My father taught me that nugget of wisdom years ago. It is fitting on so many levels and definitely applies to times when I have anxiety or unwarranted fear. The type of fear that keeps one off roller coasters and sometimes public places has useful properties yet the side effects can be completely useless! Especially when flying. I’ll bet there are many pilots who experience fear while flying. It’s often quoted that flying is made up of hours of boredom peppered with moments of panic. For someone like me who is prone to anxiety it makes it even more difficult to overcome not only the mental and physical challenges but also these ghost challenges that the mind conjures up.
In aviation we call them human factors. For instance did you know that as you climb higher and higher, the brain receives less oxygen. The brain doesn’t naturally assume “oh this is because I am high up in an airplane” it just senses a lack of oxygen. A suffocating feeling at best. If you were not trained to “know better” you might actually panic, and get into a mode where you actually ARE in danger instead of just THINK you are in danger. See the fine line there?
Rica for example has very little anxiety when it comes to flying, roller coasters, sky diving, she is a thrill seeker. Last week when Louis and I were performing “unusual attitudes” in the C172 she was LOVING IT! I was under the hood so didn’t get to experience much of the visuals but certainly felt the roller coaster effects in my tummy. Most instructors will not allow a passenger if we are performing some of the more “wild” things like slips, unusual attitudes or even steep turns as they are considered the “pilot’s domain” and not really meant for pax. In this case the pilot actually has more fear of them than the passenger! The weapon against fear is knowledge. If you know that you are experiencing something due to a known factor, it is far easier to deal with it.
I don’t care for the feeling of unusual attitudes yet I am 100% able to recover from them and then calm myself immediately after. I don’t care for the feeling of “G” yet I LOVE to fly and therefore I put up with it. Someone else might go on to learn full aerobatics and high G. I am content to fly standard rate, shiny side up thank you.
Does this make me a bad pilot? I sure hope not! I always try to remain ahead of the curve both in knowledge and in proficiency. If anything becoming aware of the items that bother me, make me a batter pilot. I also do push my limits and try to become the best pilot I can be and not just “another hour around the pattern”.
I noticed on my last flight, while climbing out for the second circuit I felt a little bit of vertigo. Not enough to worry anyone but since I am ultra sensitive to it, I clued into what was happening. I believe that on my final approach I probably was breathing a bit shallowly, when I raised the nose to take off I leaned forward instead of just remaining calmly in my seat. The airspeed indicated climbing towards 80 KT when I felt the vertigo. My mind expected to see 67 KT and yet to lean back made me feel at an awkwardly nose high attitude. These crossed signals to my brain caused me to get “dizzy”. I believe that the correct thing to do is to maintain my seated posture even if it’s uncomfortable for a moment as the signals that my brain and body receive will at least be coincidental. I can then accept the feeling more readily. If instead I try to “fight” the sensations they will get lost in the ensuing vertigo or other human factor based result. I managed to overcome this bout simply by sitting correctly and then looking at what I needed to do to put the aircraft back into profile. Another habit I need to break is nodding my head to answer the instructor’s questions. It’s far easier on all to simply say “Yes” into the mic but instead I bob, bob my head along and it makes me somewhat sick when flying at night.
I wish that Canada had the same “vertigo simulator” that the FAA has so that I could try to experience and avoid these feelings in a safer place, something like immersion therapy. Or I guess I could just go “man up” and fly! Maybe these feelings are completely normal and expected and this is why Canada demands these dual hours for the rating? I’ll accept that!