Nervous about flying

[Tantalum]

Then it way better! I feel like the person flying has it all together. Least they seem to so that makes me confident.

That's a great sign. That means it is likely not an overall feel of flying or wings breaking off, just confidence in yourself that you have to build up.. a little fear or apprehension can be a good thing (up to a point) as it keeps you on your toes

So don't beat yourself up, or lose hope or begin to despair..

Also, less crashing videos haha will go a long way, I found my confidence went way up when I started reading the Airmen's Knowledge Handbook as it made flying and the machine feel less foreign and may make you feel more like you are in control.

Also, if you have the opportunity to, try to go flying with other pilots in your area often, if there is a local club get involved in that. Spending more and more time in the airplane will start to make it feel more like home and you'll be more confident overall. The more often you can go up the better

Anyway, best of luck to you!

 

[Tantalum]

I focused on relaxing my hold on the yoke

I was the same way. Early on I had a tendency to squeeze the living daylights of the yoke, and my instructor would always correct me and remind me to relax, trim the plane, and breath. It really helps! It is amazing how your body physically starts responding to stress subconsciously before you are even aware of it.

I've been licensed for many years now but that trick still helps me. Anytime I start to feel myself getting tense the first thing I do is relax my grip on the yoke.. that seems to set things positively in motion

**On a related note, it is too bad that there are so many crummy instructors out there. There are some great ones for sure, but I feel like overwhelmingly when I talk to people they have "instructor" issues.. and most people have been through a few people before they finally find one that's good for them. That's too bad. When you pursue something you love and spend thousands of dollars on it your instructor should be your mentor and someone you feel comfortable and confident with. They don't need to be adding another layer of stress or anxiety

 

[ShuRugal]

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.

70 hours in "real" planes, couple hundred with RC models, and a couple thousand in simulation. The most stressful thing for me still is also turbulence: I'm a bit of a control freak, and having the plane constantly rolling and yawing in ways I didn't tell it to gets irritating fast. I am, however, coming to terms with it. It's one of those things you just have to learn to accept.

Now, for getting over the initial jitters and worries about stalls and spins, there are three cures for that:

1. Trust your instructor. He's not going to let you kill him, he does this all day, every day, and he has seen worse **** from students than you can (or want to) imagine. He will get you home alive.

2. Learn the aerodynamic theory for how planes fly, what causes stalls and spins, etc. Learn the subject as if you were studying to be an aeronautical engineer. Once you understand what causes stalls and spins, understanding how to avoid them and recover from them follows naturally.

3. Get out and practice slow flight and stalls with your instructor. I've had a Tecnam as slow as 20KIAS in controlled, level flight. Once you do that a few times in a plane, you understand just how hard you have to work to stall them (and therefore, to spin them). For the record, I've also had my Mooney down to 55 MIAS straight-and-level. She rocked and bucked and did not like it at all, but she also didn't kick off into a death spiral and kill me (as some people will tell you that they do).

NOTE: don't ever practice slow flight and stalls without a competent instructor along to act as safety pilot: See item 1 above.

Final tip: keep half an eye on your instructor next time you're up: if he doesn't look nervous, then ask yourself how hard he's working. I knew I was ready to solo when I realized that my CFI had never once put his hand on the stick to correct something I was doing: He wasn't working at all, every time I've flown with him, I was the only one flying the plane, except when he wanted to set up something or demonstrate something. Once you get to that point, take a deep breath and realize you're already a pilot.

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[paflyer]

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:

Avg weight 125lbs.

Love to see them do that with today's Jumbos.

 

[Duster]

Regardless of hours, most new flying regimes will/should get your attention. Tread carefully, and go forward armed with the best training and information you can find. After initial PPL certificate, seek out friendships/acquaintances with experienced aviators who may offer a broader perspective. In aviation, there is always so much to learn; we do what we can to train and prepare ourselves, but there is no substitute for direct experience!!!

Oh yeah, and take what people say on the internets with a massive grain of salt...


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[dmspilot]

any wrong move and I might die?

Why do you think that?

 

[ShuRugal]

Regardless of hours, most new flying regimes will/should get your attention. Tread carefully, and go forward armed with the best training and information you can find. After initial PPL certificate, seek out friendships/acquaintances with experienced aviators who may offer a broader perspective. In aviation, there is always so much to learn; we do what we can to train and prepare ourselves, but there is no substitute for direct experience!!!

Oh yeah, and take what people say on the internets with a massive grain of salt...


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How massive is this salt grain? Will there need to be a new W&B sheet drafted for it?

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[MadseasoN]

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.

You should watch those. Learn from others' mistakes.

It took me about 5 hours to get over the first bit of nervousness. Still comes around sometimes. Just tell yourself 'remember your training' when those feelings arise.

 

[Steve Kanefsky]

I was far more terrified the first time I drove a car in Driver's Ed in high school than the first time I flew a plane a few decades later (I'm probably still more terrified driving on ice than flying due to very limited experience). I had aced the classroom part of the class and was one of the first students to do the driving part, but when we got on the road I would freeze up and miss turns that my instructor asked me to make. He bumped me back to a later group and I ended up never going back. Then a year or so later I learned with my stepfather and it was no problem. Somehow I was just more ready to learn at that point, and my stepfather scared me much less than my Driver's Ed teacher (plus another student in the back seat).

In both cases I think it's mostly about learning to recognize what's going on around you so that you feel more on top of the situation and not overwhelmed by a bunch of unfamiliar things, getting a better feel for how the plane (or car) will react to something before you do it, and understanding what things (like a little turbulence) are nothing whatsoever to worry about. For example, when I started I remember being very nervous about pulling the throttle all the way to idle because somehow it felt like that would kill the engine or something.

