Flying is sometimes stressful

I fly to get to where I am going faster. With all the miles I have logged driving while on patrol, I’m tired of driving and once I am boarded, I feel the worse part is over.

You would never believe some of the stunt driving I have witnessed over the years. There are a lot of Joie Chitwoods out there, so be careful when you are behind the wheel.
 

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I refuse to fly at Christmas time. Between the possibility of bad weather conditions and the certainty of overwhelming crowds, it’s not worth it. We work around other holiday events too. As @911 said, watch out for the nuts on the road too.
 
I love flying within 3-dimensiional space while skiing and dancing.

Most stressful was riding strapped in with sound headphones on my head within the cargo holds of C130 aircraft. Of course such awfully loud sound goes right through the rest of one's body.
 

I really hate flying. Oh, I have been to 67 countries around the world over the years and have seen dozens and dozens of airports but lately, I hate flying and prefer to stay home. Why?

1. Catching a flight at 2 or 3 or 5 AM is a real bummer for a senior citizen when you have to be at the airport 3 hours early.
2. Having to take off your shoes and belt at customs.
3. No food on flights.
4. Tight seating during the flight.
5. Being served tiny bags of crackers or pretzels.
6. Having "Mr. Relaxation" sitting in front of me. This is the guy that lowers the back of his seat to the point that his hair is almost in your face.
7. The screaming babies that hate flying but their mothers don't understand this.
8. Sitting at airports looking at the zombies all starring at their smartphones like it was their "breath of life."
9. I really hate it when customs takes away my water bottle and then they also take away my nail clippers. Ya, I know "Nail Clippers" have often been used in airline hijacking. They are so dangerous!

My daughter invited me to come to see her for Thanksgiving. Nice idea but I wrote "No Way" because I would have to fly. There are just way too many people flying and they make the experience feel like being in a cattle car. I prefer to stay home where I can breath and treat myself like a human being that I am. "Fly the Friendly Skies?" You must be joking!
 
Jules said:
I refuse to fly at Christmas time. Between the possibility of bad weather conditions and the certainty of overwhelming crowds, it’s not worth it. We work around other holiday events too. As @911 said, watch out for the nuts on the road too.
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If we are flying during a holiday, we fly ON the holiday. So, if we joining the family for Christmas, we fly on Christmas Eve when the airports are quiet. We do the same on holidays like July 4th and Labor Day.

The only time I absolutely refuse to fly is in March during Spring Break. I made the mistake of flying to Miami for a cruise in March '22. The airports were a nightmare and it took me 1 1/2 hours to get my luggage at Miami airport. My flight landed at 9:30pm and I got to my hotel at 11:30pm. Never again.
 
Packerjohn said:
I really hate flying. Oh, I have been to 67 countries around the world over the years and have seen dozens and dozens of airports but lately, I hate flying and prefer to stay home. Why?

1. Catching a flight at 2 or 3 or 5 AM is a real bummer for a senior citizen when you have to be at the airport 3 hours early.
2. Having to take off your shoes and belt at customs.
3. No food on flights.
4. Tight seating during the flight.
5. Being served tiny bags of crackers or pretzels.
6. Having "Mr. Relaxation" sitting in front of me. This is the guy that lowers the back of his seat to the point that his hair is almost in your face.
7. The screaming babies that hate flying but their mothers don't understand this.
8. Sitting at airports looking at the zombies all starring at their smartphones like it was their "breath of life."
9. I really hate it when customs takes away my water bottle and then they also take away my nail clippers. Ya, I know "Nail Clippers" have often been used in airline hijacking. They are so dangerous!

My daughter invited me to come to see her for Thanksgiving. Nice idea but I wrote "No Way" because I would have to fly. There are just way too many people flying and they make the experience feel like being in a cattle car. I prefer to stay home where I can breath and treat myself like a human being that I am. "Fly the Friendly Skies?" You must be joking!
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This is why I enjoyed flying in military aircraft. If I had to guess, I would say that 98% of our flights were on time or earlier departures. If the flight was leaving at 04:30, it may be a good idea to be onboard at 04:15. Officer or not when the pilot was ready for takeoff, he was leaving. When the pilot yelled to tighten the seat belts, you knew the flight was taking off. Maybe you had a seat to sit in and maybe you sat on the floor or a piece of carpet. Best part was that we had no airports to deal with.

We once flew above a typhoon. A little bumpy, but otherwise, a good flight. We did get to our destination sooner than planned on that flight.
 
Mother Nature's PMS or Poseidon having a Very Bad Day!
Flying is sometimes very stressful due to air pockets and some thunderstorm and lightning. So agree!

However, found this video on YouTube by Underworld Channel... Sincerely, I'd say that this is the second mode of transport that for these particular people was extremely stressful...

 
Supernatural said:
Mother Nature's PMS or Poseidon having a Very Bad Day!
Flying is sometimes very stressful due to air pockets and some thunderstorm and lightning. So agree!

However, found this video on YouTube by Underworld Channel... Sincerely, I'd say that this is the second mode of transport that for these particular people was extremely stressful...

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Ok, now I'll be humming the theme music from The Posidon Adventure all night. Thanks heaps.....
 
