Do you ever freak out in the air?

I too have been flying all of my life. I started flight lessons in the early 70's as a teenager. That said, I started flying again last fall after taking a 20 year hiatus. I've been renting & most of the airplanes are very high time in comparison to my younger days. A 182 I rent has over 10,000 hours on it. A few times in rough air I've looked out at the wings & thought about the age of the airplane.
I'm picking up my own 182 next Tuesday. It has 4,400TT & I assisted in the annual so I got to look at all the internal parts of the airplane. I know I'll feel more at ease flying my own airplane that I maintain.
 
A friend described those situations as being "spooked". Never had the thought process go quite that far [funeral] but I have been spooked a few times. When I was a student on a short cross country I encountered some rather severe turbulence. It was all I could do to keep the 150 straight and level. Turned around and landed and began to rethink this flying hobby. Got over it and then had a few tough landings that "spooked" me. The bumps and thermals don't bother me as much as they used to. I remind myself that I fly for pleasure so I keep some conservative personal minimums. But yes, flying can have "spooky" moments.
 
labbadabba said:
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?
Click to expand...

I am firmly of the belief that anyone smart enough to understand the ramifications of their demise has had a moment or two like this. Maybe in the sky, maybe on the ground, maybe in the water. Sometimes reality sets in and you realize that if your worst case scenario happens, your goose is cooked. I think you get so gung ho and excited to be a pilot that your brain is too consumed doing that to think about the potential downsides. Then, you reach a point where your brain has a couple cycles to process the pitfalls and has an "oh crap" moment.

You're fine. The only way to fix that is to get more hours in the sky. :D
 
Never freaked in the air but the only time I get that pit in my stomach is while rock climbing and let my mind think "man if this harness or anchor point fails right about now I am F#@KED!"...which is weird cuz I don't have a fear of heights.

Although this thread reminds me of the other student my CFI was training at the same time as me and HE had to fire the student. He said the final straw was when on downwind about to turn base she just threw he hands up in the air an screamed "I CAN'T DO THIS". There was a lotta backstory as to why she should not be flying but that was the moment he knew he could not have his name on her ticket.
 
Last edited:
Closest I came was doing ifr training at night and flying the missed at a lower altitude than I usually fly VFR. I had a weird concern about running into a tower or the engine quitting with only wooded areas below. I just kept flying the plane though.
 
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.
Click to expand...

^This.

I had an oh sh*t! moment on a takeoff a few months ago when some unexpected gusts hit about 20 feet above the runway.
 
I don't know if "freak out" is the right term to use, but I can think of three things:

1. I struggled with motion sickness BIG TIME as a student pilot. That's more about your body freaking out than your brain, but it still wrecked the end of my first dozen or so lessons. You just can't function as a pilot while barfing.

2. Closely related to that, I had a couple of student solo flights on those hot, turbulent Texas afternoons where my palms would start to clam up and I'd death-grip the yoke, trying not to get queasy and feeling nervous on landings after all the bouncing around. My brain would freeze up a bit thinking and worrying about it — if just for a few seconds.

Even today, motion sickness is in the back of my mind when I hit turbulence. I haven't had a bit of trouble with it since getting my license two years ago. But there's still a sort of Pavlovian response when the plane starts to bounce around and for a split second all those thoughts of barf bags come flooding in. "What if I get sick? Is the autopilot ready to go? What will I tell the controllers?" Probably a good safety mechanism in my brain, I guess.

3. I do get nervous when I first get in the plane, but I think it's a healthy kind of nervous. It's a "did I miss anything in pre-flight" kind of nervous. And it usually goes away as soon as I start the engine. Just butterflies in my tummy, as Mom used to call it. And I hope it never goes away.
 
There is always a sense of apprehension. Ever so slightly which is healthy in my mind. Its like when I used to race motocross, if you stopped having fear its time to quit riding!
 
I'm only about 12 hours into training, so things will probably change as I get more experience. Pre-takeoff I'm pretty uptight, but once I'm in the air I'm too busy and concentrating too hard to be very nervous.

It's sort of similar to my years racing sports cars. Sitting on the grid waiting to roll out, and then on the pace lap, I was a nervous wreck. I never once drove a pace lap without wondering what in the world I was doing this for. But once the green flag dropped, I was totally focused on the job at hand and the willies faded away. The situation was intense but not tense, if that makes any sense. Racing was enjoyable; waiting to race was hell.
 
