Would you fly?

O

onwards

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Messages
1,998
Location
CA
Display Name
Display name:
onwards
Scenario:

You invite a friend to fly with you for dinner, to a place about a 1 hour's flight away that you have flown into many times.

The weather is perfect, and the plane is in great shape.

You are healthy and physically fit.

There is no source of acute distress in your life.

Yet...

You are feeling kinda "bleh". The idea of flying is not as exciting as it normally would be, rather it feels more tiring than anything else. There is a lot of stress at work and it is heavy on your mind. You're alert, but also a bit numb.

Would you fly or would you cancel? again, nothing particularly wrong with you or the conditions, except this odd lack of enthusiasm about the flight.
 
The "bleh" feeling usually goes away the closer to the airport you get.

I'd still go flying,
 
onwards said:
Scenario:

You invite a friend to fly with you for dinner, to a place about a 1 hour's flight away that you have flown into many times.

The weather is perfect, and the plane is in great shape.

You are healthy and physically fit.

There is no source of acute distress in your life.

Yet...

You are feeling kinda "bleh". The idea of flying is not as exciting as it normally would be, rather it feels more tiring than anything else. There is a lot of stress at work and it is heavy on your mind. You're alert, but also a bit numb.

Would you fly or would you cancel? again, nothing particularly wrong with you or the conditions, except this odd lack of enthusiasm about the flight.
Click to expand...

Most of my friends that I've taken flying seemed really excited to go, and pretty disappointed the times I had to cancel last minute for weather. For this reason I would suck it up and go, unless of course I wasn't feeling physically or mentally fit to fly.
 
I've had that feeling before. It sits on the ground like a low-lying mist. You're free of it as soon as the ground slips away and you breathe the pure, crisp air that no land-borne creature has ever tasted.
 
MassPilot said:
Most of my friends that I've taken flying seemed really excited to go, and pretty disappointed the times I had to cancel last minute for weather. For this reason I would suck it up and go, unless of course I wasn't feeling physically or mentally fit to fly.
Click to expand...

I know... it's this person's first flight in a small plane and they were really excited, so I want to give them a good experience, but I'm just not "feeling it". Shoot, I even forgot to bring my iPad (don't really need it for these short hauls on well known routes, but still, I don't typically forget stuff like that). I feel an obligation to do it, even though I wouldn't go if it were just me and go home instead. Never faced this particular conundrum before.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll get over it by the time I get to the airport, like rrmkru says.
 
Flying clears my mind of things that bother me as I have to concentrate on flying. It is perfect. I always feel relaxed after flying and while flying I feel energized.

As I drive out to the airport, do the wx brief and prep the plane I remember what I love about being a pilot and owning my own airplane. How many people in the world never have that opportunity.

I'd have to feel pretty darn crappy not to want to fly or shake it off for a flight.

onwards said:
Scenario:

You invite a friend to fly with you for dinner, to a place about a 1 hour's flight away that you have flown into many times.

The weather is perfect, and the plane is in great shape.

You are healthy and physically fit.

There is no source of acute distress in your life.

Yet...

You are feeling kinda "bleh". The idea of flying is not as exciting as it normally would be, rather it feels more tiring than anything else. There is a lot of stress at work and it is heavy on your mind. You're alert, but also a bit numb.

Would you fly or would you cancel? again, nothing particularly wrong with you or the conditions, except this odd lack of enthusiasm about the flight.
Click to expand...
 
onwards and upwards, onwards!
 
I will be in the minority, and say all else being equal, if I have to ask the question it is safe for me to go flying, I would not go flying. If I am not feeling up to it, and feeling I could give it my all, I just do not feel it is worth it. Too often I have not trusted my inner voice, and regretted it. Just my two cents.
 
douglas393 said:
I will be in the minority, and say all else being equal, if I have to ask the question it is safe for me to go flying, I would not go flying. If I am not feeling up to it, and feeling I could give it my all, I just do not feel it is worth it. Too often I have not trusted my inner voice, and regretted it. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

+1 with Douglas.
 
I go. If I'm in the air and things deteriorate to a worse situation, get on the ground. Likely, you'll feel better as you take off.
 
douglas393 said:
I will be in the minority, and say all else being equal, if I have to ask the question it is safe for me to go flying, I would not go flying. If I am not feeling up to it, and feeling I could give it my all, I just do not feel it is worth it. Too often I have not trusted my inner voice, and regretted it. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

So yeah... that's the crux, isn't it? I went through the IM SAFE thing, and I can't really point to anything that makes me NOT safe. I guess my question is: does feeling sorta down - overwhelmed maybe - like this make me not safe? I'm just not used to it, not sure how to think about it. Thought I'd ask for perspective from you guys, although I have to say Tony's message got me at least a little chipper again (thank you Tony for reminding me!).
 
