Nightmares about powerlines...

[gyro]

I wanted to start this as a new thread as some of U may never go past the video on the J-sin posting from Ron. to sum this up.... it appears that several of us members here on the forums have had very similar dreams about power wires or some kind of obstruction that prevented a takeoff or even after getting airborne there was a conglomerate of power lines that kept us no more than a few feet from the ground.
I know in my dreams it's a never ending search to find a hole in the over laced lines and get through it, but when I find this elusive hole I never have enough power to climb. I find this very interesting several of us have these dreams and I would like to hear more if there are anymore of you out there.

I'm not asking for just any type of flying dream but those that are closely related to an obstruction that prevented a takeoff or flying to due to power lines, ropes, cables etc.

Anyway here is a recap of my posting...
"Guys its strange how a lot of us have had very similar dreams, especially dealing with power lines. I have had numerous dreams over the years that I am trying to take off and when I get airborne the sky is covered with power wires. I search endlessly for an opening and seem to never find it. My cranking and banking to find the opening makes Birdys flying look like he's riding a tricycle.
And when I do find the opening, I never have enough power to make it up and through....what nightmares! My wife has woke me up several times during these episodes....I guess I get a bit carried away!"
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[Tina]

Hi Paul,

I have the same dream and had them most all my life.

I am flying along no problems then when I want to go up higher there are some power lines in the way. I have to fly low and I keep looking up trying to find a opening and can't find one, I even think can I go between them and make it ok but always decide I better not and fly back to the ground. In my dreams I get real frustrated. I do have many dreams of flying with no problems but once in a wail that power line dream happens and its scary

I have talked to others that have this same dream, it is remarkable we all have this in common. I think they should do away with all power lines they are stuff of night mares and there ugly too

[rustynance]

I'm certainly not the seen it all and done it all guy, but I've been around the block a few times. Three overseas deployments, been shot at many times, shot back a few, flew 550 hours crop dusting in 4 months, was the chief test pilot for the Carter Copter for a little while; but, the closest I have every came do death was from power lines. They deserve respect and are a very real hazard for anything that flies low. Can be very hard to see in good conditions, much less when the visibility starts to decrease. Keep your eyes open and stay alert. A good high recon before you drop into that field could keep you out of trouble.
Rusty

[Gary_in_Orygun]

I too have had those same dreams with power lines not letting me get up above the powerline level. To put on my Sigmund Freud hat...

I find that when I generally have those types of dreams there is something in my life that is limiting or frustrating me.

Then there are the other types of flying dreams: Where I do not have a flying machine at all. I'm flying like superman, or a bird. Those dreams are exhilerating. I always wake up from those type very elated. And...life is usually kicked back when I have those types. I'm in control and things are going my way.

[Udi]

I have had the same kind of dreams. I need to tell my wife that many of us are having this kind of dreams - her hobby is dream work. In my dreams, the wires don't keep me from taking off or climbing, but they just show up and I have to work very hard to navigate thru them and I am in a constant fear of hitting one. I think these dreams started after I had a near miss with my hang glider. I was landing (real world - not a dream) in a sloped field that had power lines running parallel to the end of the field. Due to the slope, I got closer and closer to the wires. At the bottom of the field I had to turn 90 degrees and fly parallel to the wires towards some trees. Eventually, I had to land on top of a 10x10 ft shack that was standing right in the corner between the trees and the wires. Someone took a picture but I never got a copy.

I am also having other variations of flying "problems" dreams. Just a few days ago I was preparing for a short cross country flight (in my dream) and all kinds of problems kept popping up that prevented me from taking off. The last problem was that my rotor blades were suddenly all bent, like after a crash, so I had to cancel the flight.

I think that in our dreams, our brains are making us exercise dealing with some situations we are afraid to deal with in our daily lives, but I have to ask my wife what her more "scientific" interpretations say.

Udi

[gyroplanes]

I've had the powerline dreams too.

BUT

The strangest thing happened a few years ago.

