Fear

On 23 Jul 2006 12:57:53 -0700, "minoad" wrote:

I originally wrote this for a psychology group, therefore I have
written it for that crowd. However, I may have more luck with a
response in this group.

I noticed a strange thing today about myself. I am at least a
relativly intellegent and capable adult. Since a young age I have had
an interest in flying. I have finally gotten job that affords me the
income to pursue this interest. Because of this, last week I signed up

at a local flight school.

In the last week I have spent in excess of 20 hours on the simulators
and have completed more than half of my total required ground school.
Because of this I have a good understanding of the theory behind
aeronautics along with the do's and dont's.

Fear is a strange animal. Of course it comes in degrees from unease
through apprehension, to downright unreasoning full blown fear.

Fear is in the background any time we find ourselves in a strange, or
new (pretty much the same thing) situation, yet we are rarely aware
it's even back there. Often we remain unaware of its presence until it
has sunk its teeth in and is shaking us like a rat caught by a dog.

In this case you had plenty of sim time, but I'm going to assume these
were not full motion simulators. That would have left your with a
knowledge of what to do without the sensations.



The strange thing that I noticed is this. While on my first flight
today I expiereinced significant 'Fear' while in a climb of almost 50
degrees. This was my mistake as I had tried to trim before using the
yoke and had trimmed the wrong direction. My instructor smiled at me
and simply asked me to fix it.

Some aircraft are very good at popping the nose way up there on a
go-around or balked landing and it becomes instinctual to push the
nose back down, but again I'm assuming you had never felt the
sensation of feeling the pull up from excessive nose high trim. I'd
guess you are currently at the stage where you recognize a problem,
think of the proper correction, and then make the control inputs to
get the desired correction.

I knew all was well. The readings were all fine. I had plenty of
altitude. I also had an instructor next to me with more than 8,000
hours flying expierience. Based on all this I knew I was fine.


I am curious why I was feeling fear givin all the above factors. Does

It most likely was a combination of new sensations with the knowledge
that "this is real and not a simulation" and it's not an uncommon
feeling
..
this mean I am simply not cut out for flying? Is thier a way to

Hardly. It would take much more than that.

short-circut this mecanism? Will this disappear with time? And most

Your body and mind have to learn what to expect and to correlate what
they feel with what you are seeing.


importantly, why was my brain unable to overide my fear? I am

Remember? Fear is not rational. Fear is not logical and it is
uncompromising.

concerned that this may indicate a problem with me personally.

*Probably* not



My only expierience with Psychology is through the course work that was

required in school. Any ideas would truly be appreciated and I thank
you in advance.

First, although many probably don't believe it, I've never been lost
although I've been temporarily positionally challenged after missing a
check point and I've never truly been afraid flying and yes I've had
an engine failure on take off.

I'm low time compared to a lot of these pilots on here, but I have
between 1300 and 1400 hours now.

A while back (most every one else on here has heard this story before
so they can be excused) I had some photography to do and I decided I'd
see if I could disorient my self and then orient myself soly by land
marks. It was one of those, check for traffic, check position, head
down, shoot photos, check for traffic, over and over. This being
under 1000 feet but high enough to be safe, most of the time was
looking outside for traffic while ignoring land marks on purpose.

Soooo... When I finished I just went to straight and level looking for
land marks. (It's darn near impossible to get lost in lower
Michigan). Hmmmm...Nothing familiar. I knew my position and that
Saginaw Bay should be on the horizon to the SE. So I circled slowly
watching the horizon. No Bay! I know it has to be there but after
another turn I still could not spot it.

So... I'm less than 50 miles from home, I know where I have to be
within a few miles, and there are major land marks all over the place
which seem to have been misplaced. This was an exercise and I am not
going to give in and use the instruments, but still another 360 turns
up nothing familiar.

Even though I knew where I had to be. I knew I could easily dial in
the VOR and head for home I felt that fear trying to come out of the
background. I refused to give in to either the fear or use the
instruments but that fear was making itself known. So, I took the
logical way out. It was early afternoon on a clear day. The Sun
should be just to the West of due South and the Bay should be about 35
to 45 degrees to the left. I pointed south and there off to the left
on the horizon plain as could be was the bay. I turned right to a
heading of 240 and within 10 minutes I could make out Midland.

Still I had been in a position where I could not pinpoint my location
visually and with the mental confusion that created I could not spot
some major land marks. What I felt was not really fear as fear is
unreasoning, but there certainly was some strong apprehension. :-))


Fear comes to visit us all sooner or later. With training AND
practice we can keep it in the background and prevent it from growing
into any thing more than a bit of apprehension.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com


Micah A. Norman
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

All you have to do is snip two more lines from the dozens or
hundreds.


"zatatime" wrote in message
...
| On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:56:59 -0500, "Jim Macklin"
| wrote:
|
| Then snip my name, I don't intend to change to bottom
| feeding, er, posting.
|
|
| Why should I do more work because you chose to top post?
Calling it
| bottom feeding is laughable since it is actually the
proper way to
| post.
|
| z

And pilots are supposed to anticipate that and control the
airplane at all times, pushing on the elevator as the power
is applied and getting aggressive with the trim. Done
correctly, a passenger would never know anything "special"
was happening. Similarly, an engine failure in a light twin
should have almost no visible yaw because the pilot will be
on the rudder with 150 pounds of push and the nose won't
hardly move.

--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P


snip
| On 23 Jul 2006 12:57:53 -0700, "minoad"
wrote:
|snip
|
| The strange thing that I noticed is this. While on my
first flight
| today I expiereinced significant 'Fear' while in a climb
of almost 50
| degrees. This was my mistake as I had tried to trim
before using the
| yoke and had trimmed the wrong direction. My instructor
smiled at me
| and simply asked me to fix it.
|
| Some aircraft are very good at popping the nose way up
there on a
| go-around or balked landing and it becomes instinctual to
push the
| nose back down, but again I'm assuming you had never felt
the
| sensation of feeling the pull up from excessive nose high
trim. I'd
| guess you are currently at the stage where you recognize a
problem,
| think of the proper correction, and then make the control
inputs to
| get the desired correction.
| snip

"Roger" wrote in message
...
On 23 Jul 2006 12:57:53 -0700, "minoad" wrote:

Fear is a strange animal. Of course it comes in degrees from unease
through apprehension, to downright unreasoning full blown fear.

Your first sentence is on the money. Even after hundreds of hours, on the
night before an extended flight, I would lay awake and fret about the
aircraft, about the weather, about other aircraft. But when I opened the
throttle the next day, all fear was gone. I never got over it.

On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:57:22 -0400, "birdog" wrote:


"Roger" wrote in message
.. .
On 23 Jul 2006 12:57:53 -0700, "minoad" wrote:

Fear is a strange animal. Of course it comes in degrees from unease
through apprehension, to downright unreasoning full blown fear.

Your first sentence is on the money. Even after hundreds of hours, on the
night before an extended flight, I would lay awake and fret about the
aircraft, about the weather, about other aircraft. But when I opened the
throttle the next day, all fear was gone. I never got over it.

FAC?

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 03:00:58 -0500, "Jim Macklin"
wrote:

All you have to do is snip two more lines from the dozens or
hundreds.


"zatatime" wrote in message
.. .
| On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:56:59 -0500, "Jim Macklin"
| wrote:
|
| Then snip my name, I don't intend to change to bottom
| feeding, er, posting.
|
|
| Why should I do more work because you chose to top post?
Calling it
| bottom feeding is laughable since it is actually the
proper way to
| post.
|
| z


That's more work.

z