Turbulence.

[paulguitar]

Despite having flown hundreds of times, including over 90 times across the Atlantic, and having a pretty good understanding of aircraft and flying in general, I still find myself getting really anxious in turbulence. My palms sweat and I sit there rigid until it has subsided. I know from a lot of reading that turbulence is, except in the rarest circumstances, a comfort rather than a safety issue.

Does anyone else have similar problems, or perhaps can anyone offer some advice to help to deal with it?

Thanks in advance everyone.

[paulguitar]

Simpo Two said:

You need to decide what exactly you're worried about, then rationalise it. Whether you can do that alone, or may need outside help, I can't say.

I am a logical person, and I can confidently explain to someone else why they have no reason to be afraid in turbulence. My reaction is completely instinctive, and goes against all I know to be true in terms of it not being an issue for the aircraft.

It doesn’t stop me from flying, which is just as well, as I have to do it for work regularly, and I don’t worry about flying, days, or even hours, ahead of time. It’s just a visceral, instinctive reaction to the actual turbulence itself.

[paulguitar]

dave_s13 said:

https://youtu.be/EuLURmITq_E

Have a watch of that. He's got a great channel all about aviation stuff like this.

Thanks, I have seen this one actually, good suggestion. His videos are excellent.

[paulguitar]

El stovey said:

Lots of good stuff

Thank you El S, you write very well and that was an interesting and helpful read. Have you read any of Patrick Smith? He has a website called 'Ask the Pilot' and has also written a couple of excellent books.

[paulguitar]

chilistrucker said:

I have been on various ferries, across various seas over the years when on my travels in the truck. 95% have been fine but every now and then you get a choppy one. A regular one back in the day was the Portsmouth too Bilbao, and vice-versa. This takes in the Bay of Biscay which is known for its at times rough seas. For some reason I was always ok on this and I've been on it in storm force 10 when the fruit machines on deck and even the band in the galaxy room, were falling over.

I never did work out how I could be perfectly fine on the boats in rough seas, and yet the slightest creak or noise on a plane would have me tensing up? As a regular on the Bilbao boat I slowly got to know some of the crew and the subject came up 1 day in conversation about rough seas. Patrick, 1 of the bar staff put it like this for me, he said, "If you see me, or any other crew member wearing a life jacket, this is the time to realise that there could possibly be an issue."

I was on that ferry (Pride of Bilbao) as an entertainer back in the late ’90s. Were you on board for the hurricane? I think it was 1999.

[paulguitar]

w1bbles said:

I’ve commuted weekly by plane for 20 years and I’m still a rubbish flyer. I’ve only had a handful of incidents but the worst involved a 747 hitting some kind of storm system and dropping a long way quite quickly. Everyone not wearing their seatbelt was on the ceiling for a couple of seconds and 11 people were subsequently hospitalised when we stopped dropping, some with broken limbs. Emergency landing (to get people into ambulances) was dialled up. The 747 was then subject to an airframe inspection so the next flight for it was delayed by a day. I can confirm I screamed like a girl when The Drop happened. Fortunately I can also confirm that my scream was drowned out by everyone else’s. Now that’s turbulence!

It's precisely this kind of story that prevents me being able to relax!

[paulguitar]

chilistrucker said:

paulguitar said:

I was on that ferry (Pride of Bilbao) as an entertainer back in the late ’90s. Were you on board for the hurricane? I think it was 1999.

I was on it mainly late 90's/early 00's so you would have kept me entertained, thanks
Fortunately I missed the hurricane, the one I remember was when the captain had earlier warned us all of possible force 10/11 conditions. It did get naughty as you could not even walk down the aisles in a straight line and at one point the boat hit a wave that sent the band falling out onto the dance floor. One of the band members collected a passenger on his way down, she also went over with him and suffered a broken collarbone.

That hurricane you mention, was it Christmas/New Years time by any chance?
Patrick mentioned to me that particular crossing when the Captain was unhappy at taking the boat out.

