Anyone here who fears flying in planes (due to turbulence)?

[NanoDrake]

Dude,
What it could be is the "passenger anxiety" which is derived by a lack of control (you experience the same when you seat, in the passenger seat
Apart from what every pilot told you, I can tell you that for me, there are two things that help me with that:
1) I push the fingers of my feet super strong against the ground and after 5 seconds release, keep breathing deeply while doing it (you can also do this exercise by squeezing an imaginary lemon in your hand)
2) slowly tell yourself "it's all ok, everything will be fine" I cannot find the source but there are benefits in positive self talk.
3) focus on deep breathing (so meditation really helps)

I had to take couple of flights per week and I hated flying for these bumps, but in reality the airplane doesn't even move

PS: i know that flying at night story sounds good (and immediately looking at all late night flights) but it's not correct unfortunately

 

[Xeon]

If it's not a fear of crashing, then it's a free rollercoaster ride! What's not to like?

Rollercoasters? No thanks. I think my fear of turbulence (and a few others here), is due to the lack of control you experience when you're being tossed and swung around at high speed. You know those motion theaters? Those boxy machines at entertainment parks where a dozen people go in, the door closes and it's all darkness, and the next moment, the whole thing goes up and down wildly and everyone screams.....it's that!

Maybe I should practice overcoming this fear using those motion theater machines first.....

Think of turbulence as a car driving over a poorly paved road, pothole etc. it’s such a small hiccup for the plane but psychologically you panic and you get anxiety because you know you’re 38,000 ft up. Retrain your brain and rest assured, no plane has ever crashed do to such occurrences.

Yup sometimes I wonder if something happens in the air and the plane splits into half and everyone flies off their seat, what am I gonna do.

there was horrible turbulence entering as well as leaving Denver. I get DAMN scared man. What worked for me is simply meditating.

If you can keep calm and meditate while the plane is going up and down, more power to you lol

Flying - or, more accurately, falling from heights - is one of my biggest fears.

Actually, the falling part is not scary for me because everytime you fall, it's like you're closer to the ground and the ground is safety. What's scarier is when the plane goes up and up lol

e.g: during rollercoaster rides, the coming down is not so bad, but the rising up

I personally think landing is the most terrifying part! I feel like I always see the wheels bump off the ground and imagine the worst.

Better than the plane suddenly losing all engines (yes including the backup ones) and instantly plummeting straight down to the ground lol

Embrace it and say f*ck it. If something goes wrong, it'll be a quick and painless death. Not that bad. There's millions of worse ways to die.

Just curious, have you ever wondered what would happen to your hustle/fastlane if that kind of thing happens? I do. There's still many things yet to be done.

Like OP for me it's nothing to do with any potential for the plane to go down, it's the complete lack of control where you're stuck in a seat, the plane is going to gyrate wildly for a while and there's nothing you can do about it.

THIS

Yep. I've designed/analyzed some aircraft components.

Since you seem familiar with aircraft.....there's one thing bugging me.

When the plane is flying normally and everywhere is white bright clouds, it feels pretty calm and quiet. When I look out the window, everything moves by real slow......BUT.....

.....when the plane gets near those grey clouds, suddenly, the plane instant-accelerates 3x - 4x faster, the engines hums very loudly, everything outside the window whizzes by in a flash. I find that extremely alarming and disturbing.

Is this placebo or is the plane actually going much faster in those conditions?

 

[Xeon]

I've flown quite a bit and it scares me....I tried several things. Being very tired can help. Drinking isn't ideal because then you're always getting up to use the bathroom and I usually had things to do after I got off the flight.

This isn't advice, but the last time I had to fly I simply called up my doctor for some anxiety medicine and popped some xanax before my flights. It seemed to take the edge off....I had never taken it before or anything....so that helped. I would do it again next time I fly.

I just saw this breathing technique on tv where the psychologist was saying to put your right hand on your left chest (the heart area) and your left hand on your tummy, and breathe deeply.

Seems to work well, but I need to try this the next time I take the plane.
I'll cover myself with a jacket throughout the flight doing this to reduce awkward questions from the stewardesses.

Dude,
Relax. Unless sh*t is pinned, I mean pinned to the ceiling - Drinks, bags, flight attendants, iPads, people without seatbelts on, etc., don't worry. I use to be an airline pilot. 23 years, never hurt anybody. From little planes in Alaska on 40-50 knot windy days, to 737's. Flew through thunderstorms, mountain waves etc. Unless people are pinned, I mean stuck to the ceiling, just chill. The bumps you feel in the back are nothin. The altimeter doesn't even move on any of the bumps you talk about in your post. (accurate to 10 feet.) We are always following some other plane. It is required, by law, that we report ANY turbulence over light to the air traffic controllers. They relay it to the planes following, we go around the bad stuff.

Long time ago, in my youth, I was flying along (too close to a thunderstorm) hauling freight in a Fokker F-27 for FedEx, middle of a Friday night. Ah hell, I got a hot date, gotta get home! My girl is waiting for me, keeping my bed warm. Cut a thunderstorm close, ok I flew right threw the middle of the darn thing. (weather radar is solid red.) Turbulence is bad. Coffee coming out of its cup, type bad, like floating droplets of coffee - You've seen it in an astronaut movie.. Next thing I know my coffee cup is out of its holder, the coffee out of the cup. I look at the co-pilot his eyes are as big a saucers, all the manuals behind his seat are over his head. Then they are pinned to the ceiling. My coffee is out of its cup, pinned to the ceiling, the cup stuck on the ceiling. Both engines lost oil pressure - because the oil floated upwards, and the propellers started to feather. A few seconds later we were slammed into our seats. The manuals and books fell on the co-pilots head. My coffee was in my lap. All was good. We laughed our asses off. 23 years, flying 4 days a week, that is by far the worst thing that ever happened.

