Perceived aviation by age...?

[Mtns2Skies]

Cajun Flyer's post brought up a question.

Is fear of flying an age thing or a generational thing?

From co-workers my age 20-30, they are all VERY supportive of my flying and ask for rides almost endlessly. I notice that those my parent's age ~50's are very fearful of aviation and I get the typical negative responses of not understanding and death being imminent. - Luckily my parents are very supportive.

Now do you think as people get older they get more fearful? or is it the generation that is afraid of aviation?

 

[James331]

Think it more has to do with education and intelligence level.

 

[steingar]

Might be something to it. Got my brothers to fly, but never my ma. Old folks tend to be a little more risk-averse than younger ones in general. I think the ones who aren't risk averse are also dead by the time they get to that point.

 

[Everskyward]

My older relative were pretty divided. My mom, my aunt, my uncle, my stepfather, all went flying with me. They were in their 60s at the time. Those who were a little bit older (80s?), were not so enthused.

Nowadays I sometimes meet people much younger than myself who express fear of small airplanes. The weird part is watching people's surprise when they find out. I think surprise is the most common reaction.

 

[cowman]

Most people of all ages I run into just think it's neat. I never really sought support or approval from anyone but my wife though.

 

[petrolero]

Think it more has to do with education and intelligence level.

I don't. Educated people tend to think they know as much about everything as they do about their field of specialty. Many educated people have a hard time realistically assessing what they don't know.

As we get older (I'm 44) we are willing to take fewer risks because the cost of failure increases. We also don't have that youthful need to do everything that seems "epic" because we're not trying to impress women any longer. So we pick our "epic" adventures based on personal interests.

The older people get, the more time they've had to hear all the bad anecdotes about GA but almost none of them have thought past a headline or two.

 

[James331]

Just think when people move beyond everything outside of a basic wheel or engine is ether powered by God or witch craft the fear subsides.

Something along the lines of the things we don't understand we fear

 

[jordane93]

I've met older people who were scared of flying and younger people who where scared of flying.

 

[Norman]

Not age related at all. It's simply an unfounded fear some people have. I like flying but I can't stand to be on tall ladders. Go figure.

 

[jaymark6655]

I don't think its an age thing; my dad not scared, my mom is. I love it, a coworker who is the same age as I, similar background growing up and military service (we both worked on aircraft) said I am not even allowed to fly over his house. One grandfather wanted to take lessons and never did, his wife is worried that I fly. All of my younger cousins seem to think its awesome and want to fly with me, want to learn how to or are currently in a school.

 

[Run-Around]

This is an interesting thread.

I have an unusual situation in my family. My mom is frightened of anything aviation related but my dad loves flying. I'm not suggesting this is common, but I think in my case it's hereditary. My mom's whole side of the family would prefer to take Amtrak or drive. My dad's whole side of the family loves to fly (including my grandparents who are both approaching 90). This despite my dad's line losing a relative in a commercial aircraft accident a while back.

You can probably guess which side I ended up on...

 

[Everskyward]

This is an interesting thread.

I have an unusual situation in my family. My mom is frightened of anything aviation related but my dad loves flying. I'm not suggesting this is common, but I think in my case it's hereditary. My mom's whole side of the family would prefer to take Amtrak or drive. My dad's whole side of the family loves to fly (including my grandparents who are both approaching 90). This despite my dad's line losing a relative in a commercial aircraft accident a while back.

You can probably guess which side I ended up on...

I think part of your personality is due to heredity or a biological factor, and the other part is due to what you have grown up around or other life experiences. Both these factors could work to created similarities within families. Then again, my father was pretty adventurous but his mother was afraid of everything.

 

[Yeti Niner Five]

I think a person's stage in life plays a role. Once the kids showed up, I became much more aware of my mortality. I suspect that there are other situations that could have a similar effect.

But mostly, I think it's just the person's perspective on life. You have both ends of the spectrum...the person that take no risks to extend life as long as possible, but never really lives it, and the person that takes every chance to get the absolute most out of the time they have. Most of us move somewhere between the two depending on the circumstances around us at the time.

 

[Shepherd]

Dad was a pilot, Mom HATED airplanes.
I'm a pilot, my brother and sister don't care about airplanes (as opposed to hating them). My brother flies with me once every 50 years, my sister never has.
My wife is not thrilled with little airplanes. She does fly with a me a couple times a year.
With my kids, none have any interest in flying.
One of my five grandchildren is crazy about flying.

