Ever have a nightmare about flying?

DaleB said:
That was my freshman year. Not a nightmare, just a series of poor decisions.
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Sounds like my first year in college. 13 F’s
My first job interview at a school in California was interesting.
The Superintendent of the School District was interviewing me looked at transcript with a frown on his face. After completing the review of all the transcript, offered me a job. His comment was you had and interesting first year.
The last few quarters were on honor roll. It took me 8 years off and on to get my degree. Of course California required a masters degree or 5 th year certification.
So what I got was a “partial fulfillment, general secondary education
certificate”.
The school district paid for all my continued education .
It was my first teaching job. Great memories.
 
Lately my aviation nightmares have been about being unprepared for a jet trip at departure time for various reasons.
 
I had a dream the other night where I was boarding a plane as a passenger. I glanced in the cockpit and saw 6PC reading, ''Flying for Dummies''...
 
Not nightmares, per se, but twice in my 25+ years of flying, I did really stupid things.
Fortunately, I've lived through and learned from both events.
One involved scud-running, and one involved icing.

After both events, I would lie awake at night replaying the events in my head, going over how lucky I was, and how bad it could have been.
It was weeks of bad nights after the icing event.
I beat myself up pretty bad...bad enough that I won't make those mistakes again.
I'd like to think I won't make different mistakes, but no matter how vigilant, there's always a chance.
 
Adam Weiss said:
Not nightmares, per se, but twice in my 25+ years of flying, I did really stupid things.
Fortunately, I've lived through and learned from both events.
One involved scud-running, and one involved icing.

After both events, I would lie awake at night replaying the events in my head, going over how lucky I was, and how bad it could have been.
It was weeks of bad nights after the icing event.
I beat myself up pretty bad...bad enough that I won't make those mistakes again.
I'd like to think I won't make different mistakes, but no matter how vigilant, there's always a chance.
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We got into some really bad weather a couple years ago, and I had nightmares about it for a few months. Some suggest that dreams are your brain's way of reinforcing learning and experiences. Certainly seems to be something to that.
 
Jim K said:
We got into some really bad weather a couple years ago, and I had nightmares about it for a few months. Some suggest that dreams are your brain's way of reinforcing learning and experiences. Certainly seems to be something to that.
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If true, why are nightmares reinforcing my need to study for college finals, 42 years after I graduated?
 
I used to have 2 flavors of recurring flying nightmares.

1) A normal flight until it's time to land. Then some stiff crosswinds take over. Everyone but me handles them fine, as I shamefully do endless go arounds disguised by a request for "the option". Fortunately that one died down after I started visualizing xwind landings as flying into the ground.

2) The TFR bust and interception. In cruise and see a F15 or F18 opposite direction low. As I watch them pass, they do an Immelmann. I panic and spend the rest of the dream jinking and tossing road flares & rolls of Reynolds wrap out of a 172. ‍♂️
It's the av version of the accidental police chase dream.
 
Adam Weiss said:
Not nightmares, per se, but twice in my 25+ years of flying, I did really stupid things.
Fortunately, I've lived through and learned from both events.
One involved scud-running, and one involved icing.

After both events, I would lie awake at night replaying the events in my head, going over how lucky I was, and how bad it could have been.
It was weeks of bad nights after the icing event.
I beat myself up pretty bad...bad enough that I won't make those mistakes again.
I'd like to think I won't make different mistakes, but no matter how vigilant, there's always a chance.
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Two? TOTAL? In a quarter CENTURY? Dang… I’ve got two (or so) for every category of stupid (let’s not count please)… prolly per quarter.

Hmmm.

Seriously, I do think it’s important to be able to let those go. Mostly because you may gotta do that INFLIGHT at some point or another!
 
I actually had two flying nightmares last night. I almost never remember dreams, but these two disastrous ones stuck:

1) Flying the RV-10. Got into some weird visual conditions. Not conditions that could actually happen, but really strange dream ones where the horizon was inverted. That one didn't end well (I think I crashed in an inverted spin or something), but I survived with no injuries.

2) Working on the RV-10. I was doing an engine run and standing outside of the airplane. I looked away and when I looked back it was on fire. Both the engine and instrument panel were on fire and they both had the right shape - the engine was engine shaped, and the panel was panel shaped with instruments. But they were both glowing yellow/orange like the coals beneath a hot fire. As I recall, I deployed an extinguisher on the engine to no avail. By appearance, the fire(s) were not fuel fed - the aluminum itself and the wiring and damned near everything else in those areas was burning/glowing. Very odd. Again, no injuries.
 
Half Fast said:
If true, why are nightmares reinforcing my need to study for college finals, 42 years after I graduated?
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Fortunately, it looks like my brain has finally given up on the need to study for finals.
MauleSkinner said:
Or not show up for class in your underwear?
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No underwear, just a shirt that's barely long enough to give you some privacy.
 
Half Fast said:
If true, why are nightmares reinforcing my need to study for college finals, 42 years after I graduated?
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My nightmare from the trade school is that I show up for the final (always a Calculus final) and they have moved the time/place, so I end up spending the rest of the dream making like Dustin Hoffman towards the end of The Graduate, frantically searching for the final. I never find it...
 
Kinda. Flying low level and ended up stuck under wires that I couldn’t get above. Although I was having fun dodging the wires they never stopped coming. Couldn’t get above them. So not really a nightmare but annoying and woke me up.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
Kinda. Flying low level and ended up stuck under wires that I couldn’t get above. Although I was having fun dodging the wires they never stopped coming. Couldn’t get above them. So not really a nightmare but annoying and woke me up.
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That one is common. I’ve had that one since before I was a pilot.
 
My only nightmares about flying involve either rubber checks or flying as an airline passenger.
 
The movie Top Secret! had a very funny take on a bad nightmare. Top Secret! is not about airplanes or pilots, but the Airplane! movie creators (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker) created this movie, so it's kinda like a flying nightmare. Bonus flying association: this was one of Val Kilmer's first movies, and he played Iceman in the Maverick movies.

 
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I have never had a nightmare about flying; but many dreams; probably one every other week at least. Lately they have been more often.

Interestingly, my dream last night centered around buying a plane at the airport that usually appears in my dreams. My buddy was flying me to the airport to pick it up. I was to fly it to another airport for the pre-buy. Winds were high but we were able to make it there safely. When I got there, the plane was disassembled, with the wings and landing gear detached.
 
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