Nervous about flying

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Airbug

Filing Flight Plan
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Airbug
Hi all,
My first post and not one I wanted to start with. But here goes. I really like the concept of flying, the freedom and enjoyment. But.. whenever I've had a chance to take the wheel, feel a little turbulance, try to make turns, I start to perspire, get tense, I can't relax. I feel like I'm not in control and that if I were all alone I might really mess up.

Has anyone else been where I am? Do you ever get over such tensed up feelings to where you actually enjoy it and it no longer feels like work where any wrong move and I might die?

Sorry - but this is honestly how I feel. I would like to be a great pilot - but maybe this is not for me.
 
Perfectly normal as I think many are nervous at first. Entirely different than sitting in the back of an airliner. Most get accustomed to it, some don't. Really, only one way to find out, keep flying. How far into it are you?
 
How about when you don’t take the wheel, do you get the same feeling? I’m trying to gauge how nervous you are overall.
 
mscard88 said:
Perfectly normal as I think many are nervous at first. Entirely different than sitting in the back of an airliner. Most get accustomed to it, some don't. Really, only one way to find out, keep flying. How far into it are you?
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Not far at all. I think it does not help that I watch a lot of crash videos. Whenever I have gone up I often am glad when I'm back on the ground. It would be great to feel as confident as a hawk and enjoy the view. I hope I can get there.
 
eman1200 said:
How about when you don’t take the wheel, do you get the same feeling? I’m trying to gauge how nervous you are overall.
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Then it way better! I feel like the person flying has it all together. Least they seem to so that makes me confident.
 
I panicked and performed poorly for close to ten hours. I was uncomfortable and frankly afraid.

Now I am very comfortable and relaxed (still less than 50 hours). I bet you will relax soon and really enjoy it.

One thing that hurt me was watching hundreds of hours about base to final spins, engine outs and such. Your CFI is there and will coach you. Watch those videos a bit further in your training.
 
mscard88 said:
Perfectly normal as I think many are nervous at first. Entirely different than sitting in the back of an airliner. Most get accustomed to it, some don't. Really, only one way to find out, keep flying. How far into it are you?
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I see you have all those great ratings. When you take a plane up are you as relaxed as when you drive a car?
 
Airbug said:
Whenever I have gone up I often am glad when I'm back on the ground.
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If you really feel that way, why do you want to pursue flying? Not trying to dissuade you, but it's not for everyone. Sometimes things sound great in concept but they don't translate to reality. I thought I would enjoy skydiving, but gave it up after 13 jumps...
 
Confidence increases with experience.

Working with a really good CFI that doesn't rush things will help.

Flight training is about building from a simple foundation to adding the rough in plumbing to the studs to the drywall to the roof to the paint/brick to yelling "huzzah it's a house" and handing you the keys.

A good CFI will start with basics of proving how stable an aircraft is, how they are built to fly, that small inputs that are not correct don't replicate hollywood disaster movies.

I betcha that after 2 or 3 flights with a good CFI, these nerves are a thing of the past and you're ready for the next challenge.
 
@Airbug -- Where are you located? Perhaps a flight with one of the genuine good people of this forum might help. And if not a flight, a conversation over burgers and beers.
 
Airbug said:
I see you have all those great ratings. When you take a plane up are you as relaxed as when you drive a car?
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Well, sure but I've been flying since '74. I'm relaxed when I go up, but really comparing it to driving isn't the same thing. One is alert and prepared to deal with any problems one encounters when flying. Complacency is common in flying and that's when things can happen. One has to be more proficient and knowledgeable about flying than a car.

Are you taking lessons?
 
When I first started flight training, for my first 2 or 3 flights on the initial takeoff and climb I was pretty uncomfortable and nervous. Once we got up to cruise I felt just fine and after the third flight taking off was no biggie to me anymore :)
 
idahoflier said:
If you really feel that way, why do you want to pursue flying? Not trying to dissuade you, but it's not for everyone. Sometimes things sound great in concept but they don't translate to reality. I thought I would enjoy skydiving, but gave it up after 13 jumps...
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You may be right and I'm just trying to make the right decision. But who wouldn't want to soar like a bird and enjoy the view - that's the part I enjoy and would like to do with out fear.
 
Airbug said:
You may be right and I'm just trying to make the right decision. But who wouldn't want to soar like a bird and enjoy the view - that's the part I enjoy and would like to do with out fear.
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Definitely not trying to talk you into hanging it up! How many hours and/or flights do you have?
 
