The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: Do you ever get nervous while flying on an airplane, or do you just trust the process and hope for the best?
Talk about it….
Don’t get nervous, the idea of being inside an aluminum tube at 200 mph plus. First time
was work bending a few of us to Huntington Beach classes on obscure computer programing language, second time 25 years ago to Kansas to pick up a limited production vehicle. Only times flying.
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Look at it this way, if God had meant for man to fly he’d be buying the tickets.
Not nervous till we run into bad turbulence, we’re in a storm & you see the wings shake up & down 3-4 ft …. then the pucker factor comes in 🙂
Years ago you could actually listen to the pilot and control tower communicating. I remember ones at SFO I don’t remember if we were landing or taking off, but the control tower asked the pilot “do you see that TWA flight in front of you, the pilot answers “No’, the control tower again “do you see him now”, the pilot very calmly “No”, now I was getting a little nervous and looked out the window, the control tower “you still don’t see him, again the pilot “No”, I was almost ready to storm up to the cockpit, when finally the pilot answers, “Yes, now I see him”. I breathed a big sigh of relief.
I was on a 16-seater prop from Chicago to Cleveland in a storm. Separating us from the plot/copilot was a curtain. He would open it up to tell us he requested to go to 30,000 ft (whatever), but they wouldn’t let him, and the plane would drop (felt like hundreds of feet) then get pushed up just as quickly. I must admit, I was a bit nervous on that flight.
Never. But I hate getting the airplane ear during takeoff and landing.
i was told by a physician if you chew gum that might help.
No, I don’t get nervous. I’ve been flying since I was a toddler, and flying is much safer than driving. I drive daily.
Yes, always. I didn’t always feel that way. My first trip on a plane was from Copenhagen to Reykjavik Iceland. The second from Copenhagen to NYC, when I came here as an au pair. Having lived here for many years and having family in Denmark it is trip I took many times. Have flown all over the US as well.
One trip from Copenhagen to NYC, on Icelandic air, the last hour or more the turbulence was so severe that even some of the flight attendants got air sick, even so I wasn’t nervous. My mother was a fairly nervous person when it came to driving fast etc. so I figured being scared of flying (she never did fly) was for slightly neurotic people. Then in the early seventies I was dating a German guy, and he was so terrified of flying he sail back to Germany rather than getting on a plane. That made me think and I guess as you get older you begin to realize how hazardous life can be. However, I still fly, if you don’t you are very limited where you can travel to. I have not had any really bad experiences while flying other than some turbulence.
My Danish cousin was a pilot for SAS, flew all over the world, all different planes, he did at age 38 by falling down a flight of stairs.
No, I don’t get nervous on a plane. But when I was a helicopter door gunner, and we
were being shot at, I felt a little anxiety come over me. I was a gung ho kid in the Marines,
and when we actually got shot down and were lucky enough to survive, that’s when it really
hit me. I was hurt pretty bad, but I was more afraid that the NVA would find us, and the
thought of spending the duration of a war in a prison camp where I don’t understand the language and being fed lousy food is what frightened me the most.
Not while flying. I get nervous when I am waiting to get to my seat, nervous on whether I will fit in it or not, and it is worse after holidays when uncontrolled eating has happened. I do trust the process. My heart and prayers go out to the poor passengers/crew on both flights, and their families.
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I trust flying military aircraft way more than commercial passenger airlines.
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And I wont fly “budget” carriers or regional airlines. They’re typically flown by less qualified pilots who either are fresh out of school or couldn’t cut it on big jets.
Lastly, I avoid aircraft made by Bombardier and ATR. Their maintenance programs suck.
I remember one of those regionals. I forget the real name, but we called them Tennessee Treetops airlines. They had the WFR navigation system (We Fly Railroads). As long as they could see the train tracks, they were fine. Every seat was a window seat and an aisle seat, and the pilot loaded baggage.
In general, I just trust the process and hope for the best. But the first time I landed at Andersen AFB on Guam, I was very nervous. We had flaps down and wheels down, and the Pacific was getting closer and closer. I heard the wheels hit at the same time I finally saw runway.