Turbulence
 

Hello,
I am new here (signed up a few minutes ago) so I am not sure where to pose this question. Excuse me if it's in the wrong forum.
I am wondering how to best (mentally) deal with turbulence. Even though I have flown 60,000 miles in the last year or so, every time we hit a good series of turbulence, I get pretty nervous :confused: and a series of thoughts enter my mind like "the plane is going to break apart":td: or "we're going down". :eek:I keep this to myself but I have found that it never gets easier to handle. I do okay with takeoffs and landings (landings are the best!) I find myself white-knuckled and sometimes I hold my breath:eek: for extended periods until I catch myself doing it. Anyway, I don't like to drink, I don't get travel sickness but I have a little trouble understanding how a HUGE 747 or 777 can shake violently while it is traveling at approx 500 MPH and that not be pretty serious. It seems to happen most frequently when we begin to fly over land when we've been over the ocean for some time. I attribute that to the heat rising that's stored on the land@:-). Still, even when I expect it...I don't enjoy it and I get nervous about it. Can anyone give me any suggestions that might help? :D

Thanks,
Scott

Welcome to FlyerTalk Scott. I'm going to move this to our TravelBuzz forum, where you should find some helpful suggestions.

l'etoile
Trip Reports moderator

Even the worst turbulence I've been through, the most I've thought is, "my drink better not spill".

This is a great website to look at. It's aimed at those with a general fear of flight, but there is a section about turbulence that might be of interest to you. Did I mention its free?!

http://www.fearofflyinghelp.com/

Let us know if you have any specific questions.

Checko

Welcome to FT! :)

I'm not sure about you, but I tend to feel better about things the more I know. Turbulence is not at all dangerous as planes were built to withstand an awful lot. Here's a link to a fear of flying website. If you click on "SOAR library" there will be a ton of articles on the right side that address turbulence. Hopefully that will help.

Oddly enough, in the vast majority of situations, all the pilots are worried about is spilling your drink as well.

:)

Checko

I read an article once that made the analogy of a pilot flying a plane through turbulence to drivers driving their cars down a bumpy street. It's annoying, but really no big deal. The article said that most pilots consider it to be a non-event that's forgotten by the time they land, just like your or I really wouldn't dwell on the fact that we'd driven through a pothole.

Take a bunch of flights on a Saab 340 or a similarly small turbo-prop (or even the regional jets). You'll quickly get used to what feels like lots of uncontrolled movement. :)

But seriously, I think a lot of the fear has to do with the person and their individual circumstances. When I had no family I was much less afraid of what might happen on a flight. Then, after kids, I went through a period of being worried about what would happen when I fly. Now, I fly a bunch (including lots on the small planes) and I don't worry much at all.

The other thing that comes to mind is that it is perfectly normal to have fears and irrational thoughts. For most people, these are recognized as such and pass naturally without much impact to their ability to get done what is important to them. It's been a comfort to me to know that recognizing a thought as irrational is the first step to getting over it.

Try This
 

Place an open glass filled with water in your car's cup holder. Drive somewhere. Feel what the road is like. Note how much water spills.

During your next flight, note how much water/wine, etc spills from your cup.

I bet that will help, just a little, with putting turbulence into perspective.

Here are some resources: http://www.takingflight.us/flying-fear-resources.php

For what it's worth, I have a flying phobia-but have had great success in subduing the monster. I came to realize that most of my fear is the result of my imagination. I tame my imagination and most of my fear is under control.

Try relaxtion techniques
 

Try to learn some relaxation techniques and practice them so when you need to use them you have a routine to focus on. Things to try are focused deep breathing, visualization and meditation.

These are actually easy to implement as you can do it right in your seat without drawing attention to yourself. You will get better at them with practice and hopefully be able to use them before you encounter turbulence and help avoid your mind racing and focusing on the turbulence.

Check out this site or google a few different ones til you find something you think will work for you. http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stre...relaxation.htm
You could maybe even see a counsellor who can teach you some of these techniques. Good luck and smooth flying!

This is exactly correct.

For the most part, turbulence is a service issue, not a safety of flight or danger to the aircraft issue. We avoid it because we know our passengers don't like it and it makes it more difficult for our flight attendants to do service.

Even when the turbulence gets very "rough," what we worry about is passengers and crew getting injured, not the aircraft being damaged. The last time I got into some "bad" turbulence, what's the first thing I did? I didn't check the instruments or look out the windows at the wings, I called the girls in the back to make sure they were okay.

Checko

There is far more "turbulence" tring to sleep in the back of the car on the way home from the airport than there is on the TATL flight.
The airport is LHR and the route home is the M4 which should explain the bumps for those familiar with it:D

Some of us even like turbulence.

