why am i getting more scared of commercial flights?

[Newbie 0]

this is weird to me - am i the only person who has/is getting this? I used to love flying when i was younger, then over time i become more scared - im not a white knuckle armrest gripper by any means, but when i get into bad turbulence, i just plain wish i was on the ground.

It's an irrational thing that hasn't come about as a result of some post Sept 11th thing (although that sure as hell compounded things) - which is why i don't understand it. At one point in my life (98-2000)i was flying back and forth from London to San Francisco a lot to see my then girlfriend, and i was thinking maybe it came out of that, but from what i remember, it was getting to me even before then.

I haven't had a "bad" experience on a commercial plane either - the worst has been severe turbulence one time, that caused passengers in the aisles to literally crawl down them and back to their seats for fear of being launched somewhere, which was pretty scary - that was fairly recently though, like 3 or so years ago, and i was getting worse before that.

Now something weird has happened, where, initially right after i had made my first tandem (99) and then completed AFF(last year) i became much more relaxed about flying and the fear of falling if the plane was to suddenly lose altitude. That has now passed however, and NOW what im finding (post AFF) is that it feels very weird to be boarding a plane - whether its commercial or not - without a rig on - i just didnt like it when i made my 2nd commercial flight since AFF (first without my own gear). It's almost like im quite happy to jump out of an old Russian cargo plane and go skydive, than i am to get on a commercial airliner with a good safety record - it's totally psychological i know, and that's why i say its irrational, but it's defintiely gotten worse over time.

I made my first commercial flight this last weekend since AFF and it just was not a nice feeling being rig-less. I know having a rig "to hand" in a plane is a ridiculous concept (and a dangerous one if you were to contemplate putting it on and going for the door, for you and your other passengers), but i guess it's almost like a grown up secutiry blanket? That's the best way i can describe it.

Anyway is this just me getting this?

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[falxori 0]

what kind of a flight is it if you can't simply open the door and jump ?

on a serious note, ofcourse its two completely different kinds of plane rides so i guess being afraid of flights and being a skydiver can go together.

just remember that if you are traveling with your gear, NEVER tell them you are taking it so you could jump if things go wrong.

you and your rig will stay on the ground (not to mention that you cant really do it anyway)

O

"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."

[PhillyKev 0]

I never had a problem with jet flights until I started skydiving. Now I hate landings. I'd much rather land myself than rely on someone else at the controls of an 8000 ton bohemoth.

[Zennie 0]

Takeoffs don't bother me anymore.... I used to be terrified of them pre-skydiving.

I still hate landing.

Funny thing happened on a flight about 4 months ago. We took off and about 15 minutes into the flight we hear KA-WHOOOOOSSSHHHHHHH!!!!! from the main cabin door. And it kept Ka-Whooshing.

The stewardess was in her seat right next to the door and kept looking at it ... then at the cockpit phone... then atthe door... then at the cockpit phone again. She sorta cautiously sidestepped away from the door and started talking to the cockpit.

About this time people sort of realize things just ain't right with the plane. I also noticed people around me freaking out. Interestingly, I was in this weird "problem analysis" mode. I thought "OK. The pilot still has control of the plane, we're turning around and he's going to a lower altitude so we probably didn't lose any flight control." Since the others around me were freaking (quietly, but you could see it on their faces) I pretty much told them what I was thinking.

Funny thing is we get down on the ground and a bunch of them around me and thank me for helping them stay calm. They said that since I was so calm about it, it helped them.

I'm positive I wouldn't have handled it this way had I not been a skydiver/BASE jumper.

- Z
"Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

[SpeedRacer 1]

hmmm. No this doesn't happen to me. When I'm on a commercial flight I pretty much figure that what happens happens, and there ain't shit I can do about it, so I might as well just relax.
Getting scared & bracing myself isn't going to help me survive anything.

Speed Racer
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[billvon 3,121]

>We took off and about 15 minutes into the flight we hear KA
>-WHOOOOOSSSHHHHHHH!!!!! from the main cabin door. And it kept
> Ka-Whooshing.

Lost a door seal. Not that big a deal. Pressurization problems actually happen pretty often on aircraft.

The most worried I've been on a flight was flying back from the UK (read: over the atlantic.) As we started our takeoff roll, the left engine of the 767 started shaking and banging like crazy. We rotated, and then at about 10 seconds into the flight power came off on the left engine. Plane yawed a bit as the pilot retrimmed for loss of power, and we leveled out at a few hundred feet. Hmm, looks like we'll be landing again, though I. But no. A few moments later power came back up, and it started banging again. The pilot spent a few minutes playing with the power setting, getting it to just under where it banged. Then we kept on flying. Crossing the atlantic with one good engine!

[billvon 3,121]

>I'd much rather land myself than rely on someone else at the controls of an 8000 ton bohemoth.

8000 tons, eh? What _have_ you been flying in lately - an old aircraft carrier?