Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 266 posts

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

#241

Post by Gustomaximus »

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 (…

Side point, there is a book Hagakure (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagakure) which is collected comments of a samurai during the end of this samurai/retainer period for Japan. This passage stuck with me and talks about overcoming fear of death through meditating about dying in all sorts of horrible ways. I guess you did the 21st century version;

"The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day, when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears, and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day, without fail, one should consider himself as dead. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai."

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

#242

Post by txcwpalpha »

chx wrote: post #237
txcwpalpha wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Your comment says "flying on a jet in the USA". The Asiana accident was on a jet, and was in the USA, regardless of if it was a US based airline or not.

Regarding turboprops, your comment seems to be dismissive of those accidents as if they were not as important or relevant, which I disagree with.

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

#243

Post by schoen »

squarefoot wrote: post #211
schoen wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are FAA or airline rules against passengers on commercial flights using aviation radios -- and those rules might include aviation radios that you synthesize yourself. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/8939/can-i-fly-... (It seems that the rules are meant to avoid having unexpected devices onboard using aviation-related RF energy, rather than to prevent passengers from monitoring aircraft comm…

A passive receiver with absolutely zero emission would allow to listen to pilots communications from the seat and would be easy to build. Listening to the tower once in air unfortunately would not be possible (as with any radio operated in seat) - an external antenna would be necessary for that. The problem with any custom built receiver is however its appearance: a strange electronic device which would probably rais…

> Nobody should object if you listen to an old FM pocket radio with headphones from your seat.

I believe the existing rules would forbid even the use of an FM radio onboard.

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

#244

Post by delcaran »

I make flying simulator for the military, pilots use my software to learn how to fly with a Panavia Tornado.

I know how hard they train, how much they know and how hard it is to crash. I know a plane can land gracefully by itself, that there are at least three redundant navigation systems and at least two landing system, and that on a civil plane all these systems are duplicated because there is more space to put them. I know a plane can land with only one engine, and in some cases with no engines at all.

I know that when I fly I'm one inch to certain death, but I also know that that's an inch I'm very hardly going to cross.

I know all this but sometimes I'm anxious too. I guess it's normal, I just have to think rationaly or not think at all with a book or a good sleep.

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

#246

Post by akuji1993 »

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…

Hm, now I'm pretty sad that their site only works with Flash.. Can't even install that on Chrome anymore.

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

#248

Post by aunty_helen »

wbrinkley wrote: post #188
PerfectElement wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That must have been terrifying. Can you talk more about what happened between the moment the engine failed and the plane landed safely? How long did it take? Did the captain communicate with passengers frequently? How about flight attendants? What went through your mind? I'm nervous about flying and knowing what happens in this scenario may help me prepare.

The plane didn't leave the ground - the engine blew up as we were accelerating for takeoff. That's now something I now find reassuring: takeoff seems to be a time of maximum stress on the engines - if they're going to break (or explode), hopefully it will be before the plane leaves the ground! This was 20+ years ago now, but I remember being awed by the performance of the pilots and flight attendants. The plane brake…

>takeoff seems to be a time of maximum stress on the engines

This is true, 'band A' throttle is used for takeoff and the first minutes of flight. Perhaps a pilot could chime in here, but I don't think there's any other non-emergency situation that band A would be used in flight.

It's also why jet engines are overhauled on a takeoff schedule. ie some parts have a lifetime of 20,000 cycles (takeoffs/aborted landings)

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

#249

Post by kall1sto »

blt wrote: post #212
rzimmerman wrote: post #195

I developed a fear of flying in my late 20s. My doctor prescribed me a low dose of Xanax specifically for flying. I take it about 1-1.5 hours before takeoff and it significantly reduces my anxiety about flying. All the techniques listed here are helpful and may solve your problem in the long term. But honestly there's nothing wrong with taking medicine, especially if it's just when you fly and it makes the experience…

This. Anti anxiety medications work. Save your self-behavior-altering energy for things that matter more in life. Xanax will also help you sleep on flights.

I also have a crippling fear of flying but i will fly in 10 days so i did a "test run" with Lorazepam which helped my step-dad who didn't fly for 20 years and is now anxiety free during flights with no medication needed. I was watching flight videos on youtube and found myself giggling in euphoria.

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

#250

Post by pattle »

I have a mild fear of flying, I don't avoid it but I do feel anxious on the flight especially if we hit turbulence.

What's helped for me is imagining how many flights take of and land safely around the world each day. It's very very rare that a plane crashes, I don't know what the odds are but they're very small. There's a higher risk of being involved in an accident on the way to the airport.

Someone once told me that in order for a plane to crash 16 critical mistakes have to made in a row or something like that. Very unlikely.

It may help for you to watch or read information that details all of the safety that's done around flying so you'll feel more confident next time you fly.

Ultimately you can only concur your fear by facing it.

Post reply on HN