To fasten your seatbelt, insert the flap into the buckle
30dayflight.com
30dayflight.com
"They pilot doesn't want to die either".
That has more-or-less destroyed any fear I have of flying.
I was recently 4 hours into a flight from Chicago to Germany on a large double-decker Airbus when I started smelling smoke on the plane.
Suddenly I see flight attendants running to the back of the plane with fire extinguishers. Other flight attendants are running to the front of the plane with bottles of liquor.
The captain comes over the intercom: "Flight attendants, prepare for emergency landing"
Over the next 5 minutes I watch how different people react to the scenario. Some people grab hands, some start to pray, some people just close their eyes. Others start demanding up-to-the-minute information about our situation.
Without warning, we hit the ground. In a made-for-the-movies moment, the entire plane erupts in applause.
The rest of my trip I was a little nervous getting back on planes. However, the one thing that helped me keep things in perspective was something the flight-attendant said during our emergency landing:
"I have a husband in Germany. I don't want to die either. We're doing everything we can."
Simple and rational. It always works for me too.
FYI, the smoke turned out to be a coffee maker--and after several hours stuck on the tarmac in Newfoundland, we were on our way again.
The "can't get off" part is really important too.
I never cease to be amazed at the first moment when an airplane feels like a kite in the wind right after takeoff.
Rather, what makes me uncomfortable, is that sometimes very important parts of the plane blow up and the engineers can't figure out why. But hey, at least there are two or four engines and three or more power supplies.
I'm anxious because I'm very high up in a small tin can and can't get down.
It doesn't give me much confidence in the quality controls of flying, but the fear mindset is much more insidious - and more importantly - in my own personal control. Whenever that mindset kicks in, I joke to myself that life has been good to me, and usually that takes care of things...
On the flip side, I sat next to a woman who had taken two Xanax and drank two screwdrivers during a three hour flight, and still gripped my hand (a complete stranger) during landing.
Actually having been hit in the nuts by a cricket bowling machine (I.e. a baseball * 1.3 weight at about 50 miles/hour), I can tell you that every other concern seems petty in comparison for the 20 or so minutes it takes to get ones senses back. But I'm not about to recommend it as therapy.
It's not the flying that makes me hate flying on airliners; it's being locked up in a cramped, uncomfortable, jetlag-inducing space that makes me feel like a pig on a CAFO, where I always emerge to my destination with a splitting headache due to an old neck injury.
I don't generally have claustrophobia, but I'm sure that also has something to do with people's feelings about flying on airliners.
It passes in a few seconds but it's pretty scary!
The law of large numbers apply, but only to large numbers.
They are pretty sweet as far as flying goes.
I cannot even possibly describe to anybody who hasn't spent time in the captain's chair how good of a job the FAA and the aircraft manufacturers do planning for EVERYTHING.
You practically have to ask for clearance, then follow a checklist, when you scratch your beard.
Where does this data come from?
The mental fear is still up to you. Usually I just embrace it and take the moment of takeoff as a time to reflect on my own mortality -- if you can come to terms with the chance of your early, violent death then there is no need to panic.
I do not know how to fly an airplane. I do not know the commander.
I do know how to pilot a bike. I ride a bike in heavy traffic at high speeds.
Despite the death rate for the bike case is higher, i crap myself on an airplane. because i'm not in control.
When I was getting my pilot's license, I learned to be hyper-aware of another airplane that was less than say 1000 feet from me. But the strangest part of those lessons was getting back into my car afterward and getting onto the 417, where I was a couple of feet away from other cars, also going 75mph. I was completely at these other drivers' mercy: I had effectively no time to react to them, and knew from experience that lots of drivers are just plain awful (and this was really before you'd see people driving while texting with one hand and changing their kids' DVD in the other.)
It was very, very scary. Total loss of control — far more than in an airplane, where to a much greater degree if things go sideways, it was probably your fault anyway.
The other interesting thing about the scary drive was how long it stayed scary: maybe ten minutes, tops. After that — business as usual. Didn't even think about it.
It's interesting what we can get used to.
You may not be in control, but the pilot is, and he wants to make it to his destination just as much as you do.
"One passenger then identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer and offered to try to remedy the fault. He was successful, and the plane landed in Glasgow only 35 minutes late...It was reassuring to know the person who had fixed it was still on the aeroplane."
Normally I'd be very worried that my plane was fixed by someone that didn't actually work for that company, but the fact that he trusted his own life to his fix would go a long way to reassuring me.
[1]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1198058/Is-engineer-...
At any given time, a commander can select any particular chute that they've packed, and they have to jump using it. Needless to say the quality control is near perfect.
The reason was that if the inside wasn't smooth, the cannon might go off.
At some point you have to look at the data and determine what's a reasonable fear and what isn't. If you maintain an unreasonable fear of a reasonably safe activity, don't try to make it appear rational by explaining it's a control issue.
On a plane, you have no options, short of skydiving without a parachute. You pretty much hand complete control, and more importantly, any illusion of control, over to the pilot.
The point here is most fear is irrational. Also, the illusion of control is just that.
That, and me almost killing me and instructor a few months later did that too. At least now, I can slip on landings in a very safe and accurate manner.
edit: I'm sure a few lessons can desensitize a person
Glad you're still alive.
I wonder if understanding the mechanics of it all helps with the fear thing too. I seem to remember there's a decent amount of basic aerodynamics and such before they let you take the stick...
My dad used to say "At the end of the day we all are alive because of the trust we have for one another". Whether you know that person or not, we inherently place that trust in others.