View Full Version : Fear of flying
ChrisCurvyS
09-09-13, 02:53 PM
Anyone on here hate flying?
I know I'm pathetic and it's the safest form of travel etc etc, but I'm not good with at all.
Flying to the states next month though so I've booked myself on a one-day course with BA which includes a short flight. Anyone ever done it?
granty92
09-09-13, 02:57 PM
scared of flying also :) still jumped out of a plane though, what is the course all about? does it claim to help your fear of it? if so where do i sign up?
SvNewbie
09-09-13, 03:01 PM
I'm not scared of Flying. Its the crashing which gets me :P
i'm the opposite. i love flying but i have a fear of heights and suffer from mild vertigo :-)
get this, i used to do rock climbing... i was fine on accent and decent but never liked standing on the edge looking down. lol
what is the specific fear you have of flying?
chris8886
09-09-13, 03:07 PM
i'm the opposite. i love flying but i have a fear of heights and suffer from mild vertigo :-)
get this, i used to do rock climbing... i was fine on accent and decent but never liked standing on the edge looking down. lol
what is the specific fear you have of flying?
I am almost exactly the same as you bibs! I especially love landing, where you all of a sudden feel like your balls are somewhere up near your ears! as for climbing and abseiling, love 'em, bar the going 'over the edge' abseiling and looking down is an absolute no no!! I think I do them (when I can) because they scare me so much, gives me a bit of an adrenaline rush as does riding the bike.
ChrisCurvyS
09-09-13, 03:10 PM
i'm the opposite. i love flying but i have a fear of heights and suffer from mild vertigo :-)
get this, i used to do rock climbing... i was fine on accent and decent but never liked standing on the edge looking down. lol
what is the specific fear you have of flying?
It's a bit complicated. :-)
Combination of vertigo, claustrophobia and just generally not being in control. Hate being locked in, thinking about the sheer height you're at makes me dizzy, and I don't like how if anything does go wrong, there's feck all you can do about it - just got to sit there and prepare to be torn apart/burnt/drowned in your seat.
I used to be fine with flying as a kid but was a passenger in a car crash at 18 (numpty driver thought 90 was an appropriate speed in sleet) so I think that's partly responsible.
As your case shows we've all got our quirks. You often hear about pilots who can't stand heights.
ChrisCurvyS
09-09-13, 03:13 PM
scared of flying also :) still jumped out of a plane though, what is the course all about? does it claim to help your fear of it? if so where do i sign up?
There's a few - BA, Virgin and EasyJet do them:
http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/special-assistance/flying-with-confidence
Not cheap though at around £250.
Fair play to you for doing that - my Mrs has done a fair few skydives and was never remotely scared, whereas I think my heart would explode.
Then again, she has full-on panic attacks at the sight of needles, whereas they don't bother me in the slightest.
df118's ;) :smt051
my attitude on life is ''if my time is up, it's up''' there is feck all that you can do about it so why worry about it.
i just hope i'm doing something i love when it does happen rather than sitting soiling myself in a nursing home.
Griff-SV
09-09-13, 03:17 PM
Landing and take off is the best part on a passenger plane. I love flying, my most memorable flight was when I sat in the back of a Harvard doing stalls & wing-overs in a clear blue sky over Wiltshire :) amazing!
Then again, she has full-on panic attacks at the sight of needles, whereas they don't bother me in the slightest.
ermmm guilty :rolleyes: i go week at the knees and cold sweats. it's the initial 'scratch' that freaks me out. once the needle is in then i dont give a burger, it's getting the thing in there in the first place. oohh and i have to be jabbed fairly often so you think i would be used to it :(
ChrisCurvyS
09-09-13, 03:22 PM
df118's ;) :smt051
my attitude on life is ''if my time is up, it's up''' there is feck all that you can do about it so why worry about it.
i just hope i'm doing something i love when it does happen rather than sitting soiling myself in a nursing home.
This is why I'm determined to sort it out.
