Planes, how do they work?

I hate getting on commercial airlines, I don't fly often and I drink 3-4 beers before I'll get on for the dutch courage.

I think it's the lack of control and if something goes wrong your strapped into this thing at 30k ft and there is nothing you can do.

However I will quite happily fly in a glider or light aircraft.

I took a flying lesson a few months ago in a C42 Ikarus type thing, and it was a really hot day so pretty turbulent and I loved every minute of it.

Funnily enough the instructor said exactly the same thing about commercial flights.
 
Planes just rely on raw power to stick a middle finger up to physics and launch themselves into the air. Helicopters use the same principle, just in a more stupid way.

Source: two decades as a military aircraft mechanical engineer on all sorts of large jets, helicopters and turboprops now qualified with my civilian licences. I will take the opportunity to fly anywhere on anything, and refuse to fly less than business class on anything over 5 hours (civilian only - Business class on a Hercules was finding the most comfortable cargo pallet)
 
I think you have to come to the terms with the fact that your fear of flying does not stem from the technology or chance of a crash. It is very easy to understand that plane travel is incredibly safe statistically.

The subconscious fear you have of it, most likely comes from the WAY you could possibly die...and by that i mean that you would likely know in advance that you were going to die.

In most other accidents in other forms of travel, death comes pretty instantly and without warning. You could argue that isn't the case with a boat sinking, but on a boat you always have hope you could survive/get rescued.

On a plane, if it is all goes wrong thousands of feet in the air, you will be hurtling towards the ground and there is **** all you or anyone can do about it, and you know that you WILL die. In a plane, unless you are lucky and it just explodes completely, there will likely be a reasonable amount of time to contemplate your impending death.

That is where the fear comes from and is (i agree) absolutely terrifying.
 
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Jono8 said:
I think you have to come to the terms with the fact that your fear of flying does not stem from the technology or chance of a crash. It is very easy to understand that plane travel is incredibly safe statistically.

The subconscious fear you have of it, most likely comes from the WAY you could possibly die...and by that i mean that you would likely know in advance that you were going to die.

In most other accidents in other forms of travel, death comes pretty instantly and without warning. You could argue that isn't the case with a boat sinking, but on a boat you always have hope you could survive/get rescued.

On a plane, if it is all goes wrong thousands of feet in the air, you will be hurtling towards the ground and there is **** all you or anyone can do about it, and you know that you WILL die. In a plane, unless you are lucky and it just explodes completely, there will likely be a reasonable amount of time to contemplate your impending death.

That is where the fear comes from and is (i agree) absolutely terrifying.
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I love flying. Some how you have made me worry for my next flight, when ever than is.
 
I studied Aerospace Systems Engineering at uni. Trust me on this, you do not want to know how planes fly. The more you learn, the more you notice that there's disagreements about why they fly. Newton's Third Law or Bernoulli's theorem for one....

Also, it's absolutely lovely that it's partially due to numbers that don't exist. For example the square root of -1. It's an imaginary number called i. Aerodynamics uses it a lot.

[edit] Oh god.. just remembered this bit... i³=-i
Stuff like this really made my head hurt at those lectures first thing in the morning.... Or maybe it was the vodka the previous night.

Feek said:
Mags is Arthur Shappey.


Brilliant!
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The hat is paramount!
 
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Tuppy_Glossop said:
I am not good with heights but I love flying. Best bit is looking down out of the window during take-off and landing. The other best bit is the big blue above the top cloud layer. Smooth flying and great visuals.

The Mr T thread?
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This.

Can't go up a tall building or anything but stick me up a plane or push me out of one and it's magical.
 
I'm not a good flyer I hadn't been on one for years and was so nervous at the airport I got pulled over by security and they went through my luggage as they probably thought I was smuggling something almost felt sorry for disappointing them. That being said it gets easier subsequent trips were much easier and almost routine I havn't been a while now so probably back to square one
Jono8 said:
I think you have to come to the terms with the fact that your fear of flying does not stem from the technology or chance of a crash. It is very easy to understand that plane travel is incredibly safe statistically.

The subconscious fear you have of it, most likely comes from the WAY you could possibly die...and by that i mean that you would likely know in advance that you were going to die.

In most other accidents in other forms of travel, death comes pretty instantly and without warning. You could argue that isn't the case with a boat sinking, but on a boat you always have hope you could survive/get rescued.

On a plane, if it is all goes wrong thousands of feet in the air, you will be hurtling towards the ground and there is **** all you or anyone can do about it, and you know that you WILL die. In a plane, unless you are lucky and it just explodes completely, there will likely be a reasonable amount of time to contemplate your impending death.

That is where the fear comes from and is (i agree) absolutely terrifying.
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Some of the air crash investigation programmes and their recreated scenes are the stuff of nightmares
 
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This one is a bit old, but one of my favourites to listen to with regard aircraft failures. Engine takes a bird on takeoff, carries on up and around, holds for a while then comes in to land, all on one engine. You can listen to the radio chatter as well, as cool and calm and collected as can be the whole time.


Aircraft have immense amounts of redundancy built in, and one failure will almost never cause a failure of the whole airframe.
 
Penfold101 said:
This one is a bit old, but one of my favourites to listen to with regard aircraft failures. Engine takes a bird on takeoff, carries on up and around, holds for a while then comes in to land, all on one engine. You can listen to the radio chatter as well, as cool and calm and collected as can be the whole time.


Aircraft have immense amounts of redundancy built in, and one failure will almost never cause a failure of the whole airframe.
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I enjoy the calmness. It is reassuring.
 
Dying in a plane crash seems like one of the worst ways to go, everyone losing their minds as you plummet to the ground

Reminds me of a famouos Mallrats quote

'One time my cousin Walter jerked off in public once. True story. He was on a plane to New Mexico when all of the sudden the hydraulics went. The plane started spinning around, going out of control, so he decides it's all over and whips it out and starts beating it right there. So all the other passengers take a cue from him and they start whipping it out and beating like mad. So all the passengers are beating off, plummeting to their certain doom, when all of the sudden, snap! The hydraulics kick back in. The plane rights itself and it land safely and everyone puts their pieces or, whatever, you know, away and deboard. No one mentions the phenomenon to anyone else'
 
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