Now bear with me here as this is from memory, and Patrick telling the story, not me.
Apparently the boat was sold out for the New Years eve trip, but the storm predicted was particularly naughty. When the Captain raised the issues with P&O brass, he was told the boat was designed to sail in seas up to storm force 12, and "ONLY" 11 had been predicted.

Allegedly the Captain did take the boat out, as he wanted to keep his job, (again hearsay here, no proof) but at 1 point the boat tilted over at a 41 degree angle Apparently the point of no return was 45 degrees????? I also heard that not long after this journey, the Captain handed in his notice to P&O, and if true, good on him as IMHO they pulled a card on him with that trip.

Luckily in my time on the road, there have only ever been 2 times where the conditions have been so bad I have HAD to call it a day and pull over for safety reasons. Once in Russia in the snow, and once in Kent in the worst high winds I can remember. It got so bad that I was at 20 mph on the M20, and I was just waiting to get blown over, so took shelter under a motorway bridge for 2 hours.

On the ‘Billy’,I was the solo performer in the little pub type place midships. Had a lot of fun on that ship, I was young and it was one hell of a party, even though it was supposed to be ‘dry’ for the crew. As entertainers we certainly did not think that applied to us!

The hurricane, IIRC, was indeed around January time. I was fortunate enough to not be there until a few weeks after that crossing, but people were still talking about it. I do remember hearing talk that the captain has been pressured into sailing the ship, but I am not sure of too many details. I do remember hearing that a grand piano had suffered considerable damage.

I have had some pretty serious weather and incidents during my 24 years at sea. We hit the dock in Rosslare in 1997 on a ferry I was on and put a hole in the side of the ship. Did a significant list near Ketchikan, Alaska in 2002 and one of my PA speakers came crashing down, narrowly missing a barkeep’s head. The first ship I worked on back in 1996 was literally puled off the dock, snapping its lines in Dieppe, and we spent 16 hours at sea sitting in the storm. I opened my cabin door to find one of the dancers lying in the corridor wearing her life jacket, crying her eyes out.

[paulguitar]

chilistrucker said:

I think Frank was also a truck driver back in the day on the Bilbao

Dry ship you say....
That's how I hit it off with Patrick. He told me the crack and so we struck up a deal, over the course of the crossing I would nip to the duty free shop for some beverages as I had been passed the correct paperwork. I'd then leave the 'shopping' in my cabin for Patrick, or friend to collect later.

The favour would then be returned that night in the Galaxy lounge bar, in what we lovingly called, Truck Driver corner

As freight passengers we did ok, we all had our own cabins, use of all facilities and our own freight drivers restaurant, the staff there really looked after us.

Good times.

After my gig, I used to operate the spotlight in the Galaxy Lounge. Same old shows, over and over, that’s where I leant to really hate musical theatre! As crew, organizing our drinking was actually really fun, looking back on it, sort of like how it used to be to smoke at school, just a big adventure. Lugging endless crates of beer through corridors, getting bin bags full of ice to chill them, and then later doing a run to the skips with the empties across the car decks.

[paulguitar]

Frank7 said:

I hope that you took pity on the dancer, helped her into your cabin, gave her a couple of generous brandies, and let her relax on your bunk.

You are a card, Frank.

[paulguitar]

I did a flight from Miami to Jacksonville many years ago on a regional aircraft, a prop ‘plane of about 40 odd seats. It was almost unbelievably turbulent the whole way, we were being flung around mercilessly and I was properly scared. There was no way in hell they were going to be able to get the drinks cart out, so a quick shot to calm down was out of the question. I focussed on two regulars (I presume) who were chatting to the flight attendant who was facing them in her backwards-facing seat. For all the world they looked as if they were unaware of the mayhem and so I figured there was nothing to worry about. We landed safely at Jacksonville, and I went straight to the pub.