I've been across the big pond to Africa twice. First time I was so hyped the flight didnt bother me as much as I thought, although it was always on my mind. Maybe scared a 7 on a scale of 10. Second time I got no sleep from the time I left Atlanta till the I got in hunting camp. Even took 3-4 heavy duty slipping pills with no affect. 9.75 on scale of 10. Preparing myself for the 3rd trip (this time next year) and with the recent plane crashes in the last year I'm more scared then ever. Petrified would come closer to describing it. Yeah I'm a wimp. I know I'm going but being a glutten for being scared so I'd like to hear things that have happened that scared you on your flights. Lighting strikes, heavy turbulence, engine problems.... go ahead, scare me more! Ahh the things we do for hunting.

Solution: Take a train to NYC, a ship to the UK, cruise again from Southampton to Capetown and then overland from there to your final destination. Ideally take Rovos Rail on the last leg as much as possible. All this will probably take what, about 15+ days and cost you at least four or five times the price of a coach class air ticket.

That said, I think it would be a great way to start and end a safari...as long as you had two months to spare for the whole event!

Well here is what worked for me.

1. We all die, no one gets out alive. When our time is up it is up and frankly a plane accident is probably not the worst way to go.

2. Statistically you can fly every day to somewhere and back for 5000 years and still beat the odds of being in a fatal airplane accident (unless you fly aeroflot). Just shows how many people fly each day.

3. You get to hunt Africa

Reasoning won't overcome a phobia because they are irrational by definition. You just need stronger drugs, my man!

I think the international flights probably experience less tubulence and weather related problems that local flights because of the higher altitude that the plane is flying. The roughest flights I have had were the shorter local flights. I think the flight may be safer than the driving you do when you get there. The previous poster is probably right, no amount of rationalization is going to help if you have a real phobia.

I wouldn't fly if I were you. Your fears are real. Transfer your prepaid safari and airfare to me.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
Reasoning won't overcome a phobia because they are irrational by definition. You just need stronger drugs, my man!

Forget the Ambien and get your hands on something useful, like oxycodone. It certainly shortens the flight.

i've been to Africa a number of time and even had to jump off the ramp on a 130 so please buck it up.

Just remember it's not the fall that kills you but the sudden stop

There is something you can do take an extension cord along if you find the plane going down hold on to one end and throw it out dam extension cord will always hang up on something.

I've attended a lot of funerals and all the eulogies of those who died told of how great, and good, and kind they were. Have you ever heard of someone being eulogized as being a shithead or asshole? Only good people die.

My suggestion is to steal old people's Ben-Gay and kick puppy dogs just before you go on your trip. That's the best life insurance.

Namibiahunter

You gents are always good for a few laughs, thanks! I imagine I'll survive but won't have any finger nails or hair left when I arrive. Then I have to start worrying about getting home. I'd take a boat if I didnt have a fear of drowning

When I flew to Africa at the end of April, the turbulence was terrible going over the Gulf of Guinea. I thought for sure the wings were going to break off.

I talked to a guy from Boeing about a week later that said when they test a plane, they anchor it to the ground and have a crane pull up on each wing tip. He said that the tips of the wings will actually touch above the plane before they break. After hearing that, I haven't been so concerned since.

Remember, if a plane is going to crash it, is usually on take-off or landing. That means for the 16 hours in between you have nothing to worry about.

Bwana91

I was afraid of flying too until a young man of about ten, who was traveling by himself and sitting in front of me on a flight, responded to the flight attendant's query as to whether he was afraid of flying with, "No M'am, but I am afraid of crashing".

quote:

Originally posted by Duckear:
I wouldn't fly if I were you. Your fears are real. Transfer your prepaid safari and airfare to me.

What a real gentelman!

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
Reasoning won't overcome a phobia because they are irrational by definition.

How true.

I was in a 747 during rough weather once. Those wings were flapping like you wouldn't believe. I tell you though, there is nothing at all that makes you feel good about a plane then experiencing an inclement weather take-off in a 747. You know that plane has power. A good feeling.

Your life is obviously way too good. I just don't give a sh!t. If the plane goes down, I'll never know it. When I get hit with turbulence in a plane, big or small, it's beyond my control -- I'm either going to live or die. Who cares? I've told my wife if I die in Africa, let them bury me in a pauper's grave and for God's sake don't pay to ship my carcass home. Worry about the things you can control and change. Leave the rest to God, fate, chance or whatever you believe in.