I don't think it's an age thing or a generational thing, I think is a genetic thing.
You have the gene or you don't.
Or maybe it's brain damage. You could make a good case that pilots all have brain damage.

 

[Bill Watson]

Just think when people move beyond everything outside of a basic wheel or engine is either powered by God or witchcraft the fear subsides.

Something along the lines of the things we don't understand we fear

Yeah, ignorance is fear, familiarity is comfort.

Too bad more people don't fly, thank goodness more people don't fly.

 

[RotorDude]

Dad was a pilot, Mom HATED airplanes.
I'm a pilot, my brother and sister don't care about airplanes (as opposed to hating them). My brother flies with me once every 50 years, my sister never has.
My wife is not thrilled with little airplanes. She does fly with a me a couple times a year.
With my kids, none have any interest in flying.
One of my five grandchildren is crazy about flying.

I don't think it's an age thing or a generational thing, I think is a genetic thing.
You have the gene or you don't.
Or maybe it's brain damage. You could make a good case that pilots all have brain damage.

I concur, based on my own experiences. Some are born to crawl on the surface, others to soar above it. I think society needs both kinds (someone has to mind the store!). :wink2:

 

[Zeldman]

Not age related at all. It's simply an unfounded fear some people have. I like flying but I can't stand to be on tall ladders. Go figure.

That may be a fear of falling. I can't stand to be near a window or on the roof of very tall buildings and then look down. I had a student that was a shrink that figured out I didn't have a fear of heights but a fear of falling instead. I feel secure and have no fear of falling out of a plane, but I fear falling off the roof.

 

[James331]

That may be a fear of falling. I can't stand to be near a window or on the roof of very tall buildings and then look down. I had a student that was a shrink that figured out I didn't have a fear of heights but a fear of falling instead. I feel secure and have no fear of falling out of a plane, but I fear falling off the roof.

Knew a tandem instructor who didn't like heights but had no problem when he was in free fall or under canopy. Funny how things like that go.

 

[GRG55]

...Now do you think as people get older they get more fearful? or is it the generation that is afraid of aviation?

Older people remember propeller airplanes like the Connie and DC-6. Flying in a jet they can't see what keeps the airplane in the air. Can you blame them for being fearful :wink2:

 

[Everskyward]

Older people remember propeller airplanes like the Connie and DC-6. Flying in a jet they can't see what keeps the airplane in the air. Can you blame them for being fearful :wink2:

Older people probably also remember when airliners crashed with much greater frequency.

 

[James331]

Older people remember propeller airplanes like the Connie and DC-6. Flying in a jet they can't see what keeps the airplane in the air. Can you blame them for being fearful :wink2:

Same things that kept DC-6s in the air keep 787s in the air, paperwork and money

 

[GRG55]

Older people probably also remember when airliners crashed with much greater frequency.

A couple of decades ago I found a first edition of Ernest Gann's 'Fate is the Hunter" in the flea market at OSH. Reading that should be enough to put most anybody off flying...

 

[denverpilot]

That may be a fear of falling. I can't stand to be near a window or on the roof of very tall buildings and then look down. I had a student that was a shrink that figured out I didn't have a fear of heights but a fear of falling instead. I feel secure and have no fear of falling out of a plane, but I fear falling off the roof.

I'm pretty much right there... I can do ladders and climb radio towers (with appropriate safety gear) but I usually end up waking up in a panic at least one night thereafter with the feeling that I was falling.

Especially if the tower climb was difficult... windy, had to go all the way out on a cross-arm while figuring out how to tether off with the safety gear properly -- you're GOING to fall if you miss a step out there, the safety gear is to catch you falling and arrest you relatively gently with anti-shock materials via a d-ring in the center of your back -- or I had a mis-step and caught myself with arms/other leg at all during the climb.

(Haven't had a "real" test of the safety harness yet, and I hope never to... but maybe a forced use of one -- the shock arrest is destroyed in a single use, so I'd have to sacrifice one of them -- done somewhere, somehow, safely, would get me "over it".)

Not my favorite way to wake up, honestly... but I've gotten used to it, knowing it's likely to happen.

Sub-conscious mind attempting to deal with something it doesn't like... that I went and did anyway.