Mr. Subconcious is talking to you. . .wait and see if he gets more comfortable with experience. If he doesn't shut up about it eventually, maybe dirt bikes or sailing would better suit you. But give it some time.

Some "draining of aggression" is pretty common before flight, but if you're freakin' to the point of distraction while in flight, not so good. A little fear is OK, and an isolated incident is probably not a big deal.

Google "operant conditioning", too. You can train yourself to accept some fairly horrifying stuff, if you have the determination. . .
 
Early on, I never got anxious or had any fear when flying, but since I've had kids, I find myself getting a little more anxious at times. The anxiety isn't severe, but sometimes my heart rate gets up a bit and/or I might even get slightly shaky. For me, the feeling is like the jitters before a ballgame when the adrenaline starts to kick in. This usually happens when the air gets really bumpy or when I know I'm going to have a challenging landing coming up, particularly with gusty wind. It causes me to get really focused and ignore any distractions, so I guess it's just how my body reacts when things get a little more serious with precious cargo aboard. It comes and goes, no biggie.
 
Never freaked out but I did get startled one time. I was practicing a soft field takeoff and tried for the first time to combine it with a crosswind correction full lock. I was expecting to straighten the yoke right before my usual 50 knots rotation speed. Of course the plane actually lifted off the ground sooner while I still had full lock and it started to roll when I was as low to the ground as possible. I corrected quickly and avoided scraping the wing but it scared the crap out of me for a nanosecond!
 
I sometimes have little scares that cause minor anxiety attacks. Like when I flew with my wife, or especially only with my sons. If I felt an odd pain id go through the what ifs. What if it's a heart attack or stroke, how will my kids make it through.

But now that my wife is in pilot training those thoughts don't hit me as much.
 
After 40 years and 22K hours, I don't get too concerned with the flying aspect but my greatest fear is making the mistake just before retirement...the one that either causes the feds/or the company "experts" aka NURPS to come down on me and want to know why I said "sinking 700 feet instead of Sink 7"? The one where they have changed a sentence in an obscure manual that says "now you will look left before you look right! (Yes, guys, they do get that anal)
I fear my last flight being a airplane bender that would later be found to be my fault and my family having to live with that. I often say the old astronaut prayer of "Lord, please don't let me screw up".

Flying is fun, the feds and the zero ground speed committee have taken away the joy.
 
I have been flying my whole life, with two Uncles who were pilots, one of them managed an airport. I flew every chance I got. My Uncle knew everyone at the airport, so if you were a local pilot going for a local flight, chances are I was in the right seat.

Then I got my license and started flying on my own. I found I was seriously freaked out doing stalls. I couldn't get over the fear I would go into a spin. I was terrifying even though I'd done them many times with other pilots in the plane. I signed up for a 5 hour aerobatic course and it changed my life. I was no longer afraid of what might happen, if it happened I knew what to do. I enjoyed it so much I took 10 more hours of training in a Pitts.

I had a crash in my Luscombe a few years ago where I lost an engine shortly after takeoff. I was over trees and had nowhere to go. I pulled the nose up and stalled it into the trees and we slid down the trees hitting hard. I had another pilot in the plane with me. He was shaking and pretty upset. He was shocked that I was so calm. He told the FAA I calmly told him we were going to crash, to tighten his seatbelt, and that I was going to stall the plane. He wanted to know how I could be so calm during and after. During - I knew I had no options. Panic wasn't going to make anything better, I was done. On the ground looking at the wreckage - we were pretty busted up, but we lived. I knew it could have been much worse.
 
I guess after 28 years in law enforcement, 3500+ skydives, rock climbing, motorcycle riding, etc, it takes a bit to 'freak me out'.

Except spiders. Spiders freak me out
 
Some 40 years ago on one of my first solo flights, I returned to my uncontrolled home field on a Saturday morning to find the sky filled with traffic, as opposed to the usually empty pattern during my weekday lessons. I guess it was a panic attack. I had a grip on the throttle with one hand and the yoke with the other. Could not even reach for the microphone. I turned away from the airport to sort it out. Calculated how long I would live with the fuel I had. Gradually I relaxed and went back for a good landing. Never happened since.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I had a crash in my Luscombe a few years ago where I lost an engine shortly after takeoff. I was over trees and had nowhere to go. I pulled the nose up and stalled it into the trees and we slid down the trees hitting hard. I had another pilot in the plane with me. He was shaking and pretty upset. He was shocked that I was so calm. He told the FAA I calmly told him we were going to crash, to tighten his seatbelt, and that I was going to stall the plane. He wanted to know how I could be so calm during and after. During - I knew I had no options. Panic wasn't going to make anything better, I was done. On the ground looking at the wreckage - we were pretty busted up, but we lived. I knew it could have been much worse.
Click to expand...

