Fear of heights?

[Kevin_Richey]

(Posts moved here from another topic thread: Aviomania)

Yeah I’m afraid of heights. I wouldn’t do that if you put a gun to my head. I always thought it weird that I loved to fly. I found out most gyro pilots I know also have a fear of heights.

Yes, very strange.

I also don't like heights. Specifically when I can think: One misstep and I'm dead or in a wheelchair...
Like being on the roof of our house. Mostly I'm afraid to forget where I am and thereby fall.
Some safety equipment would fix that, of course

But in my gyro at 1200 feet I feel really safe.... go figure..

Cheers
Erik

I so remember going up to 3000 feet agl in my Bensen gyro back in 1980. Sitting there feeling like I wasn't moving at all...no terrain moving ...I did not like it...and came down to where the trees and fields, and ditches were moving under me as I typically flew under 200 feet 90% of the time. When I got my Air Command with a pod...I visited 3000 feet often. In my RAF I joined the mile high club..

not what you think...but I took a picture of my altimeter at 5280 feet....which by the way was always set to 0 when I flew locally. My SparrowHawk had me up to 7200 feet agl....and my Helicycle visited the world a mile off the ground...feeling safe with the cabin around me.

Me too. I've often wondered what motivates us to do something we fear.

One would be surprised how many people that fly are afraid of heights. I don't know if a methodical scientific study has been done and what percentage of pilots are afraid of heights. Early in my aviation life, I thought it was strange. As the years progressed and I met more and more pilots that are afraid of heights, I absolutely do not think it is strange anymore.

Wayne

I am a telephone man by trade. I have had to qualify climbing poles on gaffs three times in my life. I was so damn scared I almost pissed myself. I pushed through because my career depended on it. My job doesn’t require more than climbing a ladder occasionally but they use the pole climbing to weed out the weak

My coworkers always ask me how can you get in that lawn chair with a weed eater motor if you are afraid of heights? Try to explain to them it’s different when you’re not connected to the ground.

They freak out when I tell them I once went to a mile high. Trying to explain how the seat continues to get smaller the higher you go is fun to explain. They don’t understand the adrenaline rush being afraid of heights and taming it by controlling the machine gives you.

Great way of putting it, Mike. Yes, similar thing here. Can't go to hollow hotel and look over railing. My job occasionally requires getting on a lift and I get the same willies you describe. The fear subsides in a plane once my eyes are far enough from ground to lose meaningful stereoscopic distance judgement.

I've veered off topic but it's nice to learn I'm not unique. Odd perhaps but...

Funny thing is working aloft in a bucket truck or cherry picker gives me no fear. While working on the border in 1994 installing lights and poles for the Border Patrol we had a 90 foot scissors lift with a three man bucket we rented. I loved operating that. It had a joystick on it and it was almost like I was flying.

 

[Andino]

"I'm not afraid of heights. I've a fear of widths." - Steven Wright

 

[MikeBoyette]

Actually now that I think about it I’m not actuall afraid of heights. I’m actually afraid of falling from height.

 

[Resasi]

Free fall/sky diving sorts that out.

 

[MikeBoyette]

Free fall/sky diving sorts that out

Well then I guess it’s not fall I’m afraid of it’s the sudden stop. Lol.

 

[mcross1882]

Funny enough I have the same problem. I can go up to 3-5k ft AGL and just love it. The other weekend I go up in my attic to do some AC work. Our ceilings can't be more than 10ft tall but when I had to shimmy over the attic opening to get to my AC that drop down just made my feet go numb.

 

[WaspAir]

Sometimes a sudden change can surprise you and provoke nervousness. I took my Bell 47 up the Kings Canyon, crossing the Sierras from west to east. One the west side, the mountains slope upward at about the same angle as a good climb rate in the Bell, so I maintained about 700 agl for a very long time to get from the lowlands up above 12,000 ft, climbing with the rising terrain for around half an hour.

The east side, facing Lone Pine and the Mojave, is precipitously steep by contrast. As I crossed the ridge near Mt. Whitney, after so long just above the trees, I almost instantaeously went from 700 agl to about 12,000 agl. That produced a real "holy crap" response that I imagine is what fear of heights might feel like.

 

[MikeBoyette]

Sometimes a sudden change can surprise you and provoke nervousness. I took my Bell 47 up the Kings Canyon, crossing the Sierras from west to east. One the west side, the mountains slope upward at about the same angle as a good climb rate in the Bell, so I maintained about 700 agl for a very long time to get from the lowlands up above 12,000 ft, climbing with the rising terrain for around half an hour.

The east side, facing Lone Pine and the Mojave, is precipitously steep by contrast. As I crossed the ridge near Mt. Whitney, after so long just above the trees, I almost instantaeously went from 700 agl to about 12,000 agl. That produced a real "holy crap" response that I imagine is what fear of heights might feel like.

That’s similar to the rush I got when I did the verticals sink in that tiny cloud.

 

[WaspAir]

That’s similar to the rush I got when I did the verticals sink in that tiny cloud.

This sort of rush (the sudden two mile agl change) I can do without. It lacked the essential element of enjoyment.

When we lived in Manhattan, my wife used to say that New Yorkers found the city exciting. I would always counter that they had simply misidentified abject fear.

 

[MikeBoyette]

Well my Dad and I have always talked about flying over a sheer cliff. I know because of airspace restrictions it would be impossible but, the Grand Canyon would be the ultimate. Take off in the gyro flying just a few feet off the ground as you approach the rim then all if sudden you’re a mile up (or whatever it is). That would be a rush like no other.