The pilot and crew want to walk away just like you...
All kidding aside some meds to take the edge off and you will be fine...

Remember on my returning to USA landing at Atlanta we were on final approach down to less then a 100 ft and the GD pilot puts the petal to the metal and up and around we go... Radio crackles folks sorry but I missed the landing...New airplane and latest aviononics When those engines on the airbus roared I about shit, thought we were gonners... That screw up cost me getting on my connection and had to wait it five pm instead of 8am home...


Mike

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Your life is obviously way too good. I just don't give a sh!t. If the plane goes down, I'll never know it. When I get hit with turbulence in a plane, big or small, it's beyond my control -- I'm either going to live or die. Who cares? I've told my wife if I die in Africa, let them bury me in a pauper's grave and for God's sake don't pay to ship my carcass home. Worry about the things you can control and change. Leave the rest to God, fate, chance or whatever you believe in.

AMEN!!!!!!!! some things are beyond your control and therefore are not worth wasting time worrying about

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:

Remember on my returning to USA landing at Atlanta we were on final approach down to less then a 100 ft and the GD pilot puts the petal to the metal and up and around we go... Radio crackles folks sorry but I missed the landing...New airplane and latest aviononics When those engines on the airbus roared I about shit, thought we were gonners... That screw up cost me getting on my connection and had to wait it five pm instead of 8am home...


Mike

The GD pilot did what is known as a go around it is simple and often used procedure. I wind up doing a couple a year on average on the line usually for traffic separation issues. If a guy decides to go around rather than push a bad position on landing you should be thanking him for his professionalism rather than bitching about having to wait 3 hours for your next connection.

People don't EVER get killed by going around they do however die all the time becuase a pilot did NOT go around when he should have. That is akin to being pissed off because your cruise ship captain chose not to speed through an area full of icebergs and it made you a late to the dock.

I get sick and tired of hearing the general public bitch about pilots and the airlines when they are making the safest and most professional decisions. We get paid to save people from themselves.

Last year's hunting trip to Houston got a little hairy when a fuel truck drove across the runway when we were just a matter of feet from "wheels down".

I did not realize you could do a touch-and-go in a 737, but it sure got everybody's attention in a hurry! The pilot apologized for the scare as we were going around, and he did not sound happy. Those guys are good.

I was on an MD 80 going into Oakland when we did a go around. We were pretty close to wheels down but that other plane just wouldn't get off the tarmac.

An Uncle of mine was flying from Johannesburg through to Cape Town and then onto the states, on the way there they hit a massive airpocket, he fractured his skull and another woman broke her back on the flight....

Imagine falling through nothing for a 1000 feet!!! i experience white knuckles when we land in some small strips in Zim but flying commercial is the pits, well economy class anyway. i am 6ft 5 and i feel like a canned lion in a cage with his balls in a mouse trap. its not a pleasant experience.

On the topic of landings, in Dakar we had a rookie pilot of some sort botch the landing, he hit the ground so hard the oxygen bags popped out, we had to wait 2 hours while they assesed the damage and then continued with our flight over the big pond, i was nearvous then man

Crosswind landing - spooky but done with at the end (no crashes eventually):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RdxU-0W-RE

No worries - it is beyond your control anyway - not so for pilots - ask the navy pilots about night landings on carier

quote:

Those guys are good.

Yes they are! I had a near "touch and go" landing in bad weather a couple winters ago in the US. We were bouncing around all over the place on approach and the pilot punched it just a few meters of the ground. He spoke to passengers on the intercom a few minutes later and just calmly said "Uh...yeah, we weren't too happy with that approach so we're going to go around and try it again". We came in and tried again after being stuck in a holding pattern for 30 minutes and, to be honest, the approach seemed much rockier than the first one but the pilot stuck that landing. He got more than a few heart handshakes from passengers on the way off the plane I can tell you that!