I suspect this is because I have traveled a lot on trains and ships, but if a flight has no turbulence, I don't feel like I've really gone anywhere.

Most people I've told this to think I am pretty strange.

Like you, I hate flying in turbulence, even though it doesn't prevent me from flying. I know intellectually thet there's nothing to worry about and it's a normal part of flying but emotionally it still gets me. I find it helpful to look around at my fellow passengers and at the flight attendants and note how unperturbed they are. Doing this calms me down somewhat.

Strangely, my wife loves turbulence. She enjoys a bumpy ride. Go figure.

I fly an average of 75K miles a year and there are times I still do get startled by sudden turbulence. Normally I take a deep breath and just close my eyes if it gets really bad.

I hate turbulence, not out of any fear for the aircraft or anything, but simply because it makes me terribly nauseous. I just have to sit up and look ahead and chew some gum. ugh.

I find being otherwise distracted helps me - like watching a movie or playing a video game. I tend to notice the movement less. It definately still bothers me (i hate roller coasters - some people just feel the sensation of dropping more intensely then others).

I'm fully with you. I can't sleep on a totally still flight and find myself getting up more often.

As a child we went everywhere by ferry so 7-8 hr crossings in all weathers was the norm for us, I wouldnt say I love turbulence unless there is a good storm below to watch, everyone is pretty amazed it doesnt bother me, I was "grounded" by a 20 year fear of flying ,my fear was of not being able to breathe on a plane, nothing to do with turbulence or crashing so I am a lot better than the rest of the family in rough weather

I've had a strong dislike of turbulence since I started flying over 40 years ago, at first because I didn't understand it and now because I do. It takes some time to get over a complete fear of it, but here are a few tricks I've adopted over the years:

1. First and foremost, just keep reminding yourself: the pilots don't want to die, either! They know what the airplane's specified limits are, and they know the specified limits are much lower than the design limits. They will not knowingly fly into any area of severe or worse turbulence, and most will do their best to avoid even moderate turbulence.

2. Become familiar with the definitions of the various levels of turbulence. When your drink starts sliding across your tray table, or the captain has the flight attendants take their seats, you might be in moderate turbulence.

3. Open your air vent so you have at least a trickle of fresh (more or less) air blowing on you. This works wonders as a calming agent.

4. If you're flying on United, and the captain has made Channel 9 available, listen to it. Specifically, listen to the turbulence reports made by the various aircraft. I find it helps a lot to (a) know that it's not nearly as bad as it feels, and (b) what's coming up. In fact, I can tolerate a lot if I know it's coming -- roller coasters excluded!

This would be me. Every time I have flown to Australia, during the first meal service there is turbulence. And inevitably the pilot says, "time for our regularly scheduled turbulence. Meal service will resume in about 15 minutes".
Then I wait for that horrible "drop" because yes I feel like I am on a roller coaster and am dropping.......ugh.......I hate it......mostly because I hate roller coasters and that is exactly what turbulence reminds me of, I wish I could think of it as a bumpy road, but the first thing that jumps in my head is a bloody roller coaster.

AirFrance flight
 

Let me start by saying that I feel the same way as the OP - I hate turbulnce, and generally hate flying.

All the people who above said that turbulence is nothing to worry about probably failed to look in the news as to what happened to the airfrance flight that got down last week. The plane entered the area of severe turbulence, which most likely happened due to the storm.

So if you say bumpy ride in the clear blue skys - it is one thing. If you are taking off during rainy gloomy morning and you fly through the rainy dark clouds - its is another case of "bumpy road". And I do not beleive for a second that anything is safe while you are up in the air. And don't tell me about the car crashes and other statistics, I know it all, but none of it really helps my fear of flying.

To the pilots that might be reading this thread - it really helps nervous passengers to hear pilot speak - not only when we hit turbulence, but also periodically during flight. I would prefer pilot taking 10 seconds of his time and acknowledge that flight is going well, no issues, how much time left until we land, every hour and a half or so.

most everybody can name that one, can you name the airliner before that one that went down because of turbulence.

You can't even say for sure that was the cause. There have been numerous speculations and turbulence was only one. At this point, everything that has been said is merely speculation and cannot be proven. Most likely it was a combination of many things that brought down the AF flight.

I'm just not a fan of ignorance..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLM_Cityhopper_Flight_431

Midair breakup is possible due to severe conditions.

I'm exactly the same way. Chop and light turbulence knocks me out.

Well, yeah...but they flew into a freakin' tornado. I mean, looking at what one of those things does on the ground, you can imagine the forces at play in the air.