Landings are a special case of course, and at first I was pretty nervous because I didn't have any sense about how perfect the approach would need to be in order to land successfully. It's easy to imagine that the tiniest error will result in total disaster, so getting a sense for what will result in an acceptable landing, and confidence that you can detect when it won't be acceptable and go around safely helps a lot (at least I assume so, I'm not 100% there yet )

I would recommend reading the book "Stick & Rudder" rather than watching crash videos. It's a much more friendly way of describing how the plane flies and how to avoid things like spins by understanding why they happen. It also talks some about turbulence and how overcorrecting for it makes it much worse than it needs to be.

 

[LongRoadBob]

Was thinking a little more about this. Wondering if this is really "fear" or just the realization that it is important to be aware and not mess up? Those two feelings are very similar (and probably a smidgen of fear in the second alternative, but it is not the dominate feeling) and some folks just feel it in a general way and call it fear. Deep down somewhere in me, maybe because my dad was a pilot and I kid myself it is in the blood, I still have a core of confidence that I can do this. Don't know if it is justified, but it helps me.

As a student too, like you, I go from feeling some fear, to very little (and lots of enjoyment) but am very aware that I need to make the right moves and also that there are ways I might get into trouble. It alternates. But fear isn't that big...although it helps a lot as several folks mention here and elsewhere that we students tend to overestimate the difficulty and danger, specially on things like landing (where the ground comes into play much bigger in our minds).
Liked Steves post just above and many others. I still think too, being aware of breathing and stiffness or holding controls too hard can help. Actively having my mind tell me "easy now...loosen up on that yoke" and "relax, breathe" seem to work for me. So far.

 

[Doug F]

Try flying early in the morning; way less dirty air before the ground heats up. See if you can get a few clear air days under your belt and then realize that the kind of turbulence you're flying in is no big deal (I'm assuming you're not flying near thunderstorms!) so just let the plane rock and roll a bit like hitting bumps on a highway...no sweat.

I came close to quitting my training a few months back when I had a really crappy day in the pattern; higher winds than I was used to, gusting, lots of traffic in the pattern, lots of radio calls (Class E no tower). If I flew the plane, I couldn't hear the radio. If I listened to the radio, I stopped flying the plane. Landings sucked. It was pretty bad. I posted here and got a lot of good feedback on the specific issues I was having (damn, this is the most optimistic group of people I have run into in a long time and thank you all for that). I also thought about the specific issues I was having and worked out a detailed short term training plan with my CFI with the understanding that if things got better, I'd keep on and if they didn't I was pulling the plug. Things got better. I'm now at my third postponed checkride (f' the damn weather!) and confident that I'll complete my SP certificate.

Be honest with yourself but don't beat yourself up; flying is not like driving a car...it is wicked complex. Debrief yourself after every flight and be detailed about your analysis(*). Try and figure out if there are areas you need specific help and talk to your CFI; that's why you pay them.

Side note: a couple of things really helped me understand how a plane responds to wind and turbulence. One of them was a day when my CFI did the takeoff. Full throttle, down the runway, rotate, build speed, climb out. It wasn't super bumpy that day but it wasn't glassy smooth air either. On the departure leg, he trimmed the plane and let go of the stick...wings tip a bit in the breeze, nose drops a bit, goes back up, plane is flying..look ma! No hands. HOLY CRAP, you don't need to choke the stick and respond to every little bump???? GA aircraft are built to be forgiving...relax your hands and shoulders...hold the stick with your fingertips not the palm of your hand...breath...seriously, breath...it helps.

Good luck.

(*) If you have an iPad, get ForeFlight and have it create track logs. Then upload them to CloudAhoy which allows you to see every detail of your flight. Being able to see my speed, altitude, and direction graphically was a huge help with things like flying the pattern and evaluating how my flight maneuvers actually went. Both cost a little bit but, what the hey, you're spending real money ever time you fly so I think they're worthwhile investments.

 

[Jeff Szlauko]

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.

I've felt the exact same way. Funny, that as much as I like planes, and find it fascinating, was always a white knuckle flyer, even on the big airlines. The first time a friend of mine took me up in a Cessna 172, I was, to say the least, very nervous. However, I also couldn't get over just how incredible the feeling of flying was. Got to thinking that if only I can get over my fear of flying, then I'd be able to truly enjoy it. Then, at about the third time up with him, as soon as we took off, I realized that all my fear had gone! It was weird, but in that one flight, I was able to relax and truly enjoy the experience.
That was years ago, and now I'm pursuing my Private Pilot's license...and currently about 42 hours into it. The first solo was nerve wracking, but other than that, I feel pretty relaxed flying. Turbulence used to get my heart rate up a bit, but now, it just doesn't phase me. There's so much to be said for simply experiencing it all, and getting used to it.
One thing that changed for me too was that it was not so much a matter of the flying feeling safer, as much as the driving felt more dangerous! Funny how much we take driving for granted, but let's face it...on a trip of any fair length, we probably pass hundreds, if not thousands of cars...any one of which could do something stupid and cause an accident. By comparison, in flying, we encounter only a handful of other planes, and we are all separated by the control tower, or ATC, and, as my friend once said, the sky is an awfully big place! So, the chance of running into another plane is about nil. And flying VFR, you've got a clear view of everything around you.

 

[jimhorner]

Avg weight 125lbs.

Love to see them do that with today's Jumbos.

Seems to be a relatively common marketing ploy from a certain era to load up a bunch of people on a wing and take a picture. The below is a marketing photo with a similarly loaded Bellanca Viking.

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[Challenged]

The picture of the Bellanca above is a little unique in that all those people actually hung on while it did a full loop around the pattern.