 

[GyrOZprey]

Sometimes a sudden change can surprise you and provoke nervousness. I took my Bell 47 up the Kings Canyon, crossing the Sierras from west to east. One the west side, the mountains slope upward at about the same angle as a good climb rate in the Bell, so I maintained about 700 agl for a very long time to get from the lowlands up above 12,000 ft, climbing with the rising terrain for around half an hour.

The east side, facing Lone Pine and the Mojave, is precipitously steep by contrast. As I crossed the ridge near Mt. Whitney, after so long just above the trees, I almost instantaeously went from 700 agl to about 12,000 agl. That produced a real "holy crap" response that I imagine is what fear of heights might feel like.

Yep in June 2017 ...when Glenn Kerr & I flew for 5 days around Moab area ...prior to attending Rotors Over the Rockies .....the visual jolt of flying just about 700 ft AGL on the plateau then shooting out over the edge of the canyon wall with a several 1000 feet drop to the Colorado river was gut-wrenching!
I was flying trail & enjoying the view of the plateau landscape - just 500ft below -the road & look-outs at the Deadhorse area ...then saw Glenn fly way out beyond the CLIFF EDGE heading out to descend into the giant canyon!
I instinctively veered away from the massive precipice & circled a few times before launching out over the abyss to re-join my buddy in loose formation flight!
Definitely a RUSH ...the first couple of times ...but when the sight-picture "normalized" ...it was then a non-event!

 

[BEN S]

Well my Dad and I have always talked about flying over a sheer cliff. I know because of airspace restrictions it would be impossible but, the Grand Canyon would be the ultimate. Take off in the gyro flying just a few feet off the ground as you approach the rim then all if sudden you’re a mile up (or whatever it is). That would be a rush like no other.

Funny lesson I learned at a flyin near San Manuel, they have a giant coppermine in the gorund. I was flying 20 feet off the deck and came over the lip, ground fell away from beneath me, i went in to the giant opening of the strip mineand had to corkscrew for a lot longer then I should have to get back out!
Some kind of atmosperic effect felt like as soon as I got about level with the lip kept pushing me down. I finally made it out, but was picking a nice gravel road to land on should I be unable to get out.
I would not do it again.
This is a pic of the copper mine.

 

[Andino]

Sounds grand! Just avoid Meteor Crater in Arizona. Two ATPs in a Cessna 150 learned that the hard way in 1964:

On August 8, 1964, two commercial pilots in a Cessna 150 flew low over the crater. After crossing the rim, they could not maintain level flight. The pilot attempted to circle in the crater to climb over the rim. During the attempted climb out, the aircraft stalled, crashed, and caught fire. The plane is commonly reported to have run out of fuel, but this is incorrect. Both occupants were severely injured, but survived.[58] A small portion of the wreckage not removed from the crash site remains visible.[59]

In 2006, a project called METCRAX (for METeor CRAter eXperiment) investigated "the diurnal buildup and breakdown of basin temperature inversions or cold-air pools and the associated physical and dynamical processes accounting for their evolving structure and morphology."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_Crater

 

[Vance]

Funny lesson I learned at a flyin near San Manuel, they have a giant coppermine in the gorund. I was flying 20 feet off the deck and came over the lip, ground fell away from beneath me, i went in to the giant opening of the strip mineand had to corkscrew for a lot longer then I should have to get back out!
Some kind of atmosperic effect felt like as soon as I got about level with the lip kept pushing me down. I finally made it out, but was picking a nice gravel road to land on should I be unable to get out.
I would not do it again.
This is a pic of the copper mine.

I have found that flying into a large hole like the copper mine is like any ridge. If the wind is behind me I will sink into the depression and I will be able to climb out on the other side.

If I am too low a circling climb won't work because I keep coming around to the lee side of the hole and finding sink.

I have flown over that same copper mine in a 914 powered Cavalon.

 

[Joe Pires]

Actually now that I think about it I’m not actuall afraid of heights. I’m actually afraid of falling from height.

That's exactly how Laura and I feel. We're both "afraid of heights ".

 

[Doug Riley]

My first pattern in a gyro (necessarily solo; no 2-place powered light gyros in 1973) was terrifying. I had umpteen hours in gyrogliders, and in over-runway flights, all at under 50 ft. AGL. Flying beyond the end of the runway and on up to 1,000 ft., was a completely different trip. I couldn't wait to get around and down, and sell the damn thing.

Fortunately, there were no buyers at the airport that day.

 

[Sv.grainne]

I'd been flying with my CFI for all the maneuvers and training. Began my transition on a dirt strip and after a rotor strike during my transition, totally shattered my self confidence. Tried some training with another CFI. Not good.

Thanks to two friends reassurance took a 90 day break, then resumed with several hours of training in a friends gyro. Got my confidence back and then continued BOMs till my CFI came here and I did crow hops and then flew the pattern for the first time. I can't tell you how good that felt. My CFI hung with me till I got my solo endorsement.

Been out every chance I get, confidence and competence increasing. Love to fly.

 

[mcross1882]

Keep it up Bobby you are doing great! I've been training for 10 years -- hard to admit -- and had to take a couple breaks too. Based on the videos you are posting you'll be flying up here in no time

Out of curiosity how far up have you gone so far?

 

[Kevin_Richey]

BOMs

What are they, Bobby?

 

[Sv.grainne]

Balancing on the Mains