Thanks everybody!
 

I will spend some time on the links you've given to me and I will try some of the suggestions. I am forced to fly alot during the year so I'll get plenty of practice! I must say, I got a larger response than I ever imagined.
Thanks again and happy flying!
:)
Scott

Thank You l'etoile!!!!

Scott,

I'm like you and despise turbulence. In fact, I haven't flown in over 20 years due to my crippling fear of flying. One thing that's helped me, aside from all the fine folks here on FT, is a book I found at my local library called "The Fearless Flier's Handbook". It's written by Debbie Seaman. One of the many subjects she addresses in the book is turbulence and I actually feel much better about it now than I ever have before. Of course, I say that not having been on a plane in over 20 years. LOL! I leave next Friday for my trip. :)

What we are referring to isn't even severe turbulence, its considered extreme. Anytime anything enters conditions that are described as extreme, all bets are off. However, one needs to keep in mind that extreme turbulence pretty much means the aircraft is completely out of control, anything unsecured in the cabin is being violently tossed around, things are breaking, etc. Most pilots will never see this in their careers (mostly because we do our best to avoid anything that even looks like it could be that bad).

Furthermore, in my experience, turbulence is usually over reported. Take a look at the following descriptions (from the FAA) and think of how many times you were in what you thought might be severe, when in fact, it would only be moderate at best.


Light


Turbulence that momentarily causes slight, erratic changes in altitude and/or attitude (pitch, roll, yaw). Report as Light Turbulence;

or

Turbulence that causes slight, rapid and somewhat rhythmic bumpiness without appreciable changes in altitude or attitude. Report as Light Chop.


Occupants may feel a slight strain against seat belts or shoulder straps. Unsecured objects may be displaced slightly. Food service may be conducted and little or no difficulty is encountered in walking.

Moderate

Turbulence that is similar to Light Turbulence but of greater intensity. Changes in altitude and/or attitude occur but the aircraft remains in positive control at all times. It usually causes variations in indicated airspeed. Report as Moderate Turbulence;

or

Turbulence that is similar to Light Chop but of greater intensity. It causes rapid bumps or jolts without appreciable changes in aircraft altitude or attitude. Report as Moderate Chop.


Occupants feel definite strains against seat belts or shoulder straps. Unsecured objects are dislodged. Food service and walking are difficult.

Severe

Turbulence that causes large, abrupt changes in altitude and/or attitude. It usually causes large variations in indicated airspeed. Aircraft may be momentarily out of control. Report as Severe Turbulence.

Occupants are forced violently against seat belts or shoulder straps. Unsecured objects are tossed about. Food Service and walking are impossible.

Extreme

Turbulence in which the aircraft is violently tossed about and is practically impossible to control. It may cause structural damage. Report as Extreme Turbulence.

Severe turbulence will almost always been encountered inside areas of convective activity. So yes, I can point to an airliner that crashed because of flying into a severe thunderstorm and its associated severe turbulence and conditions, Southern Airways 242.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...ays_Flight_242

The crew did not understand the concept of radar attenuation, where the target is so dense (ie so much rain) that it absorbs most of the radar signal. On an radar screen this looks like a thin area and an attractive area to fly through when deviating around storms, when it actually is the worst place to be.

This is highly stressed during radar training and most radars have a setting that will display any areas that are being attenuated and thus the returns or lack there of in those areas cannot be trusted.

Checko

Just don't think about it and do something that attracts you, like listening music, watching movies etc...

Two things:

1. As I understand it, most turbulence is annoying. Only the most extreme is dangerous. I have flown into thunderstorms across oceans, been hit by lightening, and had the plane plummet. Although those are frightening for the passenger, the pilots seem to take it as part of the flight and it's forgotten before they land.

2. The fear/anxiety is from the motion. There is data to support that the abrupt changes in orientation affect the inner ear and that is the cause of the panic.

With these things in mind, you can feel safe flying and if alarmed remember that this can be a normal response. Some people enjoy riding a roller coaster because of the thrill of vestibular stimulation. Others may not, but that does not mean that the over stimulation is dangerous. It's best to distract yourself with other auditory input. I discovered how enjoyable the movie Top Gun was while on a coast to coast flight during the summer thunderstorm season.

Also, planes are very noisy and affect the auditory circuit, cause fatigue, and hence can overstimulate you. I find wearing ear plugs, headphones, or noise canceling earphones to be a big help.

I used to be terribly afraid of flying and now I find that I fall asleep before takeoff and then wake up after the plane has leveled off. No more tranquilizers for me through the use of understanding airplane safety, and how to combat the negative effects of overstimulating the inner ear.