As I'm getting older, it's dawning on me that one day I will kick the bucket and I know that I will regret not flying and seeing the world (I've never left Europe).
Actually really looking forward to the course and the flight that goes with it. I think I'll be fine on that as it would be so funny if a plane full of people scared of flying crashed, I'd be laughing all the way to the ground.
ChrisCurvyS
09-09-13, 03:26 PM
Another thing in my favour - I've not flown since I started riding bikes, and I think that's done a lot to de-wimp me (was terrified getting on my 125 at first).
Also, a minor heart condition that surface in my early 20s has proved to be completely non-fatal and that was always something adding to the worries.
i had a major heart condition but 5 grafts later and i'm ticketyboo. being told you have 2 weeks or major surgery was a mind feck and i remember saying at the time 'let me die' but then they started all the philological stuff on me and i gave in.
That sucks, I love flying especially if I'm at the controls! Hope the course works well for you.
Otherwise, don't know if they are still available but there were tablets last time I went to the states about a year ago, they were called calms or qualms or something like that. Allegedly they help to steady nerves and avoid travel sickness, might be worth a go.
Also, might help, load up an iPod or other MP3 player with your fav music that helps you to relax/distract/take your mind off things and get a damn good set of in-ear or over ear headphones. Make sure you got at least 9 hours worth (depends where in the states you are going) and plenty of battery. That's works a charm for me when I go to the dentist as I properly hate that. Oh and those sleeping mask things, to properly disconnect from the experience.
Cheers!
Littlepeahead
09-09-13, 04:08 PM
My ex is now a trained commercial pilot. But it took him 3 times on the bike before they felt he was competent enough to be granted a CBT - and this was after he got his pilots licence. Now would you want him piloting your jumbo jet?
I have used hypnosis CDs from this guy successfully. I can't vouch for him being able to cure flying phobia but it certainly helped when I used him for imsomnia.
http://www.hypnosisaudio.com/product/self-hypnosis-cure-for-the-phobia-of-flying-aerophobia--525
ChrisCurvyS
09-09-13, 04:14 PM
That sucks, I love flying especially if I'm at the controls! Hope the course works well for you.
Otherwise, don't know if they are still available but there were tablets last time I went to the states about a year ago, they were called calms or qualms or something like that. Allegedly they help to steady nerves and avoid travel sickness, might be worth a go.
Also, might help, load up an iPod or other MP3 player with your fav music that helps you to relax/distract/take your mind off things and get a damn good set of in-ear or over ear headphones. Make sure you got at least 9 hours worth (depends where in the states you are going) and plenty of battery. That's works a charm for me when I go to the dentist as I properly hate that. Oh and those sleeping mask things, to properly disconnect from the experience.
Cheers!
So you've got your pilot's licence presumably? That's ace - do actually love planes, wierdly.
Re the tablets - taking twice the reccomended dose of valium didn't do much last time so I doubt Calms are going to help me! Thanks anyway.
One of the wife's friends did pick some tablets up from Turkey that her mate swears by for flying but never really knew what they are. My father-in-law (who used to be a psychiatric nurse) took one look at them and said they're powerful anti-psychotic tranquilisers used to treat paranoid schitzophrenics. Would be a bit wary taking them through US customs...
TBH rather than blocking it out, I want to learn to enjoy it and get a buzz out of the speed and awesomeness of it all. That was working for me on a flight to Galway in a little turboprop once...but then the pilot made a dog's dinner out of the landing. Landed heavily on one side and the tyre blew - loads of smoke, even the hostesses screamed, and I was back to square one!
So you've got your pilot's licence presumably? That's ace - do actually love planes, wierdly.
Re the tablets - taking twice the reccomended dose of valium didn't do much last time so I doubt Calms are going to help me! Thanks anyway.
One of the wife's friends did pick some tablets up from Turkey that her mate swears by for flying but never really knew what they are. My father-in-law (who used to be a psychiatric nurse) took one look at them and said they're powerful anti-psychotic tranquilisers used to treat paranoid schitzophrenics. Would be a bit wary taking them through US customs...
