Do you ever freak out in the air?

labbadabba

labbadabba

Pattern Altitude
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labbadabba
Recently while flying under a Bravo shelf over a congested area on a rather bumpy convective afternoon, I looked out the window and down at the ground which seemed uncomfortably close and thought, man if something happens, I'm toast.

I immediately had this wave of fear and a pit formed in my stomach. I had visions of my kids at my funeral and all my relatives muttering to each other that they knew someday that flying little airplanes would get me killed.

I pushed passed that awful feeling and focused on flying the plane on what was a completely uneventful flight otherwise. I was fine afterwards but pit-in-the-stomach feeling lingered.

Anyone else ever have that happen?
 
Only time I had that was when I jumped out of an airplane. Lasted for a month.
 
On my first discovery flight I got sick and was a bit scared by some aspects.

Sucked it up the next week, bought some sea-bands just to be safe on bumpy days, and said that it'd been my dream too long to let something stupid like that stop me. Never had another issue and I no longer get airsickness either, even while getting my IFR, with all the bumps and sweating under the hood.

As for getting that pit in the stomach flying really low over a populated area, having your hair stand up a little in that situation is probably more normal then most would admit. Don't look down I guess :)
 
Altitude is safety. If something happens, you have longer to decide what to do and/or fix it. So climb. Most people don't like turbulence, even pilots get annoyed. Summer bumps are really common though. Fly below Va and tighten the gust lock and keep on truckin. About all you can do. You could land somewhere and take a breather.
 
nope. I was getting 'a little' bumped around last flight and I wasn't super thrilled with that, but no freakage. it just makes it harder to pee in a bottle.
 
I've been uncomfortable in the situation you described. Try replacing "visions" of funerals with "visuals" of making off airport landings, wings level, above stall speed until just just a second before impact and then walking away and and cashing the insurance check.
 
I've experienced light-headedness at high altitude which didn't exactly freak me out but made me aware of my limitations. I've also experienced a bit of trepidation doing the pre-flight on my plane numerous times. Yesterday I left the tower and the wind was at 5 knots so I decided to go do a few night landings in the pattern. When I got to the hangar the wind had increased to 15G20 and the temperature was still around 98. I taxied to the VOR check point and then back to the hangar. Didn't feel right.
 
I had a very uncomfortable few minutes at 8500 once during a solo XC as a student. I later realized I had had a near panic attack over the physiological effects of altitude, but at the time I was beginning to hyperventilate and was concerned enough to make a quick descent.

That's probably the closest I've ever come to freaking out in a plane. Never happened before or since, and I've been to somewhat higher altitudes.
 
I didn't freak out, but I did get a little nervous when we had a for-real engine failure on my third lesson. The harp music didn't bother me too much, but when the angels started singing I got a little edgy....

(BTW - I learned that CFIs have no sense of humor when you start singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" while they're handling an in-flight emergency.)
 
I get nervous on every flight. It's not a "sitting in a ball in the corner, rocking back and forth" kind of freaking out, but I never have been (and never will be?) completely comfortable with flying. On one hand I'm envious of the guys who don't think about the danger involved at all and wish I could be more like that. However, I also think that my anxiety helps to make me a little safer (at least that's what I tell myself). I'll give you small example of one thing I do because of this feeling...

I like to fly practice approaches into my local airport, typically using the RNAV approach so I can mess around with my GPS since it requires more button pressing familiarity compared to something like a VOR approach. The RNAV approach into 18 at my airport is flown at 1,900 AGL, and almost the entire approach is flown over trees and nothing but trees. When I'm flying the 18 approach I look down and I will admit I think about those trees down there and they don't seem very friendly to me. However, the terrain below the RNAV approach into 36 consists of a 14 mile lake (I fly a retract), along with pastures and farmland. So if I'm in the mood to fly approaches, I'll tend to favor practicing the 36 approach..just in case. I realize there's no guarantees in life, but if I can put the ball in my court without too much trouble I tend to do so.
 
Half Fast said:
(BTW - I learned that CFIs have no sense of humor when you start singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" while they're handling an in-flight emergency.)
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Lmao that's classic.


