You shut your eyes, grab the arm rests until your knuckles turn white. The plane continues to shake, so you pop in some ear buds to relax yourself. The plane shakes yet again and this time you’re convinced that jolt for sure felt bigger than all the others. Right about now you’re beginning to sweat and your breathing becomes heavier while you even begin to mumble a small prayer. To some, you’re quietly thinking, wow, that happened on my first flight, that’s embarrassing! And to some, you’re laughing, trying to figure out why this article is even being written? But, in all things serious, many people are terrified of the concept of flying. Whether that is from a personal experience or from an actual disaster they saw on their local news. Putting yourself in an airplane with a stranger of a pilot while responsible for your safety of point A to B is a tall task for some people to comprehend. Myself was included in that group. But, through experience and education of aviation, flying has become a love of mine. Now, I’m not saying people are going to fall in love with flying or are even expected to, but I do think shedding light on some facts of flying might alleviate some stress for you that I have shared below!
Pilots are Professionals:
The first thing I have listed here might be one of the biggest issues with the fears of many people, putting their life in the hands of the pilot. This is a hard concept to relinquish for some, having to leave ground with 100+ people all around you, while also having to come back down to ground safely is not easy. But, to be assured, the men and women responsible for your safety are truly professionals at their craft. Time and experience is the only reason they are where they are. To become a commercial pilot, one needs a grand total of 1,500 hours of various flight time. 1,500 hours!! That means from the day they received their starting level certification of a private pilot’s license, to the hefty 1,500 hours to then be able to qualify as a commercial pilot. Not to mention the experience and lessons learned along the way that pilots gain from certain situations in the cockpit. As a pilot gains their 1,500 hours, they’re going to be in an initiation phase for a couple weeks with their new airline with a trainer/instructor as their co-pilot. And if you’ve ever seen the pilots that are responsible for your flight, sometimes you will notice a younger and an older pilot. The younger pilot with maybe 2,000-3,000 total hours and one with maybe 15,000. So, I know for some people that concept of relinquishing your trust to these men or women is still tough to swallow, but do know that you are in good hands. Not only are these pilots professional,they are trained to be incredibly thorough with efficiency of flight patterns, weight, weather and a multitude of checklists before take off, during and after. So, to say these men and women are not qualified is plain bogus. As I said before, time and experience is the basis of a commercial pilot and they are assuredly in complete control of your aircraft.
Turbulence:
Majority of airline passengers have experienced turbulence, and in fact, turbulence is a pretty common occurrence on a flight. Whether it’s a slight bump, or a bump that will make anyone think you just hit a boulder in mid air. Regardless, turbulence is very present in the ever changing environment of weather. Now, to be clear, there can be severe turbulence in rare cases, but no turbulence can rip a plane in two like it does in the hit ABC show, Lost. The last plane crash to have occurred because of turbulence was in 1966. From that time, airplanes have now been redesigned to withstand a far greater amount of turbulence. Turbulence has been found to have caused injuries in the past, but nowhere near the notion of a crash. Many people are not aware that the pilots know when turbulence is going to happen from their cockpit technologies and even from thoroughly studying their flight pattern weather charts given to them before take off. This might provoke a question of how does the pilot know it’s coming if it’s clear as a bell outside? Turbulence can come in many different forms and from many different factors. But, the main factor of turbulence is from rising hot air beneath the belly of your plane. In many tropical destinations, pilots can identify the turbulence from the formation of clouds. While in more dry locations, turbulence can be hard to identify because it does not come in the form of clouds and can be unexpected. In the end, for any people who had a fear of their plane ripping apart because of those pockets of rising hot air, hopefully have a better sense of what is going on in the cockpit and what is going on outside of their plane as well can shed light on the sweats those bumps might cause.
Lightning Proof:
In the event of a storm, thunder and lightning may be present. Usually pilots will most likely avoid the worst paths possible for the planes sake and of course the crew and its passengers. But, in occasional instances, commercial planes can be struck by lightning. And as of today, planes are equipped to handle the strikes effectively. Most commercial planes built by Boeing or Airbus are made of aluminum, which is an excellent conductor of electricity. This fact can be assured to the passengers that the lightning strike will remain on the exterior of the plane as the current usually passes through the back end of the plane. The last recorded crash from a lightning strike happened in 1967 which sparked a fuel tank explosion. Since then, many technological advancements have been rolled out and many rigorous lightning tests on aircrafts have been required as a baseline for a plane to be considered lightning proof.
Cockpit technology:
During a pilot’s tenure, manual flying is a vital requirement to be able to achieve mandatory certifications that get them to be an eventual professional pilot. So, flying a commercial plane manually for any pilot is not going to be an issue if the situation calls for it. Given that fact, sometimes many pilots don’t even need to fly the aircraft themselves, entering numbers into the aircraft such as heading (direction), speed and altitude. From this panel, the pilots can change direction and speed in a matter of turning a dial. Along with this, the Flight Management Computer or FMC, allows the pilot to input their destination airport along with the route that is given to them from flight inspection. Because of autopilot, some flights don’t even require pilots to come out of autopilot, including the takeoff and landing. Another major part of cockpit technology is the ability to see where turbulence is and where weather is on their radars so pilots can successfully navigate around any trouble it may cause.
For many reasons, many people can admit to having some type of fear towards flying. But, many people have just not been aware of the many aspects that go into pilot training, the performance of the aircraft and its technologies, and finally bigger aspects such as weather. For many years of flying, I was not in a place of comfort when it came to air travel. Every bump of turbulence made my heart race and began the wheels turning in my head. But, through some given time, experience and education around the topic of aviation, I began to breathe calmly through a patch of clouds or even small bouts of turbulence. I do hope some of these facts about commercial aviation prove helpful to anyone who is fearful of air travel. I genuinely feel for anyone who has felt these emotions and fears in the past and wish this piece of information will ease the stress for your next flight to come!
Joel's Airline Travel Blog 