Being a Luscombe driver myself, this is reassuring. Thanks for sharing. Just out of curiosity, did you aim for the treetops, or try to settle between several trees?
 
JCranford said:
I guess after 28 years in law enforcement, 3500+ skydives, rock climbing, motorcycle riding, etc, it takes a bit to 'freak me out'.

Except spiders. Spiders freak me out
Click to expand...

Noted. :)
 
N659HB said:
Being a Luscombe driver myself, this is reassuring. Thanks for sharing. Just out of curiosity, did you aim for the treetops, or try to settle between several trees?
Click to expand...
I didn't have much time to react. I aimed for the treetops, but basically slid down them, and bounced off and backwards at some point! For a 1946 design, the cabin held up and protected us well, but I didn't have shoulder harnesses and for that I paid the price of a broken ribs, busted face, etc. If you haven't seen them before, you can click here to see the full set of photos.

7770259280_a8dfcf0a4c_b.jpg
 
Wow! I do have harnesses, but I typically keep them loose. Perhaps I will resume tightening them before takeoff and loosen at a safe altitude. One concern I have is that the doors will deform in a crash and not open.
 
Once when I looked out over the south shore of Long Island on a hazy day, and my eyes mistook the haze for the water, or the water for the haze, basically my eye focus kept jumping around trying to figure out what the actual horizon was. It was only momentary (i just shifted my eyeline back to the land to remedy the problem), but made me realize how quickly spatial disorientation can happen and just HOW disorienting it is. It was shocking.
 
Had a Hornet in the cockpit on takeoff this morning. Pilot with me freaked. We found out why the POH should always be handy. I guess I can really call it a "Bugsmasher" now.
 
N659HB said:
Wow! I do have harnesses, but I typically keep them loose. Perhaps I will resume tightening them before takeoff and loosen at a safe altitude. One concern I have is that the doors will deform in a crash and not open.
Click to expand...
That's what I do. The panels aren't very soft and neither is the stick! The doors are pretty flimsy. As you can see in my pics, the frame deformed and the doors popped open. It was a total loss, but saved my bacon!
 
labbadabba said:
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.
Click to expand...
Seems like a regular kind of a panic attack. I had the same experiences while flying, although not triggered by low-level flight specifically. It's normal and working through it is what commercial pilots are paid to do. It happens in military flying too. I should note, however, that I do not recall any lingering after-effects. I've never heard of humans getting hooked up on hypercretine like they can with adrenaline. Although it could be possible, I suppose, for example if you're a mazochist.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I didn't have much time to react. I aimed for the treetops, but basically slid down them, and bounced off and backwards at some point! For a 1946 design, the cabin held up and protected us well, but I didn't have shoulder harnesses and for that I paid the price of a broken ribs, busted face, etc. If you haven't seen them before, you can click here to see the full set of photos.

7770259280_a8dfcf0a4c_b.jpg
Click to expand...


And then had to crawl over the cacti after the crash....:eek:
 
Lowflynjack said:
I didn't have much time to react. I aimed for the treetops, but basically slid down them, and bounced off and backwards at some point! For a 1946 design, the cabin held up and protected us well, but I didn't have shoulder harnesses and for that I paid the price of a broken ribs, busted face, etc. If you haven't seen them before, you can click here to see the full set of photos.
Click to expand...

That looks like it must have been a wicked landing. Did you count your blessings to have made it through the crash - only to curse at having to navigate the patch of cacti you dropped in on?

EDIT: Looks like @Zeldman beat me to it!
 
It happened to me during training. I was doing my long X/Country and I was about 3500 feet and it was slightly turbulent on a hot Florida day. All of a sudden I came a bit panicked and felt very overwhelmed. I remember wishing the plane had auto-pilot thinking I could set it for level flight, catch my breath, and finish the flight. I dealt with it, finished the flight. Never told a soul about it. Until now. Funny thing was it was clear VFR, gorgeous day.

Now I'll fly IFR through horrible weather getting bounced around and it just doesn't seem to bother me.
 