I had a few scares but nothing an off field landing wouldn't cure. But they were a couple scary ordeals. I never give up so it wasn't a feeling of I'm gonna die, more like this chit is gonna hurt!! Or... how could you be so stupid lol...
 
No. Not even when we lost power in the clouds over the Rocky Mountains. Just too busy trying to get down alive. After we landed, of course, a whole 'nother story!
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I recently had a freaked out second or two... flying under class b... I looked at my gps and I was in the "to the surface" ring... :eek:... Then I realized it was just the Zoom level on the gps that made it look that way... Scared kinda-freaked? Never... (yet)
 
I use to get a little nervous before a flight sometimes, but that would go away the moment the engine started. Haven't had that feeling in a while.
 
I always feel a hair nervous before a flight. Maybe not even fear, but some sort of anticipation.

Once the engine is started up that all goes away. Too busy managing tasks and flying to be worried.
 
I haven't had a "freak out" but a few times I'm flying along and I have this weird feeling that hits and i realize "woah I'm piloting an airplane by myself"
 
fiveoboy01 said:
I always feel a hair nervous before a flight. Maybe not even fear, but some sort of anticipation.

Once the engine is started up that all goes away. Too busy managing tasks and flying to be worried.
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I can concur with this, especially early on. The more experience and time you get the freakout factor will fade.
 
Closest I've ever come to freaking aviation wise was dealing with paperwork, not air work
 
Ryan, (and anyone else who cares to answer) how many hours did you have before that happened?

My CFI (a 24 year old kid) used to laugh at me when I'd tell him I was nervous about something (hearing an airframe or engine noise, seeing a gauge flutter, etc) but then I realized that he is single, doesn't know anything mechanical about the airplane (should have seen him trying to change the oil and safety wire the filter on his plane) and he has that "I'm an invincible guy" attitude.
 
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I have never freaked out. It's weird because I get this gut feeling similar to what others described (before maybe every 3rd-4th flight) that is trying to dissuade me from flying, like something bad will happen. And then if the next person flew the plane it crashed, I'd be telling the whole world how I knew something bad was coming. But if I listened to my gut I'd have a lot of depressing drives home from the airport.

Even when I had my one and only true emergency at 600 feet over water (within glide to the beach) just coming out from under the JFK Bravo shelf and one of my pistons cracked, I never panicked or freaked out. I lost 500-600 RPM, the plane started shaking violently, I could barely maintain altitude at full power, and I had my 12 year old daughter with me. But I was cool and collected and just did a 20-30* turn 180 and started heading back. When I landed and exited the airplane, my knees were visibly shaking and very wobbly, but I felt a high that I can't describe (kind of like dodging a bullet and also I think that I had proven to myself that I'm a real pilot).
 
I'd say preflight nervousness would go away when I was flying regularly, a couple times a month. Now that I have a plane and am flying many hours a month, haven't been nervous in a while. Quite windy before takeoff the other day, and my wife was a little nervous, but I felt more confident now that I'm flying it a bunch.
 
I sometime contemplate the what ifs on the ground but when I climb in the plane I am focused on flying and the realization that I am one of the lucky ones that gets to do this.
 
Never "freaked out" while in the air, but maybe semi-freaked a few times after I was on the ground, contemplating something that had happened during the flight. For example, when the engine sputtered briefly, a sorta close call with an unannounced plane in the pattern, or a bad decision I made that could've conceivably bit me.
 
Sometimes at night, right base to final north end of DTO, I get the heebee jeebees. It is very black and I get to thinking "I really hope the ground is as far away as the altimeter is telling me it is." Not a freakout by any means but a feeling that is really off putting and unpleasant thoughts creep into my head.
 
ETres said:
Never "freaked out" while in the air, but maybe semi-freaked a few times after I was on the ground, contemplating something that had happened during the flight. For example, when the engine sputtered briefly, a sorta close call with an unannounced plane in the pattern, or a bad decision I made that could've conceivably bit me.
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This for sure. Post postmortems after 2 close calls were almost enough to make me knock off this silly flying business.
 
I guess freak out is a little strong. There was no wailing or gnashing of teeth. I just had a moment of fear while contemplating my own mortality, I just happened to be in the air when it happened.

