A coward writes

[Guest]

Hi allIt's ironic that such an aviation anorak as myself should be so afraid of flying on airliners, but there it is. I am. I have to get on another one next week, and I'm already starting to get a knot in my stomach about it.So I was hoping for a few words of wisdom from my fellow enthusiasts....Sorry for the OT nature of the post, but I thought you'd all understand!Regards

[Guest]

You have to laugh - I get a knot in my stomach every time I take off. Don't know why - statistically it is probably safer than crossing the road, but it still happens.

[Guest]

Hallo Damien.Relax. It absolutely normal. Human being

[edetroit 933]

I`m the same, but it`s like anything the more you do it the less you worry, thats why I taking flying lessons (real world)..Edp.s a little deep breathing helps but the best thing is to occupy your mind ,find out the flight route, see if you can follow which sid the pilots using etc...oh flying is both exciting and fun!

[Guest Murf]

I think that it was my fear of flying that attracted me to Flight SImming in the first place!I still dread the thought of getting on a real plane. I usually find once I'm on the plane and it's in the air I enjoy myself though.Have a good flight!- Murf

[Guest]

I sit in an airliner just before takoff, wanting the plane to accelerate like a Ferrari! Airliners accelerate wonderfully during the initial part, but then it goes flat :( That initial vertical acceleration on liftoff is the best part... I love the feel of it, even though lots of other people don't! :-lol I want the plane to go up faster!I wasnt always like this you see. When I was a young child I vomited before we even pushed back :-lol :-lol :-lol :-lol :-lol Now THAT is fear! :-lolI feel safer in the hands of experts (in the air) than I do when driving.. surrounded by unprofessionals, with poor training, aggresion and occupied with their cellphones :)

[Guest]

Sometimes I get a little nervous if the plane starts mildly shaking or vibrating. I just close the shade, look forward, and imagine I'm on a train. The sensations are pretty similar, so it works pretty well for me.Also, during the climb and decent, I concentrate on what details I can see on the ground -- when I loose sight of people, cars, roads, etc. It keeps my mind off the fact I'm doing something nature never intended.A little O/T -- I'm in training to be a crew chief on a Chinook, and those things make me quite airsick. I save the "convenience" bags on the airliners to bring back with me on the helicopter.

[Guest]

My job has me flying a lot of long haul flights on United. To get over the takeoff jitters, I slip on my headphones and listen to the communications with ATC on channel 9 of the inflight audio. Focusing on the same things that the crew are makes me forget about my nerves and helps pass the time.Good luck!Fred

[XWRed5 0]

Damian,I'm sure it's perfectly normal, especially for simmers like us. We like to be in control, we fly our computers where we not only control the virtual aircraft but we control where, when and the weather. When it comes to simming we control everything. We also know that if it crashes we just press Ctrl-Alt-Del and go and have a coffee.Suddenly we get on a real aircraft.We have slight control over where we sit. We have no control when we go, what the weather's like and where we're going (obviously we chose the destination but we can't *actually* stop it from going somewhere else). We have little control over what we eat and drink but practically no control over when we eat it.Suddenly we're not in control, we have to trust these two complete strangers to take us safely to our destination (preferably the one on the ticket). We know nothing about them, their families, their training, what they like and dislike or even what they are like. That's the scary bit.For "anoraks" like us we know that we are sitting on thousands of Kilograms of highly flammable liquid which is being burnt at temperatures up around the 600 degrees C only meters from where we sit. We are in a pressurised container, without which we couldn't survive, many miles up in the air. We are travelling about 80% of the speed of sound being held in the air by a few laws of physics.We know these laws of physics apply to us.We know this has happened for 50 odd years with relatively few incidents.We know how much training the pilots go through.We know all the checks the aircraft goes through.We know the chances of something happening are so slim we normally wouldn't even consider them.Unfortunately we also know that if something does go wrong we wouldn't be in control and would rely completely on fate to determine the outcome.I love flying in aircraft, I love the atmosphere at airports and I really do enjoy the various sensations of flying. I convince myself that the two guys up front are the airlines finest, who are cool calm professional guys with a genuine passion for flying "my" aircraft to like they were born to do it. I pretend the maintanence crew checked everything twice cos I'm on the flight. It may sound arrogant but if I think this enough I find I don't actually worry about the flight and I usually end up with my face pressed against the window like a 3 year old for all the interesting bits, especially around the airports. Some people call this the Emu approach (head in the sand) and berate me for it but I find it makes the flight so much more enjoyable it seems silly not to.The only thing you can really control on that flight is how you feel about it, choose to enjoy it.Wow, that was an epic!Enjoy your flight, Damian,Take care,Ian

[Peter Z KCLE_EDDN 335]

Damian,I think it's perfectly normal or at least not unusual to be a little afraid of flying. I don't know if this will help you but I can tell you that the fear of flying (I didn't get sick, I was just afraid of falling down) was the reason I got interested in aviation.I was so nervous that I wanted to know exactly what it is "those people" are doing in the cockpit. I was also always very interested as to what airplane I'd be on and would do quite some research before getting on the flight.This all has led me to the path were I'm now taking flying lessons and ultimatly start my aviation career with Comair Academy in Florida to become professional, then I will know exactly what it is "those people" are doing in the cockpit as I will be one of them (hopefully) ;-)If it helps, try to get the route information, airplane information of that particular flight and fly it yourself on the sim. Try to know exactly when the pilot does what (calls vor V1, rotate, gear up, flaps up) then you won't be surprised when you hear those "noises" that cause you fear.Hope this helps,Petehttp://home.neo.rr.com/zaehringer/pipersignature.jpgPIII600,512MB,Win98SE,DirectX8a,Geforce32DDR(Det.22.80),SBlive(4.06.703)

[Guest Lizardo]

It's the airports and the people who get to me...I like getting up there glued to the window :)