Planes - why are they trying to kill me?

Pft, it always looks like that in Norway during the winter ;)

It's fun when you go from that (with even more snow than shown in your picture) to landing in the UK where 1cm of snow has caused mass panic. Of course I know they are not used to it but still, it's quite a big contrast.
 
I remember flying back home from NZ, we stopped off in America for a few weeks. We were told there were thunderstorms over Chicago and we'd be taking a slight diversion. Needless to say, we had some horrible turbulence, to the point where people were screaming, haha.

At no point did I ever feel like we were going to crash though.
 
I've flown quite a lot and have never experienced really bad turbulence...so far. Two slightly scary things have happened. Firstly, flying from Detroit to Madison (short flight) we were coming into land and the pilot comes on and informs us that we're actually about to land back in Detroit - apparently a hydraulic failure light had come on and he had turned around....without telling us. He calmly tells us that there will be fire trucks and emergency services waiting for us....just in case. He came in really, really slow and very, very low (I assume so the ground crews could check the gear was down?) and we landed without incident. I was certainly clenching though :eek:

Coming into land at Chicago in a blizzard was another fun experience. Pilot told us the airport was closed (you know it's bad when O'Hare closes...) but we were landing anyway. Couldn't see anything out of the window and had no idea how low we were, when suddenly "bump-bump" and then the roar of huge amounts of reverse thrust as we landed :eek::D I know the ILS and computers pretty much take care of business, but I still thought the pilot had to have 100ft visibility, just in case? All I know is, I couldn't even see the tips of the wings? :( It was a 777-200 btw.
 
I'm not scared of flying but am starting to hate it due to my ears popping so badly after landing, leaving me almost deaf for the next day or so with sharp pains every time I yawn lol. Nothing I try works either :/
 
divaboy said:
So who do you fly for ? And whats the worst experience you have had been a pilot not necessarily with your current airline ;)
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I fly for Aer Lingus, on the A320 based in Gatwick. As for worst experience, well nothing bad in my opinion. Had a few diversions due to weather, arrested some people on board, had medical emergencies, a few electric problems, air problems (from the pressurization system), 2 rejected take-offs, a few wake turbulence encounters (wake from aircraft ahead of us). None of that is a big deal though.

lawz said:
Taking off in an airbus from Narvik in the north of Norway was fun, pilot held it on the brakes, got full throttle going, then released the brakes. Bearing in mind it looked like this:
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The holding it on the brakes was more then likely to run the engines up to 70%. In those kinds temperatures ice can form on the blades of the engine. If you go up to full power straight away the imbalance of the ice on the blades can cause damage. You run the engine up just before take off to 70% for 30secs or so to shed all of the ice before setting take-off thrust.

Curio said:
I've flown quite a lot and have never experienced really bad turbulence...so far. Two slightly scary things have happened. Firstly, flying from Detroit to Madison (short flight) we were coming into land and the pilot comes on and informs us that we're actually about to land back in Detroit - apparently a hydraulic failure light had come on and he had turned around....without telling us. He calmly tells us that there will be fire trucks and emergency services waiting for us....just in case. He came in really, really slow and very, very low (I assume so the ground crews could check the gear was down?) and we landed without incident. I was certainly clenching though :eek:
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Again this isn't that big a deal, aircraft usually have at least 3 if not more hydraulic systems, and it can actually fly without any! Sounds like they handled it well. Obviously the flight crew don't tell all the passengers what is happening straight away. The first thing is to assess the problem and then deal with it. They would then have decided to divert and spoken to ATC to arrange that. The first officer would have then set up the aircraft for the arrival whilst the Captain speaks to the Cabin crew to tell them the situation. After all of that is done then we'll let the passengers know what is happening. In certain situations where there is an obvious noise or mechanical issue we might make a brief PA after assessing the problem just to let you know its being handled and to calm people down (things like engine failures etc)

