Pilots with a fear of heights

Landis said:
Strangely enough I have no problems on the front end of a Breezy...
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I think doing spins in a Breezy would make me uncomfortable. I know aerodynamically there's no difference if there were a piece of paper thin fabric on my sides, but psychologically....

 
I can't find the link right now but there was a pretty in depth study done a number of years ago that showed people's fear of heights mostly occurs when they are "connected" to the ground and have a direct reference to how far up they are. In other words, when you are clinging by your fingernails to a cliff face, you can look down and see the rock going all the way down, past your last three, REALLY weak anchors, all the way to the ground (jtrain609). When you are in a plane, you aren't connected to the ground at all. Sure, you are much higher up than on the cliff, but your mind doesn't have a direct connection to follow and as such tends to not project as much fear.
 
Landis said:
Strangely enough I have no problems on the front end of a Breezy but I get sweaty palms just watching (or thinking about) the video above.
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No thank you, I'll take some thing with a cockpit any day over that. Just imagine how much damage a bird strike could cause. :eek:
 
So apparently it looks like all pilots are afraid of heights. I could never be an astronaut because of the walk from the launch tower across the gantry to the spacecraft :eek2:

I don't think it's the feeling of safety provided by the cabin, I think it's the fact that over a certain height your brain doesn't even process it as being "high up".
 
rframe said:
I think doing spins in a Breezy would make me uncomfortable. I know aerodynamically there's no difference if there were a piece of paper thin fabric on my sides, but psychologically....

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Those two girls have much bigger balls than I.
 
JordanD said:
I'd draw the line at the door off thing... Unless it was really low level. For some reason the sensation of speed cancels out any fear of heights for me.

Plus I don't trust a ratty 40 something year old seat belt.
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The thing about Cubs with the door off is that they are so hard to get in and out of anyway, you would have to try fall out of one even without a seat belt! A 172 without a door though I would probably want a better seat belt because it would be easier to fall out the side laterally I think in turbulence.
 
I'm terrified of heights, as well. The worst is probably climbing the stairs for the water slide at the water park. Also, maybe some of you can relate, but if I am stand on top of a building and look UP makes me feel like ground is falling beneath me and I start losing balance. Airplane? No problems so far after 1900 hrs
 
tlewis95 said:
The thing about Cubs with the door off is that they are so hard to get in and out of anyway, you would have to try fall out of one even without a seat belt! A 172 without a door though I would probably want a better seat belt because it would be easier to fall out the side laterally I think in turbulence.
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Yeah. My first thought after putting on a parachute and getting in the decathlon was that the parachute is pretty much pointless, you're probably not wiggling out of that thing.

I've had a 150 door pop open while I was leaning on it in cruise. That was a good substitute for morning coffee.
 
41,000 feet in the cockpit, love it. Looking down from a high up balcony or sitting over the Cliffs of Moher or the Grand Canyon, I get wobbly...but I do it anyway.
 
ryanmickG said:
So I have a pretty extreme fear of heights.

For example, when I went to Golden Gate I was terrified and had to stand 2 feet from the guard rail even though the rail is 5 feet high. The only time I went up a ski lift (summer time) I had to walk 2 hours down because I was scared as hell the whole way up.

Flying has no affect on me whatsoever though.

Does anyone else have this irrational fear? My friends and family can't wrap their heads around the fact that I am a acrophobic pilot.
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I too have a fear of heights... but here is the real deal:
It's not that I have a fear of heights... it's that I have a FEAR OF FALLING.

Im a former pro motocrosser... I can just a dirt bike 100ft through the air, and I can fly an airplane at FL370.
But I can't get on a ladder without it being VERY stable, no rafters or scaffolding, etc.
 
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