I imagine it is pretty common to have some apprehensions when you first start flying. When I first started many years ago, it was a bit overwhelming since there were so many things to process controlling a plane in three dimensions instead of two like you do with a car, plus the navigation and radio communications. The day I soloed I was pretty nervous, but every hour I have flown thereafter, it became more and more comfortable. Now, it is no different getting in the plane versus driving my car. I'm actually more uncomfortable under certain driving situations than flying. Flying you are more in control of your destiny and as long as you practice conservative decision making and keep your airplane well maintained, you should be okay. Unfortunately with driving, you are so much at the mercy of the drivers surrounding you. In congested driving situations I feel like I have to be constantly watching out for the foolish things that other drivers do, especially those that feel like they've got to play with their cell phones while driving. When I'm flying, the skys are typically wide open except when I'm approaching and departing busy airports. That requires a good deal of attention with your neck on a swivel. But to answer your question, I think you will become more and more relaxed the more you fly. Just give it some time and see. I much prefer to be in my airplane flying and enjoying the scenery any day over driving.
 
I've always proffered that in such things as piloting and motorcycling that if you're not a little "nervous"/"uptight"/"on edge"/etc when engaging in these activities then that's when something is wrong - these are activities that are inherently associated with risk and should be approached as such, in order to maintain your edge.
All that being said, your nerves will likely assuage with time to more a feeling of high intensity control. Do not hope for complacency.
 
I'm coming up on 300 and still a little apprehensive on every flight. I can tell you that the more often you fly, the less nervous you'll be. Instead of watching crash videos, look at stuff like this:
Luscombe_28_People.jpg
 
Forgive the long post OP, I used to be nervous, too. And like you may have done, I think I watched way too many videos and read way too many stories, particularly the dreaded base to final stall. Combine that with a tendency to overthink, especially when trying to learn something, and I think I convinced myself to be apprehensive, that I couldn’t make even the smallest mistake at the wrong time. A few things things seemed to help me.....

After a few hours I got to the point I was confident I could make it do mostly what I wanted it to.

Second was when I working on pre solo landings, and even though I wasn’t ready to solo, I became confident that I might bend it, but I could at least get it on the ground and climb out of it.

Third was when, shortly after solo, I was out practicing stalls by myself. Next up- the power off left turning descending stall. (sound like a base to final?) The 172 I was in really doesn’t want to stall solo, so when I gingerly raise the nose in the turning descent - nothing. A little more nose up - nothing. And by now I’m not paying ANY attention to coordination. So, naturally, when I finally forced it to stall, it tried to roll back to the right! Startled the heck out of me, but I didn’t panic, made the corrections, and since I had plenty of altitude it was pretty much a nonevent. But it showed me how it can happen, and what it feels like before it happens, and that I actually did have the ability to deal with an unexpected problem. (And that trainers are pretty darn forgiving. )

When I talked to my CFI back on the ground, I told him about it, and we talked through what had happened and why, and I mentioned experiencing it was actually a real confidence builder. He laughed, and said HE was confident in me, or he wouldn’t have soloed me in one of his airplanes! But then he seriously told me I was safe, made good decisions, and just needed experience and confidence. And since then I haven’t been nervous. ( Got scared once, but thats another story that ultimately turned into a confidence builder, too.)

It’s not my place to talk you into to something that may not be right for you, and there are plenty of guys here, and girls, infinitely more qualified to give you advice. But I do want you to know you’re not the only one of us that’s felt nervous or apprehensive. And that if you DO stay with it and work through it, it’s infinitely rewarding!

I hope you’ll update and let us know how you’re doing!
 
Uber has driverless cars now. That would make me a whole lot more nervous than flying through some light chop in a little two seater.
 
Dude, simply stop watching stupid videos. You already are gonna be careful now. Counter productive. I did that to myself during training. You know what can happen. Don’t do it anymore, k?
 
I felt the same fear when I started flying. It took a while to go away. I still feel nervous when I approach a busy airport for the first time.

I don’t fly in the winter time, so I take a checkride with an instructor as my first flight of every year in order to remove the rust in my reflexes.

Now that I have owned my airplane for a year and have flown 50 hours in it, I have come to know it, and I am comfortable with it and I enjoy the ride.

I have memorized the landing steps, from approach to engine shutdown, and they are committed to muscle memory. I know when to start slowing down my airplane, what rpm I should use on downwind, base and final. I am now confident I can safely fly and land my airplane.

About feeling nervous in turbulence. During one of my solo flights while training for my ppl, I once encountered turbulence which made nauseous. First, ithe warm sunny summer days, I try to fly before noon, or after 4pm. I never bring a passenger up on a warm summer afternoon between noon and 4pm, because of convective turbulence.

First of all, do not overcorrect in turbulence. Just slow down and let the airplane do what it does while applying gentle corrections and relax. Second lesson is, no matter what you do in case of an engine failure or other emergency, don’t let the airplane stall.

I fly a lot as passenger on my friends’ airplanes. I have learned a lot by watching howthese pilots do things, and discussing the various phases of flight with them. I have become a better pilot because of them.

Good luck my friend, don’t give up.
 