It would depend on my relationship with the passenger....
 
onwards said:
So yeah... that's the crux, isn't it? I went through the IM SAFE thing, and I can't really point to anything that makes me NOT safe. I guess my question is: does feeling sorta down - overwhelmed maybe - like this make me not safe? I'm just not used to it, not sure how to think about it. Thought I'd ask for perspective from you guys, although I have to say Tony's message got me at least a little chipper again (thank you Tony for reminding me!).
Click to expand...
To be honest, I do not use IMSAFE. If it is that difficult for to decide whether I should be flying that I need an mneumonic to make the decision for me, then I am not flying. For me it's a gestault type of thing, and if something does not seem right, I am not flying. At the end of the day, I have never really been disappointed I scrubbed a flight, and many a time hindsight showed it was the right thing to do.
 
I've gone to the field, pre-flighted and still stayed on the ground. Sometimes you just don't have it in you.
 
Meh, it's as good a day to die as any. Like my buddy in St Louis said last time I was visiting, "I can't count how many times I almost died with you, and I figure one day I will, but that's ok because I know we'll be having fun."
 
If it's the typical "bleh" feeling, then I'll go. Flying frees the mind and spirit, relieves my of the tyranny of little things, and it goes away as soon as I start preflight.
If it's one of the rare times it doesn't go away, then it's time to reconsider.

OTOH, when things have been wild for days or weeks, when the brain is just fried and it feels like I can't focus, then no.
 
i would go. flying for me has always been a stress reliever and gets my mind off of school and other stuff in my life.
 
I'll second the predominant feeling here that going to the airport, pulling my plane out of the hangar, and going somewhere with a buddy for no particular reason, does more to relieve stress than any other activity, except....well you know :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
No answer for you. Some days I've felt like that I've scrubbed and was fine to do so. Others I went on to fly, had a great flight, and was glad I went up.

Best advice: just follow your gut.
 
The main reason I fly is for attitude adjustment. Aviating cleanses the soul.

Go for it.
 
Agree with Geico on this one. If I'm at the airport and all's well with the world its reason enough to go fly. Had to scrub too many flights due to weather and squawks.
 
douglas393 said:
I will be in the minority, and say all else being equal, if I have to ask the question it is safe for me to go flying, I would not go flying. If I am not feeling up to it, and feeling I could give it my all, I just do not feel it is worth it. Too often I have not trusted my inner voice, and regretted it. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

+10+

Agreed.....listen to that inner voice...Happens to us all from time to time.
 
So... ended up that flying did indeed clear the mind and made me feel better overall. Thanks all. I need to fly more. Crazy workload made me forget how much fun flying can be, and it has been a couple of months now (which is the longest gap I'd ever had). I just hope I can do it again before thanksgiving!
 
onwards said:
So... ended up that flying did indeed clear the mind and made me feel better overall. Thanks all. I need to fly more. Crazy workload made me forget how much fun flying can be, and it has been a couple of months now (which is the longest gap I'd ever had). I just hope I can do it again before thanksgiving!
Click to expand...
This. I haven't flown in a month due to work/life/weather issues and I'm going today to shake the rust off before taking a friend up tomorrow. After a bit of a break, somehow I "forget" why I love flying so much. Sounds stupid to say out loud but I guess it happens to us. That feeling tends to feed on itself and makes it harder and harder to go to the airport each day we push it off.

Good on you for making the flight and hopefully your friend enjoyed it as much as you!
 
douglas393 said:
I will be in the minority, and say all else being equal, if I have to ask the question it is safe for me to go flying, I would not go flying. If I am not feeling up to it, and feeling I could give it my all, I just do not feel it is worth it. Too often I have not trusted my inner voice, and regretted it. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

murphey said:
+1 with Douglas.
Click to expand...

Jeanie said:
It would depend on my relationship with the passenger....
Click to expand...

EppyGA said:
I would cancel and do it another day.
Click to expand...
I hope I'd follow my gut but have gone both ways in days past. I consider the ocassional passenger a potential distraction so that tips the balance a bit.

This gets my attention:
"There is no source of acute distress in your life."
"There is a lot of stress at work and it is heavy on your mind."

My very first major work project had been going in the ditch for months. Finally after much :mad2: and :yikes: we made a major change and "all was good" in my mind. However, I suddenly got a major unexplained headache that I struggled with for a few days before going to a doctor. She asked some questions and I told her that "it's definitely not stress related, in fact a major source of stress has just been removed from my life". Nonetheless, she prescribed a mild 'relaxer' that instantly removed the headache.

So easy to deny the obvious... too bad I wasn't flying actively at the time, I really needed it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top