Fear of Flying

Don't know if it'll help anyone but many years ago I went on a BA Flying with Confidence course. I'd got to the point where my fear was messing with my career and home life. I was sceptical that a one day course would achieve anything but I thought it was worth a go.

It was excellent. I ended up becoming a very frequent flyer for work and on more than one occasion over the years found myself helping passengers next to me get through some uncomfortable flights (pretty much all of which were uncomfortable rather than dangerous).

Don't know if the format is the same but I know they still run the course regularly and I think they're not the only airline.
 
Pubteam Lomas said:
It's not flying you need to worry about; It's crashing!!!!

I remember my first long haul flight and I was a little nervous.
This lad says, 'sit at the back'.
I said, 'why?'

His reply: "Planes don't tend to back into mountains!!!"
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A certain Uruguayan rugby team says sit in the middle!
 
Flown a lot and never bothered me until I sat in the cockpit of a big plane landing on a little Greek island.
The pilots couldn't find the airport and when they did they turned hard and headed down. Every fucking alarm seemed to go off at once.
 
BlueNomad said:
The U.S. has the safest airspace in the world, and the supposed ATC shortage is only brought up when someone makes a mistake…do they blame staffing.

I have NEVER given it a second thought and while the system can get strained during periods of bad weather, it ALL boils down to individuals doing what they have been trained to do…just like engineers, doctors, nurses, teachers, dentists, etc… These are all professionals who have zero desire to not to a great job!
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There is a shortage of ATC worldwide. The UK is probably 10-20% short and has been ever since I joined in 1979. As a union, we were forever bailing management out to make the system work with minimal impact on the customer. Voluntary overtime became the norm over the years and we fought and succeeded in making sure it remained voluntary.

I wouldn't agree that the US system is the safest, in fact far from it. It relies heavily on the weather being good to make their biggest airports operate to capacity but when the weather is poor capacity falls significantly, as it does here but not to the same degree.

The 2 recent crashes at Washington and La Guardia highlighted major deficiencies in some of the US procedures. Neither of these crashes would have happened in the UK without the controller being negligent as the UK would never have allowed what were the root causes.

No system is 100% safe, but the UK is well towards the top. Some of Europe, not so much, and the US in that same lesser category.
 
hampshireblue said:
There is a shortage of ATC worldwide. The UK is probably 10-20% short and has been ever since I joined in 1979. As a union, we were forever bailing management out to make the system work with minimal impact on the customer. Voluntary overtime became the norm over the years and we fought and succeeded in making sure it remained voluntary.

I wouldn't agree that the US system is the safest, in fact far from it. It relies heavily on the weather being good to make their biggest airports operate to capacity but when the weather is poor capacity falls significantly, as it does here but not to the same degree.

The 2 recent crashes at Washington and La Guardia highlighted major deficiencies in some of the US procedures. Neither of these crashes would have happened in the UK without the controller being negligent as the UK would never have allowed what were the root causes.

No system is 100% safe, but the UK is well towards the top. Some of Europe, not so much, and the US in that same lesser category.
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It’s also concerning how many crashes the US have had historically compared to UK, even adjusting for total number of flights. UK must be doing something right in terms of safety.
 
We were returning on a TUI flight from Rhodes during a relaxation in COVID and the world was a bit of a scary place as you'll all remember at the time.

As the plane made UK airspace the Captain came on the radio and started talking about how uncertain things were, I've been a pilot for X years, it's not what it was,this is my final ever flight ect really depressing stuff.

I'm happy enough flying but not helped by a long pause....I thought he was going to down us & with doors sealed doors to the cockpit we were fucked......until he said he was retiring that night.

This probably hasn't helped anyone in the thread but, a few in the plane were looking a bit white while he was talking.

Sorry.
 
hampshireblue said:
There is a shortage of ATC worldwide. The UK is probably 10-20% short and has been ever since I joined in 1979. As a union, we were forever bailing management out to make the system work with minimal impact on the customer. Voluntary overtime became the norm over the years and we fought and succeeded in making sure it remained voluntary.

I wouldn't agree that the US system is the safest, in fact far from it. It relies heavily on the weather being good to make their biggest airports operate to capacity but when the weather is poor capacity falls significantly, as it does here but not to the same degree.

The 2 recent crashes at Washington and La Guardia highlighted major deficiencies in some of the US procedures. Neither of these crashes would have happened in the UK without the controller being negligent as the UK would never have allowed what were the root causes.

No system is 100% safe, but the UK is well towards the top. Some of Europe, not so much, and the US in that same lesser category.
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I appreciate you fighting your corner. ;-)

I’ll put Chicago controllers up against all comers.

I do like UK controllers. They’re VERY professional.

Lastly, we run upto 120/hr arrivals in visual conditions, on multiple runways (3 at a time!) but that obviously has to drop during IFR arrivals. Throw in that your “severe weather,” while often very windy, rarely has the massive continental thunderstorms fueled by warm Gulf waters that blow up across the Plains and the deep lows that create Nor’Easters.

I travel through EGTT regularly and it’s better than LFFF, LECM, LECB COMBINED, but I think the airspace density also plays a big part. Eurocontrol is very dense, esp with the military airspace we seem to be avoiding all the time.

Chapeau to all who keep us safe from their green screen. It is GREATLY appreciated, and ANY job that highlights the very few mistakes made only serves to show just how good they do their job!

Tailwinds.
 