I flew for United for 33 years. Most people have no idea how much pressure and stress pilots are under once they leave the gate. Our primary concern is and always has been safety. If the plane is 100% mechanically sound, there is no reason why passengers should fear or be nervous. Each pilot is a professional.

We are tested often by check pilots. Pilots are expected to be all but flawless with their flying skills. As a Senior Captain, I personally trained several First Officers that were upgraded to Captain.

Our Flight Attendants are also trained for any emergency that may arise. I understand that airports are a pain, but once you are seated on the plane, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Passengers can be a problem too. I have complaints, but no need to go into that. It won’t change anything.
 
I don't like large planes. I feel as if I'm lost in a crowd. My favourite flights were when I travelled with Loganair in 16 seat planes or the airlines who used 30 seat ones. Even today, many of the flights round the Scottish islands use the 10 seat Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander. Some people like doctors, midwifes and specialist teachers etc island-hop on a daily basis as part of their work.

islander.jpg
 
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againstthegrain said:
In the US air traffic controllers are way understaffed, leading to numerous close calls, and eventually it will be the cause of a enormous catastrophe.
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It takes anywhere from 2-5 years to train an ATC to be proficient in the job. I may talk to 3 or 4 different traffic controllers before I take off. Same for landing. We always have to get permission to push back from the gate. Then permission to start our engines. Next is permission to taxi to the runway and finally permission to takeoff.

Once airborne, we talk to a departure controller that tells us what altitude we can climb to and the controller will also usually give us a heading. Once all that is completed, we only need to listen for changes in altitude, speed or to change our heading. It’s not what so many people think that we takeoff and then drink coffee until we get near our destination and let the autopilot do the work.

But, these are not complaints. Flying was my life and I would never have wanted to do anything else. I used to enjoy welcoming passengers aboard and then while deplaning, thanking them for flying with us.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I don't like large planes. I feel as if I'm lost in a crowd. My favourite flights were when I travelled with Loganair in 16 seat planes or the airlines who used 30 seat ones. Even today, many of the flights round the Scottish islands use the 10 seat Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander. Some people like doctors, midwifes and specialist teachers etc island-hop on a daily basis as part of their work.

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I appreciate these smaller planes and are needed in certain applications, but I wouldn’t want to fly them anymore. When I first started flying, I flew a prop jet for about 6 months. I was almost ready to quit. Noisy and they didn’t have all the avionics onboard like our jets. They are great for short hauls and people like you that don’t like crowded planes.

I’m just being curious, but have you had many missed approaches? Maybe none, but I remember when I flew the small puddle jumpers, I would occasionally have a missed approach primarily due to our poor GPS system.
 
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I have a pilot friend that flies for Spirit Airlines, which is a low cost, no frills airline. Cheap airfare, but you pay for carryons and checked baggage, water and all drinks, choice of seats, etc.

He told me that right now, Spirit has 10 new Airbus planes sitting on the ground due to engine failures. He said the problem is with the fan blades, but wouldn’t go beyond that. I think he may have been telling me some bad information, but being the curious type, I sure would like to know. Anyone hear anything about this?

I seriously doubt if Airbus would allow 10 of their planes to be sitting for engine problems when they could just switch them from using P&W to GE, or even Rolls Royce.
 
I have a vague recollection of hearing about problems with Snecma engines in the past, but I can't be sure.

As for missed approaches etc on small aircraft , the only ones I have experienced was because of poor visibility and lack of guidance systems. Many of the Scottish island routes are very short duration (this is why there is a great interest in electric powered aircraft), and a lot of navigation is visual. There are stories of flights where the pilot (only 1 in a 9 seat plane) recognised a fishing boat and knew the skipper, so he would circle round wave to the crew and then resume the journey. On other journeys, as well as weighing the luggage, they weighed the passengers to balance the plane.

If you look on Youtube you can see videos of the world's shortest scheduled flight from Westray to Papa Westray. It lasts between 1 and 2 mins. You can find pictures of Barra, the only airport that uses the beach as a runway. As they tell you, it's the only one where the runway gets washed twice a day!
 
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I was a student pilot Many years ago and hoped I could get credit at my college for that but they had a Commercial pilot license program, through my college that I would have had to take.

But it was on my "bucket list" to fly a plane and I loved being on jets, helicopters, and prop planes but things are so different ad stressful these days.

A good friend of mine wanted to fly to Vermont to see his sisters there, a few days before this past Thanksgiving.

He has severe mobility issues and the airport, Rochester NY, gave him a rollator to use until he boarded the plane, and they put him into a wheelchair and let him on first.

The plane filled but stopped on the runway as a de- icer was not working. They all had to disembark and wait for another plane.
About an hour or more later another plane landed for them to use, but the only available portal staircase was too short for that plane.

They waited four hours for another plane, which would take them to Washington DC, first, before getting them to Vermont.
At that point my friend cancelled his trip and said they gave him a refund.

He used to drive to Vermont before he became so disabled. It took him about 6 hours but no stress like he experienced last month.

He is my neighbor and I had not seen his truck pass by my house for a few nice summer days, many years ago ,so I called him and he answered his cell , while he was fishing off a dock in Vermont, with his sisters! 😄
 

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