Hello(!),Just thought I'd ask a quick question on here which has come up during my recent "experiences" with flying (in particularly my fear of flying!). Have posted on here before where I explained (and have posted on Flightsim.com too so apologies for anyone reading both) I'm a nervous flier (to say the least!) who's currently trying a few trial flights in a Cessna to try to get over my fear of flying. I realised recently that my fear mainly comes from the fact that I use the ground to judge my airspeed but the ground is so far away that it doesn't move very fast and I feel like I'm hanging in the air at maybe 20mph hence I feel like we're about to stall or already have stalled and I freak out. It gets worse the higher up I am because the ground moves by even slower and I feel like I'm going slower.But recently I did a flight in a glider (I like flying in gliders because the flight normally only lasts 5-10minutes so it's a good way of getting a feel for flying and trying to get over my fear without having to sit through an hour of terror!) and during the turns I was looking out the window into the turn and I could see the speed we were travelling through the air near the plane (around 50 knots). It felt very safe looking at the wings and seeing how fast we were going and that the wings were holding the plane up (unfortunately I haven't got over flying straight and level yet and I still feel like we're hanging there instead of moving fast through the air at around 50mph).So I guess my question is do you feel like you're moving at 500mph when in an airliner in cruise or do you feel like you're hanging there (is it abnormal for me to feel this way?). Or in a Cessna fo you feel like you're going through the air at 100mph with the wings holding the plane up. I guess I hope I'll get better and feel the speed more and hopefully practice with flightsim and a few further flights (hopefully not too scary ones!) will help with this.Any comments welcome.Many thanks,Pierre.

Can only talk about airliners: Yes, sometimes it looks slow from above, and someties it doesn't even look like you are 10km above the ground. But the sense of slowness is instantly gone when you think about how long it takes the plane to go from A to B.There was once a great advertising that somehow plays with what you mention: There is a passenger looking out of the window of the jetliner (camera inside, you don't see what he is seeing). The passenger is looking down the window right on his right side, and head movement is from the back to the front. He leans towards the window a little, just to see a little longer what he sees. Then he shakes his head.Cut. You see a car (I think it was an Audi R8) speeding through the desert.:-)

Hello(!),Just thought I'd ask a quick question on here which has come up during my recent "experiences" with flying do you feel like you're hanging there (is it abnormal for me to feel this way?). Pierre.

I'll give it a shot to start things off...(I'm sure there will be many thoughts and wording on this one)Really, without any visual clues going past the windows close, yes you feel like you are hanging there for the most part in an airliner, and in GA if you have enough altitude to clear your field of vision.Commercial airliners you can hear/feel the rush of air over the aircraft that does give you a bit of the speed. (IF you listen) You can feel power changes in the seat of your pants, but not really "speed" airlines fly with passenger comfort in mind so control inputs are light and "G" forces are kept to a minimum also.GA pilots these days use headsets as do the passengers so most sounds of rusing air and engine noise is cancelled out so radio and intercom can be used.Only other feeling of speed might come from added "G"s when manuvering as higher speeds can produce higher "G" loads on you giving you more a feeling of the speed you're doing.However, you do need to learn how to tell your speed pretty close without looking at the panel and that comes with training and some hours flown in type.The more time you spend in a "type" of aircraft and the more you know about the type, the more you will know what it is doing at any given time. I'm sure high time owners of various aircraft can tell you each and every little item that give them the speed they are moving without looking at the airspeed indicator.Now as an example.... fly an older open cockpit biplane with wing braces and wire rigging and without headset and you will know your speed to within a few mph (old scale), many aircraft will "tell" you what speed you are flying once you know the language they speak

A few years ago I was a passenger on an old 727. I assumed it was an arctic charter plane brought south for the Christmas rush. The pilots had the deafening air conditioning packs turned off during the climb out

You should try to do some training on flying by reference to instruments alone. Now you have no outside reference.