For a guy who likes putting up radio antennas, this annoying fear of falling off of roofs and towers sure can slow me down... I watch some of our climbing guys who have zero fear, and then just chuckle and tell them I'll be along in a minute... I always climb attached, and just do it "correctly"... even though they're up the tower in 20 seconds and I'll be there in about three minutes.

One piece of "kit" another climber gave me that I like, is a seated position Y-lanyard that's made of actual chain link. It's not OSHA approved, but if I have to work in my harness in a seated position I like it a whole lot more than my other lanyards for attaching at the waist d-ring positions. It just feels more sturdy and like it's not going anywhere.

You won't catch me doing any tower work in an old school lineman's belt -- not OSHA approved anymore either, but lots of folks used them and climbed in them for decades -- that many still have and use. Don't really relish the idea of hanging from one of those. My full-body climbing harness suits me just fine.

 

[Cajun_Flyer]

As I said in my thread, I've gotten no shortage of negative remarks from people. Some more lighthearted than others, but some just flat out rude (mostly centered around the fact that I have the audacity to also be a mom). Regarding the question of age of those making such comments - I actually find gender to be a stronger indicator about how people feel regarding aviation. Most of the negative comments I've gotten have sadly come from other women. The ones that come from men... actually, those mostly seem to be from smart@ss young guys joking about me dying or about how they'll be the first responders when my plane goes down (I work in public safety). As for the women - it's primarily women ages 50+ who just can't imagine why I'm not 100% content simply tending house, husband and kids all day/night. It's bad enough I abandon my family to work, let alone risk my life flying those silly airplanes! :/ Younger women mostly seem fascinated by me flying and I really haven't gotten any bad comments from them.

 

[JB1842]

My one regret was not being able to take my grandfather up with me before he passed. My grandma made him stop flying after they got married. He took me on my first roller coaster, so I know he would have been all for going up with me. My mom wants me to take her up next time she visits; my dad doesn't like to fly in anything.

 

[bflynn]

Cajun Flyer's post brought up a question.

Is fear of flying an age thing or a generational thing?

From co-workers my age 20-30, they are all VERY supportive of my flying and ask for rides almost endlessly. I notice that those my parent's age ~50's are very fearful of aviation and I get the typical negative responses of not understanding and death being imminent. - Luckily my parents are very supportive.

Now do you think as people get older they get more fearful? or is it the generation that is afraid of aviation?

I don't think age has anything to do with it. My 83 year old father in law is ready to jump into a plane anytime, given that he really can't jump anymore. And I know a 20 year old who views flying as an unpleasant way to get from point A to point B.

I think life view has more to do with it than anything else. Many people limit themselves and then want to limit others the same way. "I can't" becomes "You shouldn't either" and eventually "You aren't allowed". Of course they could too, they just can't get outside their thinking to believe that it is possible. I've had way too many people tell me they could never fly an airplane, even after I've explained that the airplane does all the flying, all a pilot really does is nudge it a little in one direction or another.

It might be that you're surrounded by people who have a life view where they believe that anything is possible where the older people in your life are disillusioned...I don't know your situation, just posing a possibility.

 

[N3368K]

I was already a pilot when I met my future wife. While had ridden with me in my Swift, once while dating, after we got engaged, we somehow got into a disagreement over my flying for some reason. I told her she should never ask me to choose between her and flying because she likely wouldn't like the answer.

We've been married almost 27 years now. She still doesn't care for flying. She gets motion sickness very easily. She has flown at least once in the different planes I've owned over the years, except the RV-4. If I really twist her arms, she prefers the Cub on a nice spring day. She is warming up to the RV though as a 3.5 hour drive to Birmingham is 60 minute t/o to touchdown. I've flown down a few times for lunch with our daughter while she was out shopping.


This space intentional left blank.

 

[Everskyward]

As I said in my thread, I've gotten no shortage of negative remarks from people. Some more lighthearted than others, but some just flat out rude (mostly centered around the fact that I have the audacity to also be a mom). Regarding the question of age of those making such comments - I actually find gender to be a stronger indicator about how people feel regarding aviation. Most of the negative comments I've gotten have sadly come from other women. The ones that come from men... actually, those mostly seem to be from smart@ss young guys joking about me dying or about how they'll be the first responders when my plane goes down (I work in public safety). As for the women - it's primarily women ages 50+ who just can't imagine why I'm not 100% content simply tending house, husband and kids all day/night. It's bad enough I abandon my family to work, let alone risk my life flying those silly airplanes! :/ Younger women mostly seem fascinated by me flying and I really haven't gotten any bad comments from them.