It's all about finding the right CFI and taking some time up front to acknowledge and address the fear. Most likely, the more you learn, understand and explore, the less you'll fear. I'll bet 10 hours with a great CFI will solve 80-90% of the initial anxiety. And you'll likely have incremental anxiety along the way - pre solo, pre check ride, various maneuvers. But you'll tackle them as they come. It's a great process of increasing confidence.

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OP, at ur convenience read some of my earlier posts, when I started. It took me looooooong time to solo because basically I was shet scared of dumb things like banking and chips, ok they weren’t dumb when I faced them. Now all I can do it stare at the sky and go up whenever I can. It’s the greatest feeling in the world once u overcome ur fear, it’s never easy, but when u do, note, I used when not if, u will love it. Feel free to IM, we can talk and I can tell u all about how scared I was when I started. It’s gonna be a long discussion


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I will agree that having some level of nervousness at the beginning stages is normal. Take a few more lessons and see if the apprehension subsides, if it doesn't, than flying might not be in the cards for you.
 
I had a long break after my first few hours. That first CFI deliberately scared the heck outta me, and I wondered if this was for me. The desire never left, though. My first time back in the cockpit was a windy day, we bounced around the sky in a 172 and I wondered again what in the world I was thinking. I stuck with it, found a very patient instructor and before long I solo’ed a 150. After another break and a lot more windy days with a great instructor I got through my checkride in a different 172.

I promise you, a good CFI who cares about teaching you will make all the difference. I still have those moments when something makes me hyper-alert or even takes my breath for a minute, but now I find I’m focused on holding my heading and altitude, and watching for traffic. I’m busy flying the airplane, enjoying what IS happening, and not worrying about what COULD happen.
 
Wait it out a bit - familiarity may lessen your anxiety. . .be honest with yourself after a few more hours, though. It may not be for you. If you're too scared to spit after a few more lessons, or you tend to panic, your sub-concious is raising hell with you for putting yourself at risk.

You mght try more frequent lessons, do a little operant conditioning on yourself, make the setting more familiar. Or it may make you feel worse, in which case you'll know it isn't the place for you.

It's not drving a car, and it has greater inherent risks - the consequences of mistakes are harsher. If you continue, fly often, maybe get an instrument rating, there will be times you'll have to rely on yourself alone, and control your fear. Or get your name in the paper.
 
Fellow student here. As a kid I flew with my dad, or I was a passenger but got to take the yoke sometimes. So I have a "safe" feeling even when it's ME that is flying.

But... one instructor I had was kind of, I don't know, demanding, but in a way that isn't great for me. Sort of repeating things, "hacking" a little (he always gave me good grades on the maneuvers, and said things like "I think you are doing really well") and he made me nervous.

One flight he was giving me too much info, too harsh, and I suddenly tuned him out and realized I was grasping the the yoke incredibly hard like it was a hand exerciser and my whole left arm was tense, and the rest of me too. I focused on relaxing my hold on the yoke, and breathing slowly out and in...and relaxed. He then said something like "NOW you're getting it" though he had not told me anything about relax or lighten up.

Try to see if you are being "hypervigilent", feeling like the slightest "mistake" could have tragic consequences. Of course, we do have to have control and it is important, but getting used to that the plane does kind of fly itself, and when high up you (or the CFI) can recover.

I don't know if this helps, but breathing is very important. It can help to focus a little on IF you are breathing shallow and too quickly, which produces anxiety. Actively breathing slowly, deeply actually has the effect of calming a person. And the opposite. Sitting in a nice safe place if you try breathing shallow and fast you (at least I do) will feel anxiety. Anxiety can cause shallow fast breathing, and shallow fast breathing can generate anxiety.
I find just noticing (like I noticed too my hold on the yoke was extreme, and from anxiety) your breathing can often help. Good luck!
 
Do some acro! Okay, maybe not now. Build up your flight experience and skills first. But at some point it would be a good exercise to see how much control you really have over an airplane. I've had a lingering tenseness issue myself which I focus on each flight. I tend to tense up my lower body which makes it hard to feel the airplane and keep it coordinated, so I work on that even now when I fly.
 
Airbug said:
I feel like the person flying has it all together. Least they seem to so that makes me confident.
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That was the key for me when I started: I put all my faith in my CFI in that there wasn't anything I could screw up so bad that he couldn't fix (I even broached that subject with him to ensure that was the case). He was there beside me, and he had "it all together," even if I didn't. Accepting this allowed me to relax (a relative term) enough to begin to learn. It also helped me a great deal to understand what made airplanes fly, what the performance parameters were for the plane I was flying (a Cherokee 140), and to stay within those numbers (I really enjoyed reading the POH). If I stuck to that, then I wouldn't ever tumble out of the sky.
 
Any pilot who says he's never been scared flying is lying to you (or psychotic). It's a new environment, and what you're feeling is normal.