I was delivering an Air Command to the pacific northwest. I wanted to visit Sport copters and also see the air museum at Tillamook, OR. The air museum is housed in a giant blimp hangar.

We arrived at the Tillamook airport very late at night, pulled the motorhome in the parking lot and went to sleep.

I dreamt I was flying a very small and strange Bell Jet Ranger. I have 12 hours of dual in a Bell Jet Ranger and have never dreamt of flying one before. My helicopter flight dreams are always in a Chinook?? go figure??

My strange dream, Bell Jet Ranger was horribly shortened and had wheels, I can best describe it as a rotary winged golf cart that looked like a Jet Ranger. It was easy to fly and we had all 4 seats filled. It was small enough that flying it inside the blimp hangar was no problem.

The next morninig we entered the museum. Among the displays was a Bell Jet Ranger simulator on wheels. It was the cabin section of a Bell on a wheeled platform. It couldn't fly, obviously, but it was almost exactly like the helicopter in my dreams.

I had not seen a brochure or web site about the museum. This is one of the most cosmic coincidences I've ever experienced.

[Gary_in_Orygun]

Tom, If you believe in OOBE (Out of Body Experiences) or travel then:

In your sleep you might have taken a sneak-peek tour (without your body) of the museum. The OOB state can get interpreted or remembered as a dream and get mixed up with other subconscious thoughts.

Life is full of infinite possibilities if we are open to looking for them.

[Paul_in_Ohio]

Mark me down for this dream as well. It starts off as I am driving down a road with trees and telephone poles on both sides. Then I pull back on the steering wheel and I am airborne, except there are wires on every telephone pole running parallel and perpendicular to the street. I can't "Find the Hole in the Wires". It isn't scary to me, just annoying. Like trying to pass a car that keeps cutting you off...

[Doug Riley]

During dream sleep, our brain paralyzes our skeletal muscles, much as a shot of curare would. This tactic probably evolved precisely to keep us from acting out our dreams and falling off cliffs.

I suspect that the dreams that many people report that involve trying to escape some confinement or danger, only to find themselves weak or slow, are reactions to this self-induced paralysis. The power-line thing sounds like the pilot's version of this archetypical nightmare.

I haven't experienced it myself. I must not have enough flight hours to be entitled to the "pilot's special."

I've had a couple pseudo-ESP aviation experiences. As a kid, I saw a certain school and grounds in the town of Norwalk, Conn. I later dreamed that it was an airport. My father had some stories about a certain pre-WWII airport in that town (where he grew up). When I asked where it had been, he said it was on the site now occupied by that school. I was born in 1955 (well, this time around, at least).

[Caribean_gyro]

I never worried about powerlines because I allways plan to fly high enought to do a no-power landing, nor I chose my course around danger areas.

Now becasue power lines my relationship with god is closer.

I was coming from an airshow in my KB2 many years ago. I was using an R&D cdi for the MC. SInce it consumed battery in my last stop I was waiting for the ground crew to show up with a full charge battery when a security guard from the private airport we landed started harrasing every one that landed there. So every one took off and I follow them.

15 minutes into flight the engine went to almost idle. I push full throtle but no luck. I was planning to swith back to my original magneto cofig. since this sistem, allow for cdi/magneto. But having a hard time starting it in magneto I elected not to switch.

I declare a mayday and started a glide. I most glide perhaps 1 to to 2 miles. I though I could land in the grass that devide the highway. No! bad idea cars will not stop fast or blade can hit a car.

I decided for a Mall. no is full. why not the roof? is metal and how I am going to bring the machine down? so I continued until I raize my eyes and there it was 6 hugh transmition lines of more tha 100k. I remember a friend that told me try to go thru it and cut it with you winds? yeah right in a plane not in a gyro . So I raize my eyes had a talked with him pray forgivenes and ask for a small favor. That if he can give me an updraft to clear the wire I would be gratfull.

