a great idea!

When I was about 16 years old, having a student license and flying solo, I took the Cessna 150 up to the top of it's service ceiling (about 12,000').
It took quite a while to climb up there. Once at altitude, I pulled the carb heat and the power, lowered full flaps, opened the windows and just
glided back down doing slow turns.

The experience was like parachuting, I imagine - cold, fresh air - slowing turning high above the clouds. The entire experience took about an hour
and a half from chocks to chocks. I even shot photos with my little instamatic.

To this day I can still feel it like it was yesterday - the poem 'High Flight' has a very special meaning for me. http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net/Goranson_Memory_High_Flight.jpg

-Dixon Cannon

 

[dhermann1]

New thread started.

 

[Chanfan]

Well, I know it was requested to not bring up the old saw about statistics, but that is one of the main reasons flying doesn't particularly bug me fear wise. I know it's safer. Plane accidents are newsworthy precisely because they are rare. Auto accidents, on the other hand, are just fodder for traffic reports.

As a generalization, while it's foreign to me to logically have a fear of flying, I have read that in a large part it can be due to the human tendency to (sometimes vastly) underestimate risk of things you perceive you are in control of - such as driving - and overestimate risks for things you know you have no control over - such as flying.

Be that as it may, I still get more anxious during takeoffs and landings.

 

[Geesie]

I'm a lot less anxious during takeoffs and landings than when I'm 35,000 feet over the ice cold ocean.

 

[theinterchange]

I'm not afraid to fly in the least. Haven't flown since 9/11, and really from the things folks have told me about security and such, I have no desire to fly now unless there's no real way to avoid it. I'm more phobic about people searching me and my stuff than flying. Plus, it bugs the puss outta me that they can tell you what you can and can't take in a carry-on bag. I refuse to check a bag through after too many times of lost luggage.

Randy

 

[Edward]

I'm perfectly happy flying, though where possible (read: not stupidly ovderpriced, and practical time-wise) I'd rather take the train. Door to door I can get to Glasgow or Edinburgh at least as quickly on the train as flying, and I'm not subject to the hassles of security as at the airports. Without taking this into politics, I'm afraid I'd much rather thake the risk of being blown up than so severely inconvenienced.... that and any airline that can be hijacked with a walking cane (yes, had to put one of those in hold baggage once...) damn well deserves to be. The other big pain in the bum is the way airlines are always trying to sneak extra charges in there - I'm especially livid at this contemporary trend for charging separately for putting a bag in the hold. If you're gonig somewhere overnight and want to shave while you're there, that means a blade, which means you're forced to put it in the hold. That'll be twenty quid, sir..... Then there's the fat that once you get on the plane, so many people have gone out of their way to avoid hold baggage and the charge for it that if you're not in the first third of people on, you'll be lucky to find a space for your carry on in the overhead locker.... Grr..... The train is so much less stressful. I wish they'd hurry up and get a high speed link to cotland from here, as at present the only practial way for me to go back to Ireland to see the folks a couple of times a year is to fly.... my carbon footprint is something that concerns me.

 

[Foofoogal]

The really dangerous places to drive are around lots of other drivers, who may be drunk, distracted, or just lethally incompetent.
--------------------
I would much rather fly than be in Houston traffic at any hour on any day.
Flown quite a bit and with auto pilot it is quite safe.
As others the worst part is going thru the airport and security.
As far as being scared to me once you are in the air why bother?
Not a thing you can do about any of it so may as well relax. [huh]
I cannot sleep on a plane for anything (even long flights) but honey conks out immediately. Not fair.
Always drink lots of water. When the airline person tries to give you water it is for a reason. You can get dehydrated fast. Causes jet lag more.

I still prefer trains to anything. I am a train nut...

 

[Foofoogal]

fftopic: chanfan. You are back...Welcome back.
Always looking for those who left. Somewhere we have a miss them thread...

 

[lolly_loisides]

I too hate flying, especially smaller planes, but as I have family that live a long way from me I don't really have any other option. I suppose I shouldn't say this (but I will) Vallium can be really useful if you are feeling particularly anxious (just don't go to the airport bar for a snifter as well or you'll feel like this )

 

[sixties.nut]

Lolly you took the words right off my keyboard !!!!

BIG +1 ^^^^^