TBH rather than blocking it out, I want to learn to enjoy it and get a buzz out of the speed and awesomeness of it all. That was working for me on a flight to Galway in a little turboprop once...but then the pilot made a dog's dinner out of the landing. Landed heavily on one side and the tyre blew - loads of smoke, even the hostesses screamed, and I was back to square one!
Errrr no! Used to be in air cadets so flew with them and a couple of times went up with the local flying club as my sisters ex was a pilot with them!
Fair play with wanting to tackle it head on mate! Don't blame you for not wanting to take that stuff, regardless of customs issues never take a pill that you ain't 100% sure of!
ChrisCurvyS
09-09-13, 04:20 PM
i had a major heart condition but 5 grafts later and i'm ticketyboo. being told you have 2 weeks or major surgery was a mind feck and i remember saying at the time 'let me die' but then they started all the philological stuff on me and i gave in.
Good on you fella. People often forget that surgery itself, as well as whatever life-threatening condition it's there to treat, can be very frightening.
I work with people who have had organ transplants and, while at the time I'm sure they're just grateful to have got the call, I can't imagine what's it's like to go into theatre knowing your body is going to be opened up and some of your organs taken out and replaced. Especially with combined heart and lung transplants - such a brutal thing to have done to the body, takes a lot of courage to get through it.
ChrisCurvyS
09-09-13, 04:25 PM
My ex is now a trained commercial pilot. But it took him 3 times on the bike before they felt he was competent enough to be granted a CBT - and this was after he got his pilots licence. Now would you want him piloting your jumbo jet?
I have used hypnosis CDs from this guy successfully. I can't vouch for him being able to cure flying phobia but it certainly helped when I used him for imsomnia.
http://www.hypnosisaudio.com/product/self-hypnosis-cure-for-the-phobia-of-flying-aerophobia--525
Hearing about an airline pilot who actually managed to fail the CBT not once but thrice is probably not the best thing for a flying phobia!
However, I will look into the hypnosis thanks Claire - have found it useful in the past for sleeping etc.
What happend to the pic of those puppies btw?! Whether they're the furry or smooth kind, I'd be interested to see them.
Red Herring
09-09-13, 07:37 PM
scared of flying also :) still jumped out of a plane though, ....
See now, I never could understand this urge to jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft.....!
chris8886
09-09-13, 08:28 PM
see now, i never could understand this urge to jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft.....!
quite!!
Dicky Ticker
10-09-13, 08:01 AM
If a train bus or car breaks down I can get out and walk, if a boat breaks down I can swim, if an aeroplane breaks down I can not fly. Boats have life jackets,planes have life jackets---------------I want a bloody parachute.
ChrisCurvyS
10-09-13, 09:13 AM
I used to work with a sweet but chronically dim (and morbidly obese) Scottish girl.
When I told her I was scared of flying, she replied: 'I don't get that, raight, cos if tha warst comes to tha warst, you've got that parachute thingy undar yar seet, raight?'
Just had an image of her plunging 30,000 feet to earth with her lifejacket inflating round her blubbery neck...
Dicky Ticker
10-09-13, 09:49 AM
Benefit from being fat and a life jacket-------SHE WOULD BOUNCE:):smile:
LankyIanB
10-09-13, 06:51 PM
ex-competitive glider pilot with a fear of heights. It's nothing unusual to have pilots who won't go up ladders.
Commercial flying is dull, very very dull and then some.... I know this only too well as I work in Sweden and spend too much of my life in BA's tin tubes.
There's a brilliant book I saw a review for but can't find on google that explained the stats in a really nice way... it went something like this (can't remember numbers)
Assuming that every working day, you drive for an hour to the airport and then catch a commercial flight to somewhere and at the end of the day fly then drive back home, by the time you die in a plane crash you'll already have been killed umpteen times in car crashes.
