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Ellis

In this day and age I find myself, embarrassingly, having to admit never to having flown in an aeroplane.

I listen to friends and neighbours talking about their holiday plans to Australia, the USA, the Caribbean or the Seychelles as in one conversation this afternoon.

I cannot imagine myself being comfortable 40,000 feet above the ground.

Is it an irrational fear or am I the only one on here to be frightened at the prospect of air travel?
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1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

Peter_L · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:17 am Post subject:

Fear, of anything, is very personal. I don't have a fear of flying, but have grown to dislike the whole process of large commercial air travel.

I worked with a guy who didn't like (fear) driving at night on unlit roads with no other vehicles behind and would wait in lit areas until other traffic appeared in the distance.

As for the flying, if you need to fly then I have heard that fear management courses can work but if you are happy not flying then why make life difficult for yourself..

MikeEdwards · Joined: 25 May 2011 Posts: 2722 Location: South Cheshire

As someone once said, I don't have a fear of flying, I have a fear of crashing.

But yes, I don't like it much. It didn't help that my very first flight was transatlantic, so not a short hop, and encountered some turbulence that I thought was terrible but judging by everyone else's reaction was just a small blip. I guess you have to console yourself with the fact that any time an aircraft crashes anywhere in the world, it's headline news, so that must mean it's quite rare, right?

The other two things that struck me, having only seen air travel in films before my own first flight, was (a) how noisy it is during cruising, and (b) how steep the aircraft is tilted during take-off. I also wasn't impressed by the way they seemed to lock the brakes on, rev it to the red line and effectively drop the clutch to do a traffic-light start in order to take off. But it was a bit of a tin-pot airline (Continental) so maybe that's just them.

A mate of mine has terrible vertigo (can't drive over the Thelwall Viaduct, or maybe can drive but can't be a passenger, I forget) and that limited his holidays to anything in coach range. He went on one of those "overcome your fear" courses at an airport and it cured the problem for him. Not the general vertigo, just being able to go on planes.

Rick · Site Admin Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22802 Location: UK

My first flights (as passenger) were in single-engined private planes, personally I wasn't keen on being very shut in. Plus it was pretty noisy & hot, and heights I'm not a huge fan of either.

Travelling in an airliner I can cope with, but it's not something I long to do any more than is necessary. I've been in helicopters a few times, once you accept the angles they take off at (!) I found them quite good fun to ride in.

RJ
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MikeEdwards · Joined: 25 May 2011 Posts: 2722 Location: South Cheshire

I think for me it's mainly getting used to things. I don't like going up ladders, but once I've been up and down a few times trying to get the stupid light to work, I stop thinking about how much it'll hurt if I fall off. I'd quite like to do a few helicopter rides, but only because I probably wouldn't like the first two or three, it would take a while to get used to it. And every time I see a light aircraft flying low around here I think I'd like to learn to fly one, but then I remember sitting at Liverpool airport on a windy day watching how they get thrown around and am suddenly not so sure.

I think it's a control thing - I'm far more nervous sitting in the passenger seat of a car being driven quickly because I can't slow down if it gets a bit slippy or twisty or whatever. The fact I would probably have been driving at the same speed as I'm being driven at is neither here nor there, just that I don't have the option.

Riley Blue · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 1751 Location: Derbyshire

Flying doesn't bother me, my last flight was in a Tiger Moth and was tremendous fun. I don't fly to go on holiday as all the rigmarole of turning up, queueing and checking is just so mind numbingly tedious, there's nowhere I'd like to go that is worth putting up with all that.
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David

1963 Riley 1.5
1965 Riley 1.5

Minxy · Joined: 22 Sep 2010 Posts: 273 Location: West Northants

I'm with Peter on this one, flying doesn't bother me at all ( and I've had some hairy experiences)it's the whole getting up in the middle of the night to drive for two plus hours to an airport and park in, what appears to be, the next county to then get a bus to the airport and wait around for two or three hours to get on a plane for several laborious hours to repeat similar when one gets to a destination. In all two days of any holiday spent being hearted like cattle.
When I worked for Audi I travelled an awful lot but that was being dropped at the airport door to get strait onto a pre- arranged flight and picked up the other end with special customs clearance, much more civilised.
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47Jag · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:03 pm Post subject:

I have to say that I love flying in anything. The helicopter flight I had in Toronto though was from my mechanics perspective I bit nervy. The noise and vibration was like a U-joint on a truck was so worn it was ready let go. Other than that it was quite enjoyable, although the bride told me she would NEVER do that again.

The hairiest flight was landing in Toronto with the snow higher than the wings. It was I supreme bit a airmanship by the pilot. I kept saying under my breath "don't brake, don't brake". It was like I imagined a bobsleigh run would be only we were doing it a Boing 707.

Art

BigJohn · Joined: 01 Jan 2011 Posts: 954 Location: Wem, Shropshire

I don't mind take off and landing, but the middle bit is boring, like being in a big noisy bus, and usually the air pressure hurts some baby's ears which sets it off wailing like an ambulance siren.

emmerson · Joined: 30 Sep 2008 Posts: 1268 Location: South East Wales

I didn't fly until I was 58; now I love it, but detest airports!
Anne and I were apparently the first fare-paying passengers to fly in the the then new Dreamliner from Stockholm to Heathrow. Now that s a 'plane I could live in!

Penman · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4876 Location: Swindon, Wilts.

Hi
I love flying but detest giant cigar tubes with blowlamps strapped on to them.
I've flown in Tiger Moth, Thruxton Jackaroo, Cessna 125 and 178, Piper Colt and Caribean DH Dove, HS 123 and some sort of Airbus(didn't see the outside so don't know which one)
The HS 125 was alright but I prefer to be able to look out of the cockpit windows and see the fans keeping me up.
LH seat is the best one.
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