A fear I just can't push aside

titansox

titansox

Well-Known Member
So I'm about to start my private pilots license training in a few weeks. I am really excited to start and if I didn't have finals coming up I'd already be flying. For someone my age, I've flown(commercially) a lot. I love flying and I've never feared heights or anything like that.

That being said, there's one thing I can't quite ignore. In the last 6 months I've been posting on this site, I've noticed an alarming amount of general aviation planes going down. It seems like every couple of days there is a thread about a plane going down. Most of these crashes are fatal too. This is something I haven't been able to ignore.

I understand that I will be taking part in an activity that is more dangerous than most everyday activity. Even though I have this understanding, I just can't accept this fact. My survival instincts are telling me not to do this and right now I'm trying my best to ignore my natural instincts but its just a counterintuitive mind set.

So I guess I this is just one of those posts where I'm just throwing this feeling out there. I don't know what I expect you guys to respond with. But I need to get that off my chest and acknowledge this fear for my own good.
 
titansox said:
So I'm about to start my private pilots license training in a few weeks. I am really excited to start and if I didn't have finals coming up I'd already be flying. For someone my age, I've flown(commercially) a lot. I love flying and I've never feared heights or anything like that.

That being said, there's one thing I can't quite ignore. In the last 6 months I've been posting on this site, I've noticed an alarming amount of general aviation planes going down. It seems like every couple of days there is a thread about a plane going down. Most of these crashes are fatal too. This is something I haven't been able to ignore.

I understand that I will be taking part in an activity that is more dangerous than most everyday activity. Even though I have this understanding, I just can't accept this fact. My survival instincts are telling me not to do this and right now I'm trying my best to ignore my natural instincts but its just a counterintuitive mind set.

So I guess I this is just one of those posts where I'm just throwing this feeling out there. I don't know what I expect you guys to respond with. But I need to get that off my chest and acknowledge this fear for my own good.
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Do a google news search for fatal car accident and sort by most recent...
 
Probably mostly that you're more aware of it now than before, I doubt that there has been any significant increase in GA accidents recently. But no doubt that flying is more dangerous than... not flying. So is getting out of bed.
 
GA accidents are pretty consistent, I wouldn't say recently planes have been falling out of the sky or anything. Its dangerous, sure. I'm barely over the 100 hour mark, and I've only had one "Oh crap I'm going to bend an airplane" moment. On the way to and from the airport, I can't tell you how many times I've almost been hit on the freeway by people texting or not looking and just throwing their SUV into my lane assuming there was no traffic.

Because of this, I figure if I made it to the airport in one piece, odds are I'll make it back down ok. I don't want to sound mean or anything, but if your instincts are telling you not to fly, then maybe you shouldn't. I would think if being a pilot is what you REALLY wanted to do in life, your instincts wouldn't be telling you otherwise.

Just my $0.02
 
When your number is up, your number is up. Could happen anywhere, doing anything; and there's really nothing you can do about it. The grim reaper of life will come and take you away at a time and place of his choosing, and he does so with neither prejudice, nor favoritism.

Sometimes you're dealt a crappy hand, such that you were dead that day before you even took off, only you just didn't know it.

So why worry yourself with so much stuff thats out of your control? Go forth and enjoy.
 
mikecweb said:
Do a google news search for fatal car accident and sort by most recent...
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This is a valid point that I never considered.

sharkey said:
Probably mostly that you're more aware of it now than before, I doubt that there has been any significant increase in GA accidents recently. But no doubt that flying is more dangerous than... not flying. So is getting out of bed.
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Oh I don't think there has been an increase in GA accidents and this feeling is 100% based awareness.

ChasenSFO said:
GA accidents are pretty consistent, I wouldn't say recently planes have been falling out of the sky or anything. Its dangerous, sure. I'm barely over the 100 hour mark, and I've only had one "Oh crap I'm going to bend an airplane" moment. On the way to and from the airport, I can't tell you how many times I've almost been hit on the freeway by people texting or not looking and just throwing their SUV into my lane assuming there was no traffic.

Because of this, I figure if I made it to the airport in one piece, odds are I'll make it back down ok. I don't want to sound mean or anything, but if your instincts are telling you not to fly, then maybe you shouldn't. I would think if being a pilot is what you REALLY wanted to do in life, your instincts wouldn't be telling you otherwise.

Just my $0.02
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Wow that last paragraph was a bit harsh lol.

My fault does not fall in the desire to fly in an airplane. If that was the case then I would agree, flying probably isn't for me. The fault for me lies in the part of my conscious that is questioning why I want to put my self in a situation that I perceive (although as the above posts imply, maybe my perception of the situation is the problem) to be exponentially more dangerous.
 
Perceptions can be very real to us. I would suggest that most of your anxieties and reservations are from the unknown. Initially an airplane will feel a little foreign to you and you may be a bit uneasy adapting to the dynamics you will experience in flight. Many GA crashes are preventable, just like cars. Because of that fact, you should strive from the beginning to approach your flying with a "safety first" priority. You will be placed in situations frequently where you will be tempted to take short cuts and bow to pressure to go fly when it might not be safe to do so. Approaching your flying in a safe and professional manner from the beginning should ease many of your fears. Remember, young pilots like yourself take off thousands of times each day and return safely with big smiles on their faces. Try to relax and go have some fun.
 
Scared of "what might happen" is no way to go through life.

There is risk in everything you do, regardless of if you're aware of it or not. You just happen to be aware of the risk associated with flying and not aware of the equal or greater risks of other things you do in life.

You do have to manage risk -- there's no reason to be careless or haphazard with your life decisions -- but GA flying isn't inherently more dangerous than many other typical activities (like driving).
 
titansox said:
Wow that last paragraph was a bit harsh lol.

