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Fear of Flying

Issue No 38, 7 Aug 2023

By: Anthony O. Ives

Fear of flying is natural as you are taking a certain amount of risk by going up in an aircraft which means you are trusting your life to a lot things such as the aircraft structure, the aircraft engine, weather, etc. However, we all take a certain amount risk every day going about our business, things like walking down stairs involve risk, driving a car is the highest risk most us take in our daily lives. Driving a car is probably one of the most dangerous things that anyone can do arguably more dangerous than extreme sports or others activies that are percieved as very high risk such as skydiving. However, the main reason most people do not think of driving as dangerous is because its very familar and we do it everyday which is probably the main reason driving is dangerous.

'Familarity breeds contempt', most people have accidents with everyday activites because they are so used to doing them that they are no longer aware of the risk or the chances that they are taking. There has been a number of campaigns advising people to be safe at home [1], as your are more likely to have an accident at home than anywhere else because its where you feel safest and most confident. So fear is actually useful as it makes you aware of risk however, if your fear is getting in the way of doing an activity that you need or want to do then that is where it becomes more of a problem. So you generally want to control your fear so that it reminds you of the risks but does cause you to back out or panic. One of the dangers of fear is it can cause you to panic which could increase the risk.

The first step to controlling your fear is to try to understand why you have a fear of flying what is the scenario you are afraid of happening? Apparently fear of falling and loud noises [2] are the two fears we are born with, so fear is not always completely logical, while our fear of falling is easier to understand our fear of loud noises does not always make sense. However, if you can understand what you are afraid of, in the of case of fear of flying it could be the engine stopping, so one way of controlling you fear in this case is thinking out how to prevent an engine failure and what to do if the engine does stop, in case of helicopters it is learning to do autorotations [3].

Most activites that we do involve some sort of risk, so you can use your fears to minimise the risk. Risk can never really be completely eliminated but generally you want to reduce it down to what you would be exposed to in your normal activities everyday. If you do everything you can to eliminate risk from flying, such as following the correct procedures, pre-flight planning, etc then flying is no more dangerous than crossing the road. I am a low risk taker and certainly no dare devil, while I had a fear of flying it has eased over time the more flying that I have done.

In trying to control fears or become more confident doing activites that your nervious about its good idea to use step by step process where you expose yourself to the fear in tiny gradual steps. In my case learning to fly helicopters, I started off hovering, then doing circuits and then going a bit higher, upper air flying was where I was the most nervous. Reference [4] goes into more detail in methods you can use to overcome your fears whatever they may be, but the general principle is with each step you are just slightly outside your comfort zone, once you get used to the current step then move onto the next step, until you achieve you ultimate goal which in my case was flying high. If you have a scare you can always move back a step and then retry when you are more confident again.

Arthur Wellesley aka Duke of Wellington said 'The only thing I am afraid of is fear.' which I think he means a lot of the time we do not like being afraid, the general feeling of fear or anxiety is not really nice, people who experience fear for something that is very low risk understand know what this is like, but most of the time our fears are disproportional to the risks we are taking. The reason why I hate being a afraid is it can cause you to behave in an irrational way and panic. A lot of the time people could survive life threatening situations if they did not panic and stayed calm. So its important that you do not go too far outside you comfort zone when trying overcome a fear and you can always exit the situation safely if you need to, in case of flying always take an instructor with you and let them know your fears. In the case of solos, do not go solo unless you feel confident that you will not panic.

When I explained to someone that parachuting out of an aircraft is just as dangerous as driving, they told me yes but I need to drive to get to work, etc but I do not need parachute out of an aircraft. Like I said earlier there can be some logic to your fears, so you should always consider the reasons why you are afraid, and if your fear is because you are doing something that is high risk, why are you doing it? do you really need to do it? or is there a less risky way to do it?

In summary you should not get rid of your fear you just want to control it so that are aware of the risks and the precautions that you need to take but at the same time your fear should not cause you to panic and you can still make logical rational decisions when things go slightly wrong.

Please leave a comment on my facebook page or via email and let me know if you found this blog article useful and if you would like to see more on this topic. Most of my blog articles are on:

Mathematics
Helicopters
VTOL UAVs (RC Helicopters)
Sailing and Sailboat Design

If there is one or more of these topics that you are specifically interested in please also let me know in your comments this will help me to write blog articles that are more helpful.

References:

[1] https://prevention1st.org/safety-at-home/

[2] Learning to Fly Helicopters, R. Randall Padfield, 1992, McGraw Hill

[3] http://www.eiteog.com/EiteogBLOG/No20EiteogBlogAutorotation.html

[4] An Introduction to Coping with Phobias, Brenda Hogan, 2007, Constable and Robinson London, https://www.overcoming.co.uk

Disclaimer: Eiteog makes every effort to provide information which is as accurate as possible. Eiteog will not be responsible for any liability, loss or risk incurred as a result of the use and application of information on its website or in its products. None of the information on Eiteog's website or in its products supersedes any information contained in documents or procedures issued by relevant aviation authorities, manufacturers, flight schools or the operators of aircraft, UAVs.