I know it sucks being in the back with no controls, not knowing what is going on. But all is good. Unless the people are pinned to ceiling, fear not. (And I have NEVER seen people/bags/coffee/drinks/chips/meals/computers/ipads/whatever even come off the floor, much less pinned to the ceiling - except for the time I mentioned above.)

Ok, so the takeaway is that all is well unless I see the stewardesses and objects pinned to the ceiling of the plane.

I thought of something that could further allay my fears : download hours of video from youtube where there are pilots talking about aircraft in a calm and steady manner. For some reason, it's very re-assuring.
Maybe I should hire someone to wear a pilot uniform and sit next to me throughout the flight and keep talking to me the same things you just posted lol

 

[ahartley]

Maybe I should hire someone to wear a pilot uniform and sit next to me throughout the flight

I am a commercial pilot and flight instructor. Right out of college, I was working the ramp (ground crew) for Northwest Airlines, and I was flying back home from training, and we were holding (flying in circles) over Detroit in stormy weather. Worst turbulence I have ever been in - the 767 was rolling / banking back and forth to what felt like steep turns (about 60 degrees).

The woman in the seat next to me had her rosary out and was doing whatever it is you do with a rosary, so I tapped her on the shoulder, pointed across the aisle and back a row to a pilot in uniform (must have been deadheading). Dude slept through the whole thing. I told her "as soon as that guy wakes up and gets concerned, that's when I will."

I doubt it helped her, but I thought it was an amusing story. We pilots know what it takes to certify not only the aircraft but the pilots as well. You could not be safer than being in that aircraft. Including standing in your own home. Statistically, anyway.

 

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[Xeon]

If the technical explanations don't help you can try humor:

LOL that's funneh

I am a commercial pilot and flight instructor. Right out of college, I was working the ramp (ground crew) for Northwest Airlines, and I was flying back home from training, and we were holding (flying in circles) over Detroit in stormy weather. Worst turbulence I have ever been in - the 767 was rolling / banking back and forth to what felt like steep turns (about 60 degrees).

The woman in the seat next to me had her rosary out and was doing whatever it is you do with a rosary, so I tapped her on the shoulder, pointed across the aisle and back a row to a pilot in uniform (must have been deadheading). Dude slept through the whole thing. I told her "as soon as that guy wakes up and gets concerned, that's when I will."

I doubt it helped her, but I thought it was an amusing story. We pilots know what it takes to certify not only the aircraft but the pilots as well. You could not be safer than being in that aircraft. Including standing in your own home. Statistically, anyway.

Some questions for the pilots here:

1) When you guys first learnt how to fly planes, do you feel fear? Also, those folks who fly small jets and fighter jets, I assume the turbulence and "roller-coaster feel" must be 1000x more than passenger planes.

2) Is it true that flying at night where the weather is cooler = less turbulence? Hotter weather = more?

Side note, there was once I flew to Taiwan from Singapore, the plane was cruising calmly in the air, everything was cool, the clouds were bright and puffy.....then all of a sudden.....the plane plummeted vertically what felt like 5 - 7 feet for us. Maybe even more. That was roughly the distance I felt in my seat.

I'm not sure if that's turbulence because we weren't flying through any storm clouds. It happened instantly only once, and then everything went smooth after that. Some kids screamed (the adults were cool though, not sure how they managed that).

This would be my greatest fantasy. Safety in the skies:

 

[Harry Cott]

I don't have this kind of experince but i am one of them who always fear flying in planes.
I always worried about plane's engine, if it fails then what happen next.
That's only our negative imagination. Pt6 engine, Pw100, and Pw500 are well examples for safe engines.

 

[MattR82]

I have no problem with roller coasters or skydiving, but even when I was flying 50 times per year turbulence on landing seriously stresses me out.

Turbulence while at 35000 feet stopped worrying me years ago. But when I am in a plane trying to land while it feels like we are perpendicular to the runway and jumping up and down in the air... F*ck that lol. I will never get used to that. Ever.

 

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[loop101]

I was around aircraft and flying for most of my youth. When I was a teen-ager, I could take-off and fly a light-plane, though I couldn't land it. Growing up, a family of 6 that lived next door were killed in a famous airline accident. I don't fly anymore. I do not like giving control of my life to someone I don't know. I don't like airports and dealing with security. I really don't like the idiots they let on planes now. Flying use to be a big deal, now some passengers seem to think it is a human right. And too many pilots are nutters. EgyptAir 990 was probably crashed by the co-pilot because he was caught flashing underage-girls in NY and was told he would never fly again once they got back to Egypt, which they never did. I would rather drive my pick-up truck. I have a bed, toilet, ice-chests, and everything else in my truck. I only have to get out to pump gas. This Saturday I am driving 22 hours, and next Saturday 22 hours back. I got some new books on CD, dangit, I just realized I should have got Unscripted on CD. Maybe next trip.