Never had a scare on a commercial flight, but I had two in small airplanes back when I used to fly:
I was doing my first solo cross country in Cessna 152 and was on approach to the Macon, GA airport when the ATC tells me to hold off and maintain altitude for a B-1 Bomber landing at Warner Robbins AFB. I look to my left and sure enough there was this B-1 heading right for me. Talk about pucker factor..finally he turned for his final and they cleared me for landing. He never really got that close to me, but it made me quite nervous. I ate up a lot of runway landing that 152
The other occured while flying a Piper Warrior II over our hunting land one cold day in late January. I was looking for some open water to hunt ducks in a big swamp we have. I was less than a 1000 feet over the swamp doing a tight left turn when my RPM's in the engine started to slowly drop. I came out of the turn and pushed the nose over slightly and reached for my checklist. I remember thinking "I'll never get thru the list before I have to set this thing down" Once I got the book open, one of the first items on the list was to turn on the carb heat. I threw the carb heat switch and after a few seconds the RPM's began to climb. Entire incident from start to finish wasnt more than 20 or 30 seconds I dont think, but I didnt take my eyes off the tach or blink the whole way back to the airport.

Well, I had hoped for a better video than this, but all I found was a scratchy audio track.

Ron White on Flying

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:

Remember on my returning to USA landing at Atlanta we were on final approach down to less then a 100 ft and the GD pilot puts the petal to the metal and up and around we go... Radio crackles folks sorry but I missed the landing...New airplane and latest aviononics When those engines on the airbus roared I about shit, thought we were gonners... That screw up cost me getting on my connection and had to wait it five pm instead of 8am home...


Mike

The GD pilot did what is known as a go around it is simple and often used procedure. I wind up doing a couple a year on average on the line usually for traffic separation issues. If a guy decides to go around rather than push a bad position on landing you should be thanking him for his professionalism rather than bitching about having to wait 3 hours for your next connection.

People don't EVER get killed by going around they do however die all the time becuase a pilot did NOT go around when he should have. That is akin to being pissed off because your cruise ship captain chose not to speed through an area full of icebergs and it made you a late to the dock.

I get sick and tired of hearing the general public bitch about pilots and the airlines when they are making the safest and most professional decisions. We get paid to save people from themselves.

Say on brother, I'm not a pilot, and am not scared of flying, but if the man or woman in charge doesn't like the conditions for ANY reason, I'm all for them trying again. The pilot can try to be safe all the time or he'll probably only be sorry once.

quote:

Originally posted by darkside:
I've been across the big pond to Africa twice. First time I was so hyped the flight didnt bother me as much as I thought, although it was always on my mind. Maybe scared a 7 on a scale of 10. Second time I got no sleep from the time I left Atlanta till the I got in hunting camp. Even took 3-4 heavy duty slipping pills with no affect. 9.75 on scale of 10. Preparing myself for the 3rd trip (this time next year) and with the recent plane crashes in the last year I'm more scared then ever. Petrified would come closer to describing it. Yeah I'm a wimp. I know I'm going but being a glutten for being scared so I'd like to hear things that have happened that scared you on your flights. Lighting strikes, heavy turbulence, engine problems.... go ahead, scare me more! Ahh the things we do for hunting.

I'm not sure how effective they are, but there are numerous classes and courses offered to help those with aerophobia. I'd try one of them if I were you. I understand phobias, they are not rational, I have a semi-controllable fear of heights, being on a plane doesn't bother me, but I'm certainly not one of those guys who are going to walk up to a cliff and piss off the edge either.

If classes are not available, and even if you can attend one, I'd consult with my doctor and try to find some kind of pschotropic drug that depresses your fear while leaving you at least semi-capable of rational actions. Sleeping pills might work, or you might need some type of anti-depressant. Sounds kind of silly, but get 3 or 4 different ones and see how they affect you. People's reactions to different drugs vary widely.

quote:

i am 6ft 5 and i feel like a canned lion in a cage with his balls in a mouse trap. its not a pleasant experience.

I'm only 6ft but I go about 275lbs...

I'm truly dreading squeezing myself into those seats for 18 hours...

Being a weight lifter hurts allot more than it helps sometimes...

Not too concerned about plane going down though...

Like others said it's pretty low odds...

But if I do go down as long as it's on the return trip I'll die a happy man...

Matt V.

Darkside,

Seriously you could go to your Doc and explain your situation. He might be able to give you some more suitable meds than sleeping pills. It sounds like your anxiety level is MAC 10 and there are good drugs for that. Of course getting real drunk might work but then there is the hangover to deal with.