Curio said:
Coming into land at Chicago in a blizzard was another fun experience. Pilot told us the airport was closed (you know it's bad when O'Hare closes...) but we were landing anyway. Couldn't see anything out of the window and had no idea how low we were, when suddenly "bump-bump" and then the roar of huge amounts of reverse thrust as we landed :eek::D I know the ILS and computers pretty much take care of business, but I still thought the pilot had to have 100ft visibility, just in case? All I know is, I couldn't even see the tips of the wings? :( It was a 777-200 btw.
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There is different levels of closed for airports. It can be closed to all traffic, any new traffic etc. Even if an airport closes, if an aircraft is far enough a long the approach it is allowed to continue to the decision point (a go/no-go point around 100ft or so above the runway). As for the visibility required for an auto-land it depends on the systems on the aircraft and on the ground. The best you can get is called Cat3C, it means you can land having seen nothing at all, all you need is a viz of 75m on the runway to enable you to taxi off. The standard that most airports use is Cat3b No DH. This is the same in that you don't have to see anything but the viz has slightly higher limits.
 
My gf is now afraid of flying. She used to be okay, well not exactly happy but fine and calm.

She started a new job a couple of years ago and ended up flying every week on pretty much every type of plan including little twin proppeller ones going to scottish islands where they had to land at 45 degrees in a severe cross wind.

She had a really bad flight sitting next to a woman who was almost beside herself. It was only after they landed and the woman thanked her for trying to keep her calm during the flight that the other woman told her she was only so worried as she worked for Boeing and she knew exactly what was happening to the plane during that flight!

Since then my gf won't fly anymore so no more foreign holidays for us (except ones you can get to on a Ferry) :(
 
Flew over to South Africa for the world cup recently, but we flew via Tripoli Airport, Libya. We flew with Air Afriqiya.

Now, I am not a great flyer at the best of times (like the OP I am ok - just about- on long haul) but it was made worse by the fact that our flight number changed two weeks before we flew out to Libya. It turned out that our actual plane had crashed at Tripoli, killing over 100 people and with only one survivor - a teenage (now) orphan. This shook us up a bit to say the least, that our actual plane had crashed...

Then, as we came in to land at Tripopli when we actually came to fly out there, coming in to land, the crash site is still all there at the very end of the runway... wings, tail fin, fuselage everywhere... I didn't like.
 
I love rough airplane flights.

I was in the Air scouts and went up in all kind of flights. Went up in a BAe Hawk (aka the same plane the Red Arrows use) and the pilot asked if I'd ever been air sick. "No I replied". He then spent the next 50 mins flying time trying to make me throw up and in the end he made himself sick and I threw up 30 secs later. It's odd how someone else being sick can make you sick as well! I asked him about him being sick and he said it normally happens everytime he flies but especially when he's showing off to cadets!
 
Greebo said:
My gf is now afraid of flying. She used to be okay, well not exactly happy but fine and calm.

She started a new job a couple of years ago and ended up flying every week on pretty much every type of plan including little twin proppeller ones going to scottish islands where they had to land at 45 degrees in a severe cross wind.

She had a really bad flight sitting next to a woman who was almost beside herself. It was only after they landed and the woman thanked her for trying to keep her calm during the flight that the other woman told her she was only so worried as she worked for Boeing and she knew exactly what was happening to the plane during that flight!
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Ah I've heard that excuse a hundred times! 'Arrgh I/my partner/Dad/Brother/Sisters dog works for *insert manufacturers name here* and they have told me all the bad things that goes on!!

This usually means they have been told stories from someone that has been watching air crash investigations or been watching Youtube and so now consider them selves god of all things aviation but actually knows nothing useful. Problem is as soon as someone has bad thoughts about flying it tends to just build up. A tiny bump that wouldn't have bothered them before suddenly becomes a wing falling off. Its a shame, since flying really is the safest form of travel. I'm afraid I can't remember where I read it but the chance of dying in a plane crash is something approaching 1:22,000,000. The chance of winning the lottery is 1:14,000,000.
 
Blinkz said:
Ah I've heard that excuse a hundred times! 'Arrgh I/my partner/Dad/Brother/Sisters dog works for *insert manufacturers name here* and they have told me all the bad things that goes on!!

