Fear of Flying

Worst turbulence I have ever been in was flying a 10 passenger prop puddle jumper from Denver airport to Vail (conference in Snowmass). That thing was dropping and gaining 50 to 100 feet like a yo-yo constantly. Barf bags going all over the place. My buddy across the aisle leans over to me and yells loud enough for the whole damn plane to hear: "Who are we gonna eat first after this ****** crashes?"
 
Jack Walsh: I can't keep you cuffed on a commercial flight, and I gotta check my gun with my luggage, but you **** with me once and I'm gonna break your neck.
Jonathan Mardukas: I can't fly.
Jack Walsh: What?
Jonathan Mardukas: You heard me, I can't fly.
Jack Walsh: No, no, no. You're going to have to do better than that, pal.
Jonathan Mardukas: No, I don't have to do better than that, because it's the truth, I can't fly: I suffer from aviaphobia.
Jack Walsh: What does that mean?
Jonathan Mardukas: It means I can't fly. I also suffer from acrophobia and claustrophobia.
Jack Walsh: I'll tell you what: if you don't cooperate, you're gonna suffer from "fistophobia".
 
I'm around small airplanes on a daily basis. last year we went on a test flight on a super king air that started to yaw uncontrollably after take-off. I just knew the vertical stabilizer was about to be sheared off. at fault were two wires that were reversed during the autopilot installation that were causing the rudder to over correct. I constantly go on autorotation test rides on helicopters and haven't died yet.

flying in commercial birds is akin to riding in a bentley for me.
 
Being a pilot myself, the only thing I worry about is other traffic. Of course airliners usually don't have that problem cruising at 35k feet with an IFR flight plan, but when you're a few thousand feet up VFR, you really have to keep your head on a swivel. I came a few hundred feet from some guy in a Cub, and instead of trying to avoid me (since I had the right-of-way), all that ******* did was wave.
 
Isn't walking down the street more dangerous? I don't have a fear of flying and don't really understand the fear anyway, however I do have a fear of airports because I hate them. Of course it's better to have a heart attack at ABIA than a hospital. More defib kits and more people will notice.
 
I've done it a few times during my career and the a/c flies just fine.
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I'd be freaking out in "crash positions" like in the movie Airplane.
 
I usually just get bored on the plane. I spent many an hour as a child having my dad fly me around in tiny cessnas and that **** is way more scary than anything that's happened on a commercial flight *knocks on wood*. I fly about 70 legs a year.

I dated a girl for a few years that was terrified of flying. Like sobbing, gasping for air terrified of flying. Understanding the physics doesn't help. Talking to the pilots and knowing they don't want to die either doesn't help. Xanax helped. It didn't put her to sleep either, it just takes away her fear. Or as she says, "you just don't care."

I've never tried it but I think on Xanax you still think about the same stuff your body just doesn't react with that panic/fear response.
 
I grew up overseas and flew a lot as a kid, I even got a trip in a military transport plane from England to the states back in the 70s to go to my grandpa's funeral.

Then, one day, we were sitting in the SA airport waiting for our plane home (we lived in England at the time) when my mom looked at my dad as said "I'm not getting on the airplane". Both my dad and I looked at her with WTF looks...but she was serious. She had developed a HUGE fear of flying.

My dad ended up flying home w/o us, but we managed to convince my mom to do 2 more flights - one back to England so my dad could finish out the year teaching and then one back to the states....

She has not flown since 1978 - she even took the train to NJ for both her folks funerals...

I always thought this was really weird...I LOVED flying and did a bunch of flights in the 90s for fun and for work...I'd even had some really bad experiences over my life while flying like turbulence and wind shear at landing...I thought they were fun...

Then, come 2000, we planned a trip to Cancun. I was really freaked out on that trip...

Now, I REALLY don't want to fly. I do NO travel at work, though, so that's great.

And I'm an Aerospace engineer...I know all about how the planes work...I got into AERO because I loved flying and airplanes and stuff....

I suppose if I ever have to fly, it'll be beer thirty for a few hours before the flight...
 
Nothing. It was an uneventful set of flights. THAT'S what's weird. Because I was scared the whole time and I'd NEVER been scared of flying....
 
I have no fear of flying whatsoever...and like some other previous posts...i love turbulence...i was flying from DFW to Houston one time in a very small plane and we flew through a nasty T-Storm...bounced us all over the place...it was freakin awesome...
 
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