Mark

On our last flight from Frankfurt to Windhoek, one of the engines caught on fire on take off and we had to circle for two hours while dumping fuel before returning to Frankfurt where we received the royal welcome of countless fire trucks and emergency vehicles. The thing that amazed me was how calm everyone remained and how calm everyone was the next morning when we caught another flight. Everyone actually cheered and laughed when the plane took off without incident.

Fear of flying must be very dibilitating and I only relay this story to demonstrate that even when things go horribly wrong, the outcome is typically good!

Check this out

www.fearofflyinghelp.com

Looks like a commercial pilot created this course to educate people with a fear of flying so they can fly without fear. I looked at a few of the short films on youtube I think and they were pretty good.

I have a good friend of mine I was hunting with in Saskatchewan. Some years back he was flying back home to Louisiana from Calgary. I don't recall the airline, but it was something like a 4 hour flt normally. About 1 hour into flt. pilot comes on intercom and says, "Folks, we have a problem." Not what you'd prefer to hear. "We losing all our hydraulic pressure and are declaring an emergency. I have to lower the flaps now or I won't be able to get them down later. This will involve us flying much lower and slower than normal." They fly low and slow for a LOONG while and divert to SLC, I believe because they had long runways and good fire equipment available.......pilot tells everyone that he thinks they'll be okay but he has no brakes and to brace for landing.......you can tell the stress he was under........he does a great job just clearing the end of runway before touching down and rolling out, they finally ran off runway at other end to a stop, no real problems but they're stuck in the mud, pilot comes on the intercom and says, "Folks, sorry about that rough ending, but GODDAMN we're on the ground." and that's a real quote.

I FEEL FOR YOU< MAN! I hope this helps;

Two blind pilots both are wearing dark glasses, one is using a guide
dog, and the other is tapping his way along the aisle with a cane.


Nervous laughter spreads through the cabin, but the men enter the
cockpit, the door closes, and the engines start up. The passengers begin
glancing nervously around, searching for some sign that this is just a
little practical joke. None is forthcoming.



The plane moves faster and faster down the runway and the people sitting

in the window seats realize they're headed straight for the water at the edge of the
airport. As it begins to look as though the plane will plough into the
water, panicked screams fill the cabin. At that moment, the plane lifts
smoothly into the air. The passengers relax and laugh a little
sheepishly, and soon all retreat into their magazines, secure in the
knowledge that the plane is in good hands.



In the cockpit, one of the blind pilots turns to the other and says, "Ya
know, Bob, one of these days, they're gonna scream too late and we're
all gonna die."

The time I was the most scared while flying:

Actually it occured right before take-off so we really wern't flying but I was in an airplane.
I was flying out of Midland Texas in 94 with my mistress at the time; and we where headed to Denver Colorado. As some of you might know Midland is a small airport and therefore small planes. We where on this Delta 30 seater turbo prop job. As the pilot pulled away from the gate, I overheard a man talking with a woman behind us. "Yea, I'm a Private Eye, A lady hired me to fly to Denver to catch her husband fooling around with his mistress. She said they would be at this little ski resort south of town and to call her when I got there."
Now, this resort is a small resort 4-5 couples MAX and he is going to the same resort as us...

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Darkside,

Seriously you could go to your Doc and explain your situation. He might be able to give you some more suitable meds than sleeping pills. It sounds like your anxiety level is MAC 10 and there are good drugs for that. Of course getting real drunk might work but then there is the hangover to deal with.

Mark

+1 I was being serious in an irreverant format. I think that the effort to overcome a flying phobia is wasted on the occasional traveler unless you want to deal with it out of principal. If a new career requires a lot of air travel, then things are different.

You need an anti-anxiety med, not a sleep aid. But stay the hell away from Xanax unless you want to take it the rest of your life. There are better short-term alternatives than that crap. And resist the temptation to tell your doctor your traveling again when you really not.

i approach it this way
when your numbers up,your numbers up
won't matter where you are
but, when you do stupid shit
they give you a low number
seriously,better living thru chemistry
and dream of all the horn and claw treasures
you will bring back,good luck

While I fly in a 4 seat cessna for work a fair amount, I do get very anxious and cramped on commercial flights. Mark is right just go tell your doctor and pick up a few Xanax. This calm you right down but does not make me feel as "drugged" as sleeping pills.

Yes, Mark has it right.