You accept the risks of travelling in cars and on bikes but baulk at travelling in a something safer? Crazy isn't it..... there again if you want to panic me, take me to a dentist.......
The hardest thing on a long commercial flight is keeping your mind busy. Good books, good movies etc are your friend! Sleep is another way to pass the time but doesn't help with the jetlag when flying west...
Lastly - I don't know if you've seen this site before http://www.flyingwithoutfear.com/ nothing to do with me I just know they run/ran? courses at a garden centre near where I live..... probably a little too far south for you.. but the website may have something useful in it.
tigersaw
10-09-13, 07:17 PM
I hate flying. Its not the aircraft but the airport terminals I despise; being made to queue, wait, penned, herded around and referred to as self loading cargo.
Sadly humans aren't really wired for statistics. According to freakonomics every year in America more people die in car crashes etc than died in 9/11 and even with that number it still barely increased the numbers.
Also swimming pools pose more risk to kids than guns in the house.
ChrisCurvyS
10-09-13, 08:21 PM
Ta for the suggestion Ian but as Pyro says, if your mind is determined to be sh*t scared of something logic doesn't have much impact! It's not so much the chances of something happening, it's more imagining what it would be like if it did.
Like I said, I will get over it and the course I'm doing with BA is supposed to be the best. I think I'll be better flying with BA too as I'll the flights I've been on in the past have been budget airlines packed with nasty drunken chavs, which has made me think that if there was a god, he would probably be doing his best to bring it down.
Essex of Essex
11-09-13, 06:31 AM
The airline I fly for operate Fear of Flying trips for Virgin, I've never operated one but I'm told that all the work they do with you prior to flying is very effective.
I've been flying for 32 years, and as I would generally arrive at the scene of an accident first I work hard to ensure a safe flight every time I fly. As pilots we are checked once a year in the aircraft to ensure procedural compliance and twice a year in the simulator to practice dealing with every conceivable emergency. On top of this we have medical checks and lots of theoretical and practical training throughout our careers, it really is a safe way to travel.
Chris, looks like you've got the bull by the horns as it were. What I can say is that repetition helps.
Mrs Jambo really did not like flying when we first met, she's now a seasoned pro and can navigate terminals and aircraft with the best of them. Once you have a few flights in a short time it becomes much more routine and you consider it much more normal.
Alternatively there's my mate's approach. He hates flying, gets to the airport early and is generally about 8 pints in when he gets on the plane. Not for everyone!
Jambo
ChrisCurvyS
11-09-13, 09:35 AM
"as I would generally arrive at the scene of an accident first" - had to think about that for a second, very well put!
As I'm slightly obsessed with the subject, I do appreciate how well trained and educated airline pilots are, and I also appreciate how passenger flight is continually getting even safer, as lessons are learnt from every incident and near-miss and acted on.
However, always at the back of my mind is the fact that c*ck-ups do still sometimes happen. Like the engineers who left the fan cowl doors unsecured on the BA flight last year and it was sheer luck that only one engine failed as a result. I would imagine the pilot involved had some choice words to say once he'd managed to land!
Jambo - ta for the tip, good to know I'm not the only one and I think flying more ferquently will def help.
I would try the alcohol approach but in order to stay p*ssed for the full 7/8 hour flight, I'd need to drink so much I'd end up being one of those people who tries to open the cabin door with their underpants round their head and finishes the flight trussed up like a turkey with the cabin crew kneeling on their chest.
timwilky
11-09-13, 10:26 AM
See now, I never could understand this urge to jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft.....!
you should try it. T'is fun.
Back on topic. My boss won't fly, great working for a global company. His partner won't sail. they go on holiday in caravans as a result.
good luck with the course. i'm a bad flier too but was helped a bit by the book this guy wrote (cockpit confidential).
humerous book and worth a read, it explains a few of the things that make people nervous. a good read about the general flying experience too. a fair bit of the book is already on his website.
it covers things like turbulence, the safety stats (which you seem to know already...it is safer than most forms of travel but I still get nervous even though i know the stats) and also the rigorous pilot training which essex of essex mentioned already.
http://www.askthepilot.com/
Littlepeahead
12-09-13, 08:15 AM
I hate ferries. So I take proprananol which is a beta blocker and it stops me getting so panicky. Only on prescription though.