FlyingElvii said:
Had a Hornet in the cockpit on takeoff this morning. Pilot with me freaked. We found out why the POH should always be handy. I guess I can really call it a "Bugsmasher" now.
Click to expand...
Had this happen to me once as a student pilot. The pilot with me was my CFI and he definitely freaked, started flailing around wildly at the thing. My main fear was that he would get us both stung and neither of us would be in any shape to land the plane safely. He eventually killed it around the time I turned final. Whew.
 
MarcoDA40 said:
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.
Click to expand...
I departed in mountainous terrain in the dark exactly once. It was carefully planed on a route I was very familiar with and most importantly had checked the terrain clearance indications on two different databases, a Garmin and an Aspen. It was an early morning departure and I knew I'd have to circle the airport for terrain clearance before heading east. It was a sparsely populated area and I'd lose ground reference on about half the circle. When I had my terrain clearance altitude and turned east it was pure black, ground and sky were the same. That'll make ya think about the situation and trusting the altimeter and two magic boxes. I was very happy to see the first hint of sunrise about 45 minutes into the flight.
On the other hand I find it much easier to fly over the mountains as night is falling. With the site picture of terrain clearance along with being above the MEA I was quite comfortable cruising over the Front Range on the way into Denver as dusk turned to black. I wasn't so comfortable with Denver approach having me stay on a STAR that basically pointed my right at DEN instead of giving me early vectors around the north side and saving me 10 minutes. Maybe they thought they could sneak me through the conga line. I gave'em a hint when I wanted a turn but they had to wait...
 
I was nervous the first few times in IMC and the first time landing a passenger jet. However, I've only been truly unnerved once which happened last year.

Captain decided to take off in a severe thunderstorm with me in the back commuting. It freaked out everyone with enough sense that was sitting around me. I don't ever care to be in that situation again. It was like being inside a tumble drier. The flight attendants and a few commuters cornered the pilots after arrival.
 
My introduction to flying was with my father when I was probably around five or six. At that age, you just think dad can do anything, so I had a huge comfort zone.

Later when I was grown I flew with him, always him as pilot and it still was there but now because I knew he was a great pilot, even if he misplaced his glasses, or forgot some things, he knew how to fly.

Fast forward, many years. Last time I went up in dads Cessna 172 with him was one time in 2008 for a short fourty minute flight when I visited him. He passed in 2009 and I am very glad I got to fly with him again. I kind of feel like he's with me when I fly.

So in 2016, when I went up with my CFI, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was amazed at how comfortable and safe, and just plain good I felt when we took off. It was kind of like coming home. I didn't expect that.

So far it's been the same, but I have not had many hours flying, and I sure don't rule out that I might get that feeling when I solo or later on when I have my license and am flying or when something happens.

I do have that feeling that even if something bad happened there are things to do to make the best out of it, and one is not helpless even if the propeller falls off (as happened to a 79-year old Norwegian pilot a few weeks ago. He landed safely as he was a kilometer out from the airport. I tried telling my wife, and hope I was right, that you can glide better without the propeller than if the engine quits and it is still on) and there are options.

Tough talk while I am a student still though, eh? I know. Also know I'm just guessing at this point. Who knows? That feeling can come up on you even if you are not flying just driving a car, or walking, wherever. It's human.

I can imagine getting some sudden fright, flying someday. I hope it never happens, but if it does I hope I react as the OP did, let it go and just keep flying. I think I have a slight edge because of my upbringing, at least I hope so.
Airplanes feel safe to me, at this point. I can't describe the feeling, any words woud be hokey, or cliche, and not cover what it really feels like to me. But then again, look who I'm talking to, I bet 99% of you all know that feeling way more intimately than I do.

I don't even know what it is. Partially the connection to my past, but more. It's just so damned perfect to be up in the air, and leave the ground. I'm no bird, but it's just "right".

But no way to tell how I'd react in a tough situation at all. I'm open to that I'd feel a little freaked out.
 
Last edited:
N659HB said:
Wow! I do have harnesses, but I typically keep them loose. Perhaps I will resume tightening them before takeoff and loosen at a safe altitude. One concern I have is that the doors will deform in a crash and not open.
Click to expand...
You could pop the door open and cinch down the harness right before any off airport landing.
 
DrewG said:
That looks like it must have been a wicked landing. Did you count your blessings to have made it through the crash - only to curse at having to navigate the patch of cacti you dropped in on?

EDIT: Looks like @Zeldman beat me to it!
Click to expand...
When you hit the ground, taste blood, then smell fuel... a little cactus doesn't scare you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top