^ The bumpy road analogy worked for me. Also, being on a boat skimming over waves helped...

I used to deal with it by assuming I would die and anything better than that was 'gravy'. :p It wasn't until my 'fear' in general was dealt with that I could fly without fear. I've actually enjoyed the 'bucking' of the plane and thought it reminded me of a horse.

However, once, turbulance hit while I was in the potty, and I was slammed against the wall right onto my cheekbone. Ouch.

Crossing Another Aircraft's Wake
 

I'm really not sure where to post this, but it's not airline related and it is turbulence related ...

Just the other day, I was on a short flight on a B737 in very good, calm conditions. Just when the FAs started to serve the snacks/drinks (as ever ;)), there was a one-off, very significant bump: it even caused the FAs to totter, regain their balance (though not that elegantly) and then start embarassed laughter.

A few minutes later, the captain came on the PA, apologised for the bump, and explained that this was caused by our plane going through the wake of another, smaller aircraft.

It makes perfect sense to me, actually, but I was rather intrigued: is this rare? I know there are FTers who fly a lot more than I do (even at least one poster in this thread who flies for a living); has anybody else had this experience? I would imagine that, air-lanes and flight levels being what they are, it shouldn't happen that often, but I could be wrong.

--Henry

I'm perpetually frightened when flying and putting anything in or on my ears to drown out noise makes me more anxious. It's like I am compelled to be vigilant and see/hear everything. I'm like a guard dog on duty :D

One thing that seems to quell my fears a bit is hearing the pilot speak and watching the FA's body language. It's weird and embarrassing though because it looks like I have a rod up my back sitting there rigid. When I'm particularly scared all I want to do is go sit up with the pilots and watch their faces.

Maybe every flight should have a pilot/passenger liaison person who comes out to tell everyone 'It's ok...Captain Jones is eating dinner and he doesn't look worried at all".

In 19 days I'm flying my first leg for 14.5 hours. God help me :(

I for one like mild to moderate turbulence. It relaxes me somehow. I have had plenty of TPAC flights in the jet-stream where there was continuous mild choppy turbulence for hours at a time. I like that allot. It it is soothing and rocks me to sleep. In all my years I only once encountered severe turbulence one time flying MNL-TPE around the parameter of a typhoon. The pilot apparently saw it coming and whereas EVA Air FA's and Taiwanese passengers in general are pretty lackadaisical about seat belt warnings this time apparently they got the message because the FA's very thoroughly locked down the cabin in advance and aggressively herded all the passengers back to their seats. A task akin to herding cats, in a 747 full of Taiwanese passengers. Then they all strapped in themselves. I can assure you there is turbulence and then there is turbulence and the 'bad' turbulence you typically encounter ain't nothing compared to what the plane can apparently readily take. After numerous extended gut wrenching roller coaster like drops where your stomach came up into your throat and it sure felt like the plane was falling out of the sky I counted 30 or 40 airsickness bags being deployed throughout the cabin but that was the extent of the damage. The pilot quickly descended 5,000 feet (controlled and purposeful) and then made a radical course change from where we had been approaching southern Taiwan from the east side of the island but then turned 90 deg and flew due west for a while and then continued up the west side of the island instead. After a few minutes all was well. No harm done, but I will never call 'ordinary' turbulence 'bad' again and 'ordinary bad" turbulence for sure ain't nothing to worry about.

Speed bump! :D :D :D I've experienced that at least three times that I can remember, all of them occurring out of the blue in otherwise calm conditions. I think it's going to get a bit more common as the skies continue to fill (with a possible reprieve during the current recession).

Great attitude
 

Great point.

Yes...you are a passenger.
You can't do anything about the turbulence.
Sit back, breath deeply and relax.
Close your eyes so that other people do not scare you. Put in earplugs firmly so that rattling coffee pots don't unnerve you. Let the fear escape.
Make a conscious effort to breath, breath, breath.
And you will arrive safely.

I love the comments of FTers who say 'a flight without turbulence is no flight at all.'

Remember the facts. Turbulence is NOT serious to the aircraft, and it is not losing control. Only one jetliner crash, in 1961, was directly attributed to turbulence. And that was a mountain sightseeing flight in a first generation passenger jet.

Although it FEELS like a lot of movement, the deviation for the aircraft is rarely more than 50ft. It feels worse because of the human inner ear and the way it precives motion.

Turbulence is like barfing...unpleasant as hell, but really not serious..from a technical/medical standpoint. It feels worse than it is.

The plane is not losing control and it is not going to break apart.