So from no where came this vertical lift putting me to fly back and up then It quit. leting me go and I flew over the wires bank to the right and clear 2 trees and landed next to a jail.

after making a text book landing I realize what had happen. SO I have not dream about it I have live it.
chuckP

[Heron]

Tom MIlton is traveling in the future . . . probing the possibilites ahead!
When I had my paper route I use to dream I lost my car in a huge parking lot with all the folded papers inside . . .I then knew it was time to wake up and go to work at 3 am.
When I had my burger trailer, I used to make hamburgers all night, after a while I quit, could not stand the smell of burned fat day and night.
HIgh wires must be a regular nightmare for pilots and it is the way the body tells you to stay grounded, dreams . . .
Flying is the strugle between body and mind . . .
What? Are you out of your mind?
Shut up . . .I know what I am doing!
Heron

[Brent Drake]

I wonder if part of my dreams are from flying alot. I'm always looking for a place to land even though things are going well, just as a precaution. My son told me the other day while flying, how come you always say powerline in the intercom. I explained to him about always looking for a road to land on if we need to and almost always in my part of the country, there is either lines running parallel to the road or crossing the road. And evidently unintentially I gues when I look down and see a road with powerlines, the only thing I say outloud is powerline. But I dream of an engine failure and only having about 3 minutes till ground. I constantly scan the landing areas and there are powerlines everywhere. Why don't the bury the D*** things.!

We had a guy a few years ago land on interstate 74 that runs thru town. He ran out of gas after dark and followed the car headlights to land. After he called the 911, I show up and the guy had went over some very high voltage towers by a few feet, then landed on the interstate and after touching the ground and still moving about 50mph he went under an overpass. I told him God must have been watching him very close that night.

[Harry_S.]

Surprisingly, by the response to this thread, most pilots have had similar type dreams.

I've had this type dream for many years, off and on. Mine started with fixed wing before I ever got into gyros. I would be on a long *city street* with buildings on either side...and no wires present. Take off was no problem but as I flew down the street, some wires came into view. As I climbed to clear those wires, some more appeared, then they appeared on the sides whenever I banked away from those in front.

As I cleared some by either going under or over, more and more would appear where, eventually, I was enmeshed in wires...Then I woke up.

I've had similar type dreams while flying a gyro...plus other wierd, repetitive theme type dreams. Really wierd ones, involving golf and or guns.


Cheers

[Chuck Roberg]

I never had a dream about powerlines. After reading this thread. I most likely will, tonight.

[Udi]

Originally Posted by Doug Riley

...I suspect that the dreams that many people report that involve trying to escape some confinement or danger, only to find themselves weak or slow, are reactions to this self-induced paralysis. The power-line thing sounds like the pilot's version of this archetypical nightmare...

I have both types, Doug, and although both trigger similar emotions for me, I don't believe they are related. The paralysis dreams are completely focused on the frustration that comes with your inability to control your muscles. The power line dreams involve external limitations to your freedom of movement, not internal. In these dreams we have full control of our "flying" (i.e. our muscles are fully functional), but we face external challenges.

I have talked with my wife (the dream analyst) about our common dream and she was very interested. She says every dream may have several "layers" of meaning, which are very different for different people, but when so many people are having the same dream it may point towards a common social issue, rather than a personal one.

Here are a few random thoughts for your review. See if any of them strikes a chord with you:

- In the dream world, flying is a symbol for spirituality. For us pilots, going flying may be our spiritual escape. You leave the bonds of earth; you let your spirit fly. The power lines, in your dreams, may symbolize obstacles to your freedom or spirituality in the real world.

- Power lines are man made obstacles. Our modern civilization is full of technological advances, like electricity, that in some ways may become obstacles in other parts of our lives. Some people say technology may become a burden for some. Does technology in the modern age makes you a free and happier person or does it feel more like a burden or an obstacle to your spiritual development?

- Power lines show up at the last minute. In our dreams, power lines may symbolize obstacles in our daily lives that we don’t know about until it is (almost) too late. Power lines are also deadly obstacles.

Some food for thought…

Udi