I have around 3,000 and I still have a slight tinge of "awareness" that takes it up a notch above driving a car. It's a good thing; complacency is bad. Talk to your instructor and be honest about your feelings. It's perfectly normal and while it may never totally go away, will subside with experience, and the pleasure of flight will far outway any residual apprehension you may feel.
 
I was the same way. It fades if you keep doing it. Now I'm starting to enjoy it a lot more, but if I go for a while without flying, I have to give myself a little push to get over it again. Same if I go for long periods without feeling turbulence - the first time I feel it it takes a little time to get used to it again. The instructor does matter in a way that I can't quite explain. I'm on my third, and for some reason I was much less nervous on #2 than on the others, but I can't see what, if anything, he did differently.

One thing I would disagree with here is the idea that watching disaster videos is necessarily a bad idea. I have this same habit (I mostly watch the ones with some analysis in them) and I find it doesn't make me more scared. On the contrary, when you understand the reasons why accidents happen, it can be very reassuring. Just don't do any of those things and you'll be fine! The fact that begins to emerge when you watch/read a lot of this stuff is that when things go wrong, it's usually when the pilot is so preoccupied that they don't have the bandwidth to be scared. If you're scared, you're probably paying too much attention to have an accident.
 
Keep at it, recognize that your tenseness is holding you back and work to get through it. Knowledge is power and very helpful to getting rid of the tenseness, this means keeping your nose in the flight training manual and understanding maneuvers so that you know what to do. If your instructor is yelling at you tell him to screw, and stop yelling. Be upfront that you are nervous and tense, he should work with you on it. Don't mistake correcting you for yelling unless he is being a dick while correcting you. Corrections should be consistent with the level of mistake. If you deviate from an altitude it should be a reminder. If you forget to pull up during landing, expect a more energetic response.
 
@Airbug, have you thought of trying a different instructor? I'm not dissing your current instructor, heck your CFI may be the best of the best. However, how you two gel at this stage really does matter.

Even though I didn't finish with my first instructor...holy crap could he fly a plane. We had a few scenarios at our Delta, one in particular being a very last minute sidestep to a parallel since a TBM was slow to roll out. In just those few seconds I was like "This person will keep me and my plane safe!" I still don't believe I could do that same maneuver safely.

Do you really, absolutely feel that level of trust with your instructor? Do you need a lighter, less serious vibe in the cockpit? Maybe you need a very strict dominant setting. Maybe try a different plane where the sight picture and view down is different. Maybe your headset sucks and you could try something more comfortable. Maybe you should switch from Apple Jacks to Fruit Loops :)

I'm still pretty new at this. Your nervousness will diminish but hopefully will never fully go away. You want it, at least some of it. As you experience more procedures and see that you can handle them and survive them you will develop more trust in yourself.

Don't give up yet. Don't be afraid to change things too.
 
I got my PPL at 17. I was not nervous about ANYTHING at that age, but definitely should have been.

Fast forward to now - 55. I have the good kind of nervousness that comes from deciding about flying in marginal weather, starting trips that won't end until well after dark, etc. That type of nervousness keeps you alive.

I am just now getting my IR rating. My healthy level of nervousness is making this training so much more effective then back when I went through my PPL training as a 17 year old.

As far as turbulence, you will get used to that. I promise you that will happen. As long as you don't have issues with motion sickness, turbulence will not be a factor for you. I have never had any issues with motion sickness of any kind - cars, airplanes, boats, or roller coasters. But I know people who do and it is a very real condition. I honestly don't know how people overcome that very real condition, but you don't indicate that you have that, so that is why I think you will be fine with just a little bit of experience in it.

Good luck and have fun!
 
Airbug said:
Hi all,
My first post and not one I wanted to start with. But here goes. I really like the concept of flying, the freedom and enjoyment. But.. whenever I've had a chance to take the wheel, feel a little turbulance, try to make turns, I start to perspire, get tense, I can't relax. I feel like I'm not in control and that if I were all alone I might really mess up.

Has anyone else been where I am? Do you ever get over such tensed up feelings to where you actually enjoy it and it no longer feels like work where any wrong move and I might die?

Sorry - but this is honestly how I feel. I would like to be a great pilot - but maybe this is not for me.
Click to expand...

I've been exactly where you are. I loved flying, everything about it. When I started I thought that it would just be me fulfilling a life-long dream. My 3rd or 4th lesson we hit some bumps and I was terrified. I just froze and CFI had to take us in. I got over it, you will to.
 
Are you nervous about the actual flying,or the instructors correcting you. Maybe you should go up with a different instructor,tell him or her about your nervousness right from the start. You may get a different outlook on flying.
 
I get a real feeling of joy once I get into cruise, and an intense sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when I stop the engine at the end of the flight.

You just have to get used to being up there and your brain will eventually tune out the anxiety.
 
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