My fault does not fall in the desire to fly in an airplane. If that was the case then I would agree, flying probably isn't for me. The fault for me lies in the part of my conscious that is questioning why I want to put my self in a situation that I perceive (although as the above posts imply, maybe my perception of the situation is the problem) to be exponentially more dangerous.
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I was trying to come up with a better way to word it but I came up empty handed. I just say this because there was a guy at my school when went 60+ hours with no solo because he kept saying he was afraid, but also said he wanted to be a career pilot. His CFI said he flew the airplane very well and felt bad about not being able to get the kid off onto his solo XCs and what not because he just wouldn't fly the airplane alone. The student claimed that the thought of no CFI to save him if the crap hit the fan was just overwhelming. The CFI got frustrated and handed him off to another CFI, at which point the guy quit, and as far as I know never flew again. This is after having spent about $10k if I remember correctly.

All I'm saying is make sure you can handle it before you throw too much money into it. With some things in life, you just never do get comfortable with them. I don't fault you at all for this fear you're having, I'm sure many people started out in your shoes and are flying heavy jets across the ocean today. I'm sure if it is what you want to do, you'll fall in love with it right away. As calcapt said, once you actually start to think ahead of the airplane, you'll probably be having a blast. If the fear isn't going away naturally after the first few hours, however, then you may want to re-think what you're doing.

I hope that didn't sound mean, as it isn't intended to be. I wish you the best of luck.:)
 
Darn few Student Pilots get killed. They fly under the watchful eye of the instructor and don't venture into dangerous situations such as marginal weather.

Get this thread going again when you hit 150 hours. The DANGER ZONE for many pilots.
 
fholbert said:
Get this thread going again when you hit 150 hours. The DANGER ZONE for many pilots.
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I read about that, something like during the first 150-300 hours(I think) you are more likely to get into an accident than all the other points combined. Makes sense when you consider that is likely the time someone is going to start expanding their limitations and possibly get over-confident.
 
Perhaps anxiety/apprehension is a better term than "fear." I think everyone who does something new has some anxiety and apprehension. Time and experience should help you overcome both. If you have fear after a reasonable amount of time (which probably varies for everybody), then you need to reevaluate. Just my .02! :)

(I offer this advice even though you're a Red Sox fan!) :D
 
Do some research, like reading the Nall Report that AOPA puts out every year.

Also, there is a very good book called The Killing Zone by Paul Craig that examines GA accidents and why they happen.

Many of the GA accidents could have been prevented if the pilot took the correct actions. There are some rare cases where no matter what the pilot did the result would have been the same.
 
3 emergencies in a little over 1000hrs of flying. No bent metal (well actually a little during a nose gear failure) but I walked from all of them, and the plane was able to be reused. I get in a plane everyday and fly away just like i do with a car. The first few hours can def be nerveracking because like others said, it's the unknown, but to look at stories of GA accidents is only going to scare you and make you not want to do it. Again like others have already said in here, I've also nearly been hit\runoff the road by idiot drivers while on the way to the airport, only to have a 100% succesful flight with no issue(and i have a motorcycle too, so people think i'm totally nuts).

As pilots, we do everything we can to assure the safety of our flight, and most accidents are pilot error. If it's not right, we're not going. Out of all the stories you've read, how many of the people died because the airplane fell apart in the air?
 
Sean D Tucker started taking flying lessons because he was scared to fly on a commercial airplane - he was stills cared after getting his PPL and started to do aerobatics.

Look at him now:

[yt]L1GVpyHYwtM[/yt]
 
I've always kind been of the state of mind that I just don't wanna live my lif being afraid of doing something that has a certain perceived risk. GA planes do in fact have engine failures but one of your best saving graces is that you don't need much room to safely put a skyhawk or cherokee down in a field somewhere. I hope you are able to put your fears aside so you can enjoy aviation. I can't imagine what my life would be l[YT][/YT]ike without it.
 
titansox said:
I understand that I will be taking part in an activity that is more dangerous than most everyday activity. Even though I have this understanding, I just can't accept this fact. My survival instincts are telling me not to do this and right now I'm trying my best to ignore my natural instincts but its just a counterintuitive mind set.
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You are going to have things happen in airplanes that scare the crap out of you. Hell, I just did over the weekend. Did it keep me from flying again? Well, I had to hop in another single, and fly low over water to get home.

Flying is not an inherently dangerous activity. Piloting is. Just don't ever forget that you are in command of the aircraft, and a few seconds of complacency is all it takes for things to go from bad to worse.

Stall/spin accidents and VFR flight into IMC are by far the biggest things to worry about, and you can avoid both of them. Don't fly into bad weather, and don't try to save a bad approach. Flight training is a very safe activity. Most of learning to fly isn't learning to fly the airplane, it is learning how not to kill yourself.

One thing about aviation mishaps, they are all studied and you can learn from them. ntsb.gov/ntsb

Through the first 4 months of 2010, I count only 3 fatal accidents involving production GA aircraft. Millions of GA flight hours have been logged in that time.
 
Mark815 said:
As pilots, we do everything we can to assure the safety of our flight, and most accidents are pilot error. If it's not right, we're not going. Out of all the stories you've read, how many of the people died because the airplane fell apart in the air?
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I'm most scared of midairs, given the flying I do these days. But catastrophic structural failure would really suck. Fortunately, it is also incredibly rare.
 
I was nearly killed on a bicycle in my early 20's.

In nearly 2000 hours of flying I've had a few things happen that could have ended badly but my training and practice kicked in. I've had many other life changing experiences that I otherwise would not have.

As said, being scared is no way to go through life. Own your fear and live life.
 
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