Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#231

Post by ChicagoBoy11 » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 1:21 AM UTC

GraffitiTim wrote: post #77

relix wrote: post #12

I had a fear of flying, which I overcame completely by accident: I started playing a realistic flight sim for a while. Because it was realistic, I had to learn the basics of how to actually fly a plane. It taught me two things: what some of the noises, the vibrations, and the movements were; and how hard it is to actually crash a plane. Once you made it in the air, you'll want to try crashing your plane in the game (…

We're building a VR simulation of flying specifically for the purpose of overcoming fear of flying. It uses some of the same principles you mention: -Repeated exposure to a realistic flying experience (in our case, it goes gradually since it's designed for people with a fear) -Specifically learning about some of the different noises planes make -Getting exposure to the vibrations, noises, turbulence, etc that you'll…

Where can I learn more about you/your company? I'm a school administrator but also a private pilot with a background in digital learning design and a huge flight sim geek -- HTC Vive Pro, P3D, and the whole lot. Super interested in this space. Would love to know how I can learn more.

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#232

Post by WrtCdEvrydy » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 1:23 AM UTC

I'm with you.

I was always scared of heights, and I ended up doing exposure theory inadvertently.

I had a job on a second floor with no windows... then I had a job on a second floor with windows, followed by a job on a third floor with windows followed by a job on the FUCKING 23rd floor. What the fuck was I thinking?

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#233

Post by Buttons840 » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 1:48 AM UTC

mynewtb wrote: post #202

Buttons840 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly, you could also read about the physics of flight. I've been reading "Understanding Flight" ( http://a.co/dSqr2dS ) and enjoying it. Imagine I asked you "Here's a 100 kg object, and it can produce 10 kg of thrust. Can it fly?" It seems miraculous that the answer is yes. I had always known this, but thinking about it anew was amazing to me.

Unobfuscated URL: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Q69B9M/

Yeah. I got my link from the Amazon "share" button. Apparently "a.co" is Amazon, but it does look obfuscated doesn't it?

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#234

Post by easyfrag » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 1:52 AM UTC

Lots of great ideas here and this is a long shot but you could try to engage the placebo effect. Go get some bullshit homeopathic “medicine” as a pseudo-treatment for your fear. The great thing about the placebo effect is that it works even when you’re aware you’re being treated by a placebo.

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#235

Post by codeonfire » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 2:02 AM UTC

schoen wrote: post #98

United used to have a feature called "From the Flight Deck" where you could listen to live radio communications between your pilots and air traffic control. Unfortunately, it's now only available on a few routes and planes: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/... I found it very comforting to listen to it during an entire flight, because you could find out what the pilots of your flight were a…

Last time I listened to that it was a panicked pilot asking Miami Center for a new heading because they were sending us through a thunderstorm. Not really comforting.

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#236

Post by GraffitiTim » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 2:20 AM UTC

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #231

GraffitiTim wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're building a VR simulation of flying specifically for the purpose of overcoming fear of flying. It uses some of the same principles you mention: -Repeated exposure to a realistic flying experience (in our case, it goes gradually since it's designed for people with a fear) -Specifically learning about some of the different noises planes make -Getting exposure to the vibrations, noises, turbulence, etc that you'll…

Where can I learn more about you/your company? I'm a school administrator but also a private pilot with a background in digital learning design and a huge flight sim geek -- HTC Vive Pro, P3D, and the whole lot. Super interested in this space. Would love to know how I can learn more.

Thank you! You can reach out tim at fearlessvr.com

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#237

Post by chx » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 2:24 AM UTC

txcwpalpha wrote: post #139

chx wrote: post #69

> I read that the odds of a plane crash is 1 in 1.2 million, That's a very misleading figure. In 2017 there were zero (read: 0) accident deaths on a commercial passenger jet. That a Turkish cargo jet smashed into a village in Kyrgyzstan doesn't affect me in the slightest. Flying on a jet in the USA had a zero accident death record for over a decade. In this millenium, not counting 9/11, American Airlines Flight 587 i…

While I'd agree that the likelihood is incredibly small, the second paragraph of your comment is incorrect. SWA 1380 happened just ~3 months ago and caused 1 fatality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380 There was also Asiana 214 in 2013, which caused 3 fatalities when landing in SF. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214 Aside from those, it also seems disingenuous to exclu…

SWA 1380 I acknowledge of omitting but Asiana 214 is not an US airline.

I said there were only three deadly accidents involving a turboprop -- although I admit not remembering the exact counts for each or are you saying there were more than three?

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#238

Post by eblanshey » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 2:39 AM UTC

GraffitiTim wrote: post #198

eblanshey wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking about the huge potential of VR to help overcome the fear of flying for years , no joke. Glad to see someone has taken up the task! Good luck to you!

Thanks eblanshey. Let me know if you have any ideas about it!

I think that, if properly executed, you could definitely get huge traction with proper marketing and I have some ideas there. You can integrate and partner with airlines, selling fear-specific software via app stores, etc.

Another major marketing platform is becoming a sponsor of height-based sports, such as rock-climbing and paragliding competitions, or their respective national organizations (such as USHPA).

Hell, some organizations like USHPA may even want to partner with you instead of necessarily you becoming a sponsor. A lot of these organizations could bolster their memberships using new methods of outreach with your help. USHPA is one of the many organizations that I can think of that has a hard time getting peoples' new interest because people think of hang gliding and paragliding as "crazy". Most people, when asked why they don't want to do it, have fear of flight or heights as the main reason.

In short, look to the industries that would benefit from people overcoming their fears. Partner with them, sponsor them, whatever. Create outreach material with them, such as brochures or videos about their sport or niche, and have a plug for your software. Offer a free x-month subscription to your VR app with all new organization memberships. Or do it the other way around: getting a subscription or purchase to your VR app automatically gets you X% discount with partnered trainers in multiple sports: paragliding, hang gliding, sky-diving, GA, etc. Have partnerships with trainers where you send referrals to each other. Use marketing terms like "Always wanted to try X but were always too afraid? Start living life!" I could see that being a successful Facebook or Instagram ad.

I just recalled I wrote an article[0] about my vision of the future in which I mentioned using VR for overcoming fears. If you ever want to chat feel free to reach out to me via the contact details there. Good luck!

[0] https://medium.com/@eblanshey/the-world-is-undergoing-massiv...

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#239

Post by BenFrantzDale » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 2:55 AM UTC

Get some experience flying a small plane. Like many here, I love to fly (destinations, seeing the world from above) but my lizard brain kept being nervous, particularly with turbulence. Then I flew over the Grapevine in from LA to the Central Valley in a Cessna in summer. It was choppy and there were drops, but they always recovered. I could feel that the air was there to catch us even though it let us drop a bit. Now turbulence is fun.

Try to think of it like a roller coaster: your reptile brain is freaking out but you know it’s not actually in danger.

Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

#240

Post by readme » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 3:03 AM UTC

Rationally you must know that driving is more dangerous than flying. You're still afraid of flying though. My guess would be because you are not in control of the outcome. With driving, you at least have some control.

You need to accept your own mortality and that tragedy is an inevitable part of being human. Even your own family can experience it, and that tragedy could occur on a plane.

With that all said, the odds are very bad that you'll crash, but you only have two ways out of this: you convince yourself that it will never happen, or you accept that it could.