BlueNomad said:
I appreciate you fighting your corner. ;-)

I’ll put Chicago controllers up against all comers.

I do like UK controllers. They’re VERY professional.

Lastly, we run upto 120/hr arrivals in visual conditions, on multiple runways (3 at a time!) but that obviously has to drop during IFR arrivals. Throw in that your “severe weather,” while often very windy, rarely has the massive continental thunderstorms fueled by warm Gulf waters that blow up across the Plains and the deep lows that create Nor’Easters.

I travel through EGTT regularly and it’s better than LFFF, LECM, LECB COMBINED, but I think the airspace density also plays a big part. Eurocontrol is very dense, esp with the military airspace we seem to be avoiding all the time.

Chapeau to all who keep us safe from their green screen. It is GREATLY appreciated, and ANY job that highlights the very few mistakes made only serves to show just how good they do their job!

Tailwinds.
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Good post and nothing against Hampshire but the weather conditions across the US are vastly different to what the UK experiences. I personally feel very safe flying with any British carrier or any US. One thing you don’t have to deal with on US flights is chavs and duty free:)
 
BlueNomad said:
I appreciate you fighting your corner. ;-)

I’ll put Chicago controllers up against all comers.

I do like UK controllers. They’re VERY professional.

Lastly, we run upto 120/hr arrivals in visual conditions, on multiple runways (3 at a time!) but that obviously has to drop during IFR arrivals. Throw in that your “severe weather,” while often very windy, rarely has the massive continental thunderstorms fueled by warm Gulf waters that blow up across the Plains and the deep lows that create Nor’Easters.

I travel through EGTT regularly and it’s better than LFFF, LECM, LECB COMBINED, but I think the airspace density also plays a big part. Eurocontrol is very dense, esp with the military airspace we seem to be avoiding all the time.

Chapeau to all who keep us safe from their green screen. It is GREATLY appreciated, and ANY job that highlights the very few mistakes made only serves to show just how good they do their job!

Tailwinds.
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Can you explain whatever you wrote here in simple terms for thick cunts like me ;)?
 
It was that BA Manchester airport fire all the those years ago before I'd even taken a flight that put me off.

I don't really have a fear of hitting the ground at 500mph but being burned to death whilst being trapped in a tin can terrifies me.

Anyway stella fixed it.
 
roy.or.r said:
Can you explain whatever you wrote here in simple terms for thick cunts like me ;)?
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Not for one second do I think you’re thick, but there was some “inside info” talk there, so my apologies!

US storms: Bad, occasionally biblical
UK storms: Bit windy every now and then

US Major airports: V. high density of flights
UK major airports: Bit busy every now & then
e.g.
Chicago: 8 runways, at least 5 active at once
Heathrow: 2 runways
Manchester: 2 runways

US airspace: Big, only busy near hubs
UK airspace: Small, so feels very busy

Flight across UK to Barcelona
EGTT- London Control
LFFF - Brest Control (France)
LECM - Madrid Control (W. Spain)
LECB - Barcelona Control (E. Spain)

In many ways, all the same, but in some ways, very different! It’s the spice of life!

;-)
 
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BlueNomad said:
I appreciate you fighting your corner. ;-)

I’ll put Chicago controllers up against all comers.

I do like UK controllers. They’re VERY professional.

Lastly, we run upto 120/hr arrivals in visual conditions, on multiple runways (3 at a time!) but that obviously has to drop during IFR arrivals. Throw in that your “severe weather,” while often very windy, rarely has the massive continental thunderstorms fueled by warm Gulf waters that blow up across the Plains and the deep lows that create Nor’Easters.

I travel through EGTT regularly and it’s better than LFFF, LECM, LECB COMBINED, but I think the airspace density also plays a big part. Eurocontrol is very dense, esp with the military airspace we seem to be avoiding all the time.

Chapeau to all who keep us safe from their green screen. It is GREATLY appreciated, and ANY job that highlights the very few mistakes made only serves to show just how good they do their job!

Tailwinds.
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Hiya. Good that two ex pupils 2 years apart from the same school in Ashton who don't each other apart form on here can have an input on such a niche subject.

We are very constrained in the UK regarding runway capacity but in particular airspace. As you say, there is lots of military activity and large areas of the airspace are often "no go" as far as the civil controllers are concerned. when bad en-route weather does occur, mainly in the summer, whole sectors ( which are smaller than the US) can be affected and unlike the US there is often no way around the bad weather without putting on stringent regulations. I agree that the KORD operation is very slick, and needs to be but the infrastructure is there and is used efficiently.

The procedures we wouldn't have that I referred to is a helicopter route flying under an approach by only a 10ft or so. Also there seems to be a propensity for absolutely parallel approaches at many places when it would be far more sensible, and safe to stagger them if only by a half mile or so. KPHX had 2 TCAS events recently, both avoidable, as did KJFK.

It's fair to say that both sides of the pond can learn stuff from each other and the UK union and NATCA worked closely together, attending each other's conference every year.

As always, stay safe.

PS.sorry to others for the acronyms-airports in this case.
 
I hate flying.

But love holidays.

For my 40th we decided to book an all singing all dancing affair to Mexico but I was dreading it because of the flight.

In the end I decided to go to a hypnotist ahead of the flight to see if she could help me.

I’m still frightened but one thing she said that stuck with me is that statistically you are more likely to be killed by a donkey kicking you in the head
 
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