Just one of those times where I realized that was trusting a rented machine with my life. Yes, getting in a car poses many of the same risks but seeing the ground below with no options put the thought in my head. Not a usual thing for me, just a moment of spooky.
 
Freaked out, never. Anxious, you bet. Before flight, always. After flight, sometimes. During flight, never.
 
I'm more relaxed in the air, if anything. I've been flying GA all my life, so that might have something to do with it.
 
Freaked out, no. Anxious or mad, yes.

Sometimes that anxiety or anger is at the arbitrary requirement to fly below an imaginary wedding cake of airspace instead of picking a safer altitude for being over a densely populated area, especially since it highlights that other airplane occupant's safety is above my own per FAA, anyway. Heh.

Are we having THAT discussion? :)

Probably not. Anyway...

I'll agree with those who've said they get a little weirded out by the black hole stuff at night. Mostly just because you know you'd better be on the instruments and not attempting to keep it upright by looking at one or two farmhouse lights in a sea of black.

Also do get a bit nervous in a single over a city at night when looking for a reasonable place to land it when the engine quits. Not much down there that is going to work... In daytime at least you can see the golf courses... Which is of course why they installed those, right? Nobody plays that silly game, seriously, do they? ;)
 
labbadabba said:
Just one of those times where I realized that was trusting a rented machine with my life.
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I've had those thoughts, usually only on waaaay long XC's where I have too much time to think. I'll start thinking huh, I wonder if wings ever just spontaneously snap off of planes. (of course I know the answer is no) but with that much time to think, it crosses your mind.
 
Timbeck2 said:
Ryan, (and anyone else who cares to answer) how many hours did you have before that happened?
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Not sure how many hours I had, it just got better after flying solo and flying other people around. Once you start to gain some experience your confidence in flying the aircraft gets better and you start to not worry about those "what-ifs" as much. Feeling confident in your abilities and keeping your ADM sharp are important. Never had a "freak out" while in the air, but there have been a couple uneasy moments.
 
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Meltdown in the plane? No. Mental freak-out, thinking I could possibly die, heart beating so fast that it felt like my jugular could explode but cant let my passenger know or else she would never fly with me again/she would actually have a meltdown? yes.
I was a pretty new PPL with about 75-80hrs under my belt, and I traveled to KAVL one night. Forecast was a bit windy with a reported FEW080. Highest I needed to climb to clear the mountains was 7,500ft heading east. Fueled up and preflight, called ATIS and its still reporting FEW080, high winds but almost aligned with the runway so I figured a non-event departure.
We takeoff, turn crosswind, downwind then depart the downwind.. At about 3,500-4,000ft AGL BAM city lights disappear, I can see my prop in slow motion, the strobes just lighting everything up around me and I coulndnt see a thing outside.. I WAS IN A CLOUD LEAVING ASHEVILLE VFR!!!
I instantly stopped looking out the window and maintained Vy and the wings stabilized.. I couldnt believe what was happening.. It wasnt reported.. the lowest clouds were reported at 8000ft. I didnt know what to do.. Most would say do a 180 but I was leaving a mountainous terrain. Instantly but "calmly" asked my passanger (somewhat familiar with basic functions of G1000) to pull up the terrain.. I was in good shape as far as terrain clearance which did make me feel a bit better but that meant chit since I was still IMC at night. I didnt think "oh its just a cloud" I thought "something unforcasted happened, wide-spread IMC.. rain, ice??".. just bad scenarios running through my head.
The whole ordeal lasted less than 1 minute.. maybe 45 seconds but my god it felt like 1 hour. I was too scared to fly at night for a while, fearing a repeat scenario.. On the car ride home that night, I questioned my love for flying.. then the following days it just made me want my IR even more. I didnt fly at night for a few months and then the "fear" sorta faded.. I havent had anything like that happen again and about half of my flying is done at night.
 
I was gonna say no... but then remembered that time I forgot to take the Pitot tube cover off. Would you believe that ASI was pretty believable until descending on final when I apparently quickly went below stall speed!!! Now that was an oh **** moment. I looked out the side glass and said to myself... Hell I know I'm moving faster than 30 knots!!! I of course added power and did a go around to calm myself. During the Go around I developed a pretty good idea of what had happened. I then made an uneventful landing on the next pass, albeit a little fast.
 
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