This usually means they have been told stories from someone that has been watching air crash investigations or been watching Youtube and so now consider them selves god of all things aviation but actually knows nothing useful. Problem is as soon as someone has bad thoughts about flying it tends to just build up. A tiny bump that wouldn't have bothered them before suddenly becomes a wing falling off. Its a shame, since flying really is the safest form of travel. I'm afraid I can't remember where I read it but the chance of dying in a plane crash is something approaching 1:22,000,000. The chance of winning the lottery is 1:14,000,000.
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Problem is that combined with some very bad flights, what that woman told her has made my gf refuse to go on planes.

She would rather drive 500 miles than fly now. She had one important business meeting in Europe where she would have taken two days driving each way (she considered it for a long time) but ended up flying but dosed herself with tranquilisers first just to get through the flight.
 
Flew to Devon last year during those big storms in a BA prop jet, pilot took 3 attempts to land which was an experience but I have faith in the pilots skills and we landed safely (if a little sideways).

If it really is dangerous chances are they will ground the flight which is also fine by me, they know what they are doing, I do not.
 
I really don't know where my fear of flying has come from, I flew everywhere as a kid, had loads of family holidays and it didnt bother me in the slightest. I've never really had a bad flight, had some turbulence, been close to some pretty epic storms, but my fear of flying gets worse and worse every time that I fly these days, peaking at take-off and landing.

Worst experience I had was on a flight to Antigua with the whole family for my wedding, we get about 4 hours in, and there is water all over the floor of the passenger cabin, the carpet is utterly soaked through. Pilot comes on the tannoy (I'm paraphrasing here) 'As some of you will have noticed, we have a small leak in the so and so system, and there is some build up of water on the floor of the passenger cabin, we have been in contact with our engineers back in London and they assure us its nothing at all to worry about, and we are good to continue to our journey' - First off, if its nothing to worry about, did you need to tell me that you'd checked with your engineers in London? Secondly, we're 4 hours in, we're over the middle of Atlantic, if it was an issue, what could you possibly do about it anyway?

The other bad experience I had was coming in to land at Vegas for the honeymoon, pilot warned us at the start of the flight that the landing was going to be a bumpy one due to the air currents coming up off the desert at this time of year, my god. First off, the approach, lets fly past the airport and do a U-Turn, seriously the aircraft was tilting so much that from my window seat at the back of the plane all I could see was ground, not fun. Then, we're coming in, we're bouncing all over the place, more worryingly we are wobbling left to right constantly, the woman behind me screams 'oh my god we're going to crash' and I'm sitting in my seat clutching onto the arm rests with all I've got praying we dont.

I find my fear irrational and pathetic, it annoys me that I'm so worried about such a statistical longshot, but at the same time, it does still bother me.
 
I have a fear of flying too. I used to be fine, but the onset of hypochondria about five/six years ago left me a nervous wreck when it came to flying. Having been to a Virgin Atlantic fear of flying course (and the addition of Lorazepam before and during the flight) I've managed to control it. I'm happy to fly when I need to, and have flown every year since I developed the fear, but the week(s) leading up to a flight can take a real toll on me.

Its purely the turbeluence I don't like. I don't mind walking around te plane in flight, looking out of the window or landing or take off, just the turbulence.
 
Blinkz said:
SNIP
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I hate flying, but reading what you have written makes me feel a bit calmer about it.

Im due to go abroad next year (only Spain) it'll be the first time on a plane in 10 years. Im nervous about it but understanding a bit more about what is actually happening and the fact that the wings wont just 'fall off' has made me a lot calmer.
 
Is there any correlation to fear of flying and confidence, etc etc?


*****

Anyways, I like flying because you get to see the ground from above and for the views of clear skies/the sun. However, I'm not a fan when turbulence hits during eating.

I remember during a flight from London to Hong Kong on Cathay a couple of years ago where there was bad turbulence as I was munching down the snacks. Had to cover the drink to stop it spilling.

From the flights I've been on between London and Hong Kong, I find that most turbulence occurs in the mountainous regions of China and possibly Russia, after looking at those in-flight maps.
 
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