Hello(!),Just to say merci for the replies etc. I guess what I'm looking at mostly out of a Cessna is the view (ie. in the far distance) and I'm still flying along at 100mph through the air. Hopefully will get better with time(!)I seem to do lots of flying because it really is my dream to become an airline pilot (obviously over my fear). I'm not too bad in airliners (even very relaxed sometimes) and really enjoy flying approaches to different airports (I go on lots of day trips with an airline here called Ryanair becuase they're super cheap!). I just get much more stressed in a small Cessna going 100mph (last time I was too scared literally to look down, even though I did the trim exercises and turns etc. and they always seem to say the fear doesn't get in the way of my flying although I would beg to differ!). In gliders if I don't feel I''m going fast I get very fixated on one point (mainly with fear) which certainly doesn't help with maintaining a good lookout so I guess theres a way to go yet. However there's a guy where I go gliding who was terrified of flying and only did like 6 flights in 2 years of being a member. But now he loves it and was doing loops and chandelles etc. So maybe there's still hope for me yet (hopefully!).Many thanks,Pierre.

Hello(!),Just thought I'd ask a quick question on here which has come up during my recent "experiences" with flying (in particularly my fear of flying!). Have posted on here before where I explained (and have posted on Flightsim.com too so apologies for anyone reading both) I'm a nervous flier (to say the least!) who's currently trying a few trial flights in a Cessna to try to get over my fear of flying. I realised recently that my fear mainly comes from the fact that I use the ground to judge my airspeed but the ground is so far away that it doesn't move very fast and I feel like I'm hanging in the air at maybe 20mph hence I feel like we're about to stall or already have stalled and I freak out. It gets worse the higher up I am because the ground moves by even slower and I feel like I'm going slower.But recently I did a flight in a glider (I like flying in gliders because the flight normally only lasts 5-10minutes so it's a good way of getting a feel for flying and trying to get over my fear without having to sit through an hour of terror!) and during the turns I was looking out the window into the turn and I could see the speed we were travelling through the air near the plane (around 50 knots). It felt very safe looking at the wings and seeing how fast we were going and that the wings were holding the plane up (unfortunately I haven't got over flying straight and level yet and I still feel like we're hanging there instead of moving fast through the air at around 50mph).So I guess my question is do you feel like you're moving at 500mph when in an airliner in cruise or do you feel like you're hanging there (is it abnormal for me to feel this way?). Or in a Cessna fo you feel like you're going through the air at 100mph with the wings holding the plane up. I guess I hope I'll get better and feel the speed more and hopefully practice with flightsim and a few further flights (hopefully not too scary ones!) will help with this.Any comments welcome.Many thanks,Pierre.

Well, I've never been in a real airplane yet, so I can't really answer your question, but using many resources, and asking family and friends about their experiences I have learned a lot about aircraft.Just to help you overcome your fear. Remember take a breather to calm down. First thing you should do in a Cessna to check your airspeed, is use your Airspeed Indicator to tell how fast your going and not the ground! If your not carefully you may misjudge your airspeed by only looking at the ground and no other references. Next, planes don't stall based on their airspeed, they stall when the wings can no longer generate lift because of very high angle of attack (and sometimes a very low angle of attack, but this happens rarely, and would probably only occur if you decide to go kamikaze and point the nose down and I mean down like straight down. Stalls occur when the air starts to "burble" over the wing because it can't generate enough lift due to angle of attack, and rarely, icing can cause one to stall. Online articles, videos, and the learning center in FSX explain this very well, and infact, if you go in the learning center in FSX to the lessons section, you can take a ground school lessons which is very detailed and then fly the lesson after reading and practice and see if you pass the lesson. This can help you out in real life!

Hello(!),Just a quick note to say how it went etc. I went for another flight today and it was better (not 100 percent but definitely better). The main reason was that I could feel the airplane gripping the air. We went to 3,200ft. which normally I would have been terrified of but it was fine. We did a few climbs and descents and just flew around sightseeing mainly but it was quite cool. Still not as calm as I am in an airliner but definitely better. Then in the afternoon I took a couple of glider flights (I do fly a lot for a guy who's scared of flying!) and you could still feel the aircraft gripping the air. Was definietely more subtle (maybe because the aircraft's only flying at 50kts as opposed to 100 or 80) but you could still feel it a little. Hopefully will keep getting better and take my next lesson sometime (slow flight, maybe power off stalls etc. before we get to circuits and touch and goes and the fun starts!).Many thanks for the advice/encouragement etc.,Pierre.