Hmm... I'm in that female and 50+ category...

As far as fear is concerned, I think it has been culturally more acceptable for women to express fear, especially when you are talking about the older generation. I laugh because so many people now put me in the older generation. When I think of the older generation I think of people in their 80s and 90s or those who have already passed.

 

[Caramon13]

I dunno, I've told more than a few people that I'm a pilot and even reached out to my co-workers (30-65 age range) and so far, no one's taken me up on flying anywhere.

My wife dislikes it, my son is indifferent and I love it.

To the OP: do you REALLY get asked endlessly to go up? I've had a few people ask me about costs/time to go to a few places, but that's about it.

On the other hand I've had people older than that age range and younger than that range get real excited about going up.

 

[petrolero]

As I said in my thread, I've gotten no shortage of negative remarks from people. Some more lighthearted than others, but some just flat out rude (mostly centered around the fact that I have the audacity to also be a mom). Regarding the question of age of those making such comments - I actually find gender to be a stronger indicator about how people feel regarding aviation. Most of the negative comments I've gotten have sadly come from other women. The ones that come from men... actually, those mostly seem to be from smart@ss young guys joking about me dying or about how they'll be the first responders when my plane goes down (I work in public safety). As for the women - it's primarily women ages 50+ who just can't imagine why I'm not 100% content simply tending house, husband and kids all day/night. It's bad enough I abandon my family to work, let alone risk my life flying those silly airplanes! :/ Younger women mostly seem fascinated by me flying and I really haven't gotten any bad comments from them.

Not cool. Sorry to hear this.

My wife has no interest at all in aviation but she would be supportive. Then again, I've been a pilot as long as she's known me so I guess she's used to it or made her peace with it.

If women can accept the concept of dads flying, why would a mom flying be any different vis-à-vis the kids? Seems like old skool gender programming to me.

Well you just keep flying those infernal contraptions!

 

[Norman]

Can't help but wonder if some of those who say they're afraid to fly haven't been previously scared off by some cowboy showing off.

 

[Caramon13]

Can't help but wonder if some of those who say they're afraid to fly haven't been previously scared off by some cowboy showing off.

Exactly! And look what the public gets to see:

• Plane crashes due to pilot error or negligence
• Some joker doing loops or scaring the crap out of his/her pax
• Stalls / spins again, unwanted by the pax

Some of the public has been conditioned to think of aircraft as unsafe as a rule; unless it's an airliner and even then, some people are still scared out of their minds.

These "theatrical" videos that get all kinds of hits or spread around are how people perceive aviation to be now. I've taken my share of the jokes too.

When I offered my co-workers a short flight around the area (some places over water), I immediately got an email from one of them joking about crashing and life preservers.

Not a "thanks" that's great that you want to spend $100 on me while I get to sit on my !@# enjoying the sights. It was off-putting and rude. Like, wow I just offered to spend $500 of my own hard-earned cash entertaining the entire department, going to lunch someplace nice, touring the bay area, etc.

Whatever, people are going to be jerks. Don't let it get you down, aviation is supposed to be fun.

 

[rachelk.tailwinds]

I think it's a personality thing. My dad loves to fly, my mom isn't a huge fan, and I still haven't been able to get my brothers (age ~20-30) near the plane. My brothers and I were obviously raised in similar environments so I don't think it has to do with your upbringing, either. Just how you're wired, maybe.

 

[Mtns2Skies]

To the OP: do you REALLY get asked endlessly to go up? I've had a few people ask me about costs/time to go to a few places, but that's about it.

At school it's pretty hit or miss, but never anything negative.

During my co-op at a fortune 300 company, I worked with a lot of other interns and fresh hires. I managed to take nearly all of them on rides to $100 hamburgers. It was only my boss (really cool guy) and those on his level that said "Oh you'll never get me in a small plane", though they were never rude about it.

Granted if I had my co-workers share pro-rata, I'm sure they would have been less enticed, But for free they were thrilled to go.

I've only ever had people 40+ be rude about it... one guy that really ****ed me off said "pilot of what? a car?" I said no... a plane... he says "I hope you're the co-pilot".

 

[jkaduk]

Depends on the person I suppose. For me I don't do things now on a bike (road or mountain) that I did when I was younger. Maybe that's a been there done that, no more need to risk it kind of thing.