violist

Unimatrix - well said on all counts.

ThWilmesi

Well I can understand very well all the posters here.

I always enjoyed very much flying and I am flying now quite extensively since 20 years.
I never had any problems, I am not really fearing flying, but I am feeling more uncomfortable ( I think too much of what could happen).

this results for me not to be anymore hungry on the plane, I can't sleep anymore and so on and so.

I think it is due that about two years ago I was flying with an ERJ-Jet trough a heavy, heavy turbulence which just came out of nowhere, basically during some bad summer weather we flew into some clouds and got caught into two clouds which just were colliding and this apparently caused the turbulence, the plane was really solidly shaken went upwards and downwards a couoke od hundred meters.

Since then nobody gets me in these little jets anymore as well I have a problem going into a some turboprops, the bigger the plane the better it is, best is of course the 747.

I also don't like twin engine planes flying too long over water, that is why I love A 340's.

beside of that I react very nervously to any turbulence and noice which I can't classify on the plane.

it is now since two years and things have not really become better since, but I have to fly and to go through.

In 4 weeks I am flying from YYZ-SCL (Chile) 11 hours flight with a 767-300 ER, I am really looking forward to it already???

liquid

Thanks a lot!!! I got to the point where I didn't really think about any of this stuff anymore unless it was rather serious turbulence or the like. On a rather innocent flight yesterday I got that quesy feeling with every noise, bump and turn. I refuse to let it get to me again on tomorrows flight...I hope.

edi-traveller

Despite over ten years of frequent flying I do still get nervous - mainly if there is turbulence.

However I have found that if I hold onto the arm rests really tightly and dig my heels into the floor - that tends to settle things down a bit..............

Fraser

You guys should make a stop at the bar in the lounge for a couple of scotchs just before you head off for the gate

stut

Oh, I don't know if a drink would make it better or worse.

(Besides which, I've been on the wagon for 6 years...)

N674UW

I too, am somewhat of a nervous flyer, but mostly due to reasons related to 9/11...I simply can't relax until the flight is firmly established in cruise and then again on the descent I get nervous, because I have a terrible fear of being on a plane that is used in another 9/11 style attack...on one of my recent flights about 2 months ago I saw (to me) a suspicious looking airport employee enter the jetway of my flight and it really bothered me, I pondered going to the airport police station, but instead I boarded and then immediately spoke with one of the f/a's about it, who reassured me that the man had entered for a legitimate reason and not to worry, which made me feel a lot better, though I was still a bit nervous...

N674UW

Internaut

I find that there's nothing more effective than a spot of turbulence to get me off the wagon

DaxOmni

I only have a couple flights that bothered me. One flight on Delta was deemed too late to meet a scheduled connection, so Delta paid for a flight on America West instead. This turned out to cause more harm that good, but that was beyond Delta's control.

When connecting in PHX, the flight out was delayed several hours for 'maintenance.' This has been common enough in my experience, so I was not very concerned. However, when we finally got off the ground the right engine started making what I considered a LOT of noise. I was seated pretty close to the engine, and it was making so much noise that you could barely hear anyone talking to you. This was the first time I'd ever heard an engine making this much noise. A passenger next to me was a novice America West pilot who was reading a huge flight manual. He wasn't concerned in the slightest with the engine noise, so I didn't say anything, but I was still rather concerned during the rest of the flight. I even kept an eye on the news for a few days afterward, wondering if the plane would be falling out of the sky later that week.

I never saw anything in the news though, and by my next flight a couple weeks later, the fear was gone.

whiteknuckles

I have been flying for more years than I care to mention. It seems that in the last few years I rarely get on a flight that doesn't have at least some turbulence and it absolutely drives me nuts. The pilots are rarely very helpful in their announcements. Recently on a flight from Puerto Vallarta, they said it would be a "little" bumpy... it was actually more like living through a 7.0 earthquake. I wish they had a camera in the cockpit so I could see what the pilots are doing. I'm curious if during all this insanity they're wrestling with the controls like rodeo cowboys or if they're just sitting there reading a newspaper.

DaxOmni

"I'm curious if during all this insanity they're wrestling with the controls like rodeo cowboys or if they're just sitting there reading a newspaper."

From what I understand, modern auto-pilot technology can fly and even land the plane (at modern airports) without much if any pilot input. If the pilots need to adjust the altitude or direction, they just enter the new coordinates and they're done. Hopefully someone can confirm this.

N674UW

Sure, its called CAT III autoland capability, and its been around for something near 30 years...I think the British Trident and Lockheed L-1011 were the first aircraft to make successful autolands...

N674UW

pinniped

Turbulence doesn't really bother me - except on final approach.

I'm normally not nervous, but a few things give me a 'flit of fear'.

- Airbuses. Partly because of past history and partly because they just...sound different. In my case, I have only flown fairly new Airbuses that are actually more comfortable and quiet than their Boeing counterparts, but I still get nervous.

- Any flight out of DEN going west. Something about that climb over the Rockies gets me every time. The plane seems to move a bit more from side to side in those air currents, and I'm always looking down wondering, after a crash, which passengers would get sacrificed for cannibalism first. (The ones without elite status, of course. )

- Flying into ORD on one of those old AA F-100's on a windy winter day. It always feels like the nose is pointed straight down and we aren't going to make it past Schaumburg. Finally, after bouncing and bumping all over the sky, the pilot finds the runway...

- Anytime the pilot has to do a go-around. This happens to me about once a year, and the pilot always comes over the PA and tells us that the guy ahead of us took too long getting off the runway. I have this paranoid fear of one pilot feeding us a story while the other tries to fix some awful problem. (Of course, we always go around and land the 2nd time just fine.)

Fraser

When returning from New York with my Mum we were just about to touch down at LHR when I noticed the throttle power increase and the plane start to climb again. We banked round to the north and it was about three minutes or so before the captain came over the PA system.

Things like this don't really bother me, I'll fly BA223 after all the terrorist warnings and all that, but to some people in the cabin they seemed genuinely frightened by the pilots explanation of why we didn't land the first time round

birdstrike