Jason H
13-09-13, 09:06 AM
Another Glider Pilot here. Flying is fine, nothing to worry about there. Climbing ladders and standing on the edge of anything high though, well I'm not so good at that. Would love to do a solo Parachute jump at some point, seems like quite the rush.
ex-competitive glider pilot with a fear of heights. It's nothing unusual to have pilots who won't go up ladders.
Commercial flying is dull, very very dull and then some.... I know this only too well as I work in Sweden and spend too much of my life in BA's tin tubes.
There's a brilliant book I saw a review for but can't find on google that explained the stats in a really nice way... it went something like this (can't remember numbers)
Assuming that every working day, you drive for an hour to the airport and then catch a commercial flight to somewhere and at the end of the day fly then drive back home, by the time you die in a plane crash you'll already have been killed umpteen times in car crashes.
You accept the risks of travelling in cars and on bikes but baulk at travelling in a something safer? Crazy isn't it..... there again if you want to panic me, take me to a dentist.......
The hardest thing on a long commercial flight is keeping your mind busy. Good books, good movies etc are your friend! Sleep is another way to pass the time but doesn't help with the jetlag when flying west...
Lastly - I don't know if you've seen this site before http://www.flyingwithoutfear.com/ nothing to do with me I just know they run/ran? courses at a garden centre near where I live..... probably a little too far south for you.. but the website may have something useful in it.
Yeah don't like heights, well unsafe heights! Hate ladders, cliffs etc. don't mind being up high in a building though
ChrisCurvyS
13-09-13, 10:29 AM
Thanks for the book reccommendation emcf and good to hear everyone else's experiences.
Jason - interesting you can fly gliders with a fear of heights as the view down is so much more direct than in a passenger plane. With me, not looking directly down helps but I'm more uncomfortable the higher the aircraft goes - just thining of all the empty air between you and the ground makes me dizzy.
LPH - fear of ferries is an unusal one but quite logical. Is it just ferries or boats in general?
Jason H
13-09-13, 10:33 AM
Chris, I know its a bit wierd but flying generally doesn't trigger the same physical/pschological reation as Vertigo itself. Perhaps you should have a go at trial lesson in a glider, it would probably change your entire thought process on flight in general.
J
ChrisCurvyS
30-09-13, 11:51 AM
Just an update on this. Did the course on Saturday and it was awesome - would really recommend it, even though it does cost about £250. Ended up actually looking forward to getting on the plane at the end of the day and didn't want the flight to end!
It's got a two-pronged approach - the first half of the day you have two pilots explaining step by step everything that can and does happen during a flight, and all the safety measures that are in place etc. Then the second half is a clinical psychologist (who is also ex-cabin crew and developed a sudden phobia of flying herself) who gets into the psychology of fear and phobias and explains how to train your mind to overcome it all.
That was the bit that really worked for me as I knew quite a bit of the technical stuff already and could always find an example of a crash where the safety measures failed, but the key was almost to slap yourself in the face, stop thinking about it and accept that risk and living go hand-in-hand.
I can't wait for my flight to the states now next week. Here's the link to the course if anyone's interested -
http://flyingwithconfidence.com/
Well done!
Sounds like you've gone in with a good mindset and they've put together a course that has helped. Hope you enjoy the flight to the States :)
Jambo
ChrisCurvyS
30-09-13, 01:31 PM
Well done!
Sounds like you've gone in with a good mindset and they've put together a course that has helped. Hope you enjoy the flight to the States :)
Jambo
Cheers Jambo - certainly will!
I'd almost forgotten but the people we're staying with have offered me the use of their Harley while we're over there so that's another thing to look forward to. Or is it? :-)
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