Feel the Fear and Go Flying Anyway

Start reading now

NOTES ABOUT THE BOOK

I’ve written this book so that it should take you about an hour to read. In an hour from now, you could and should be feeling a whole lot better about flying than you are feeling right now. 

No doubt there will be bits in it that, for a while make you feel more nervous, but just hang on in there because this is me, an experienced pilot chatting to you personally.
I want you to imagine that this is a conversation between us where lots of things about flying will become clearer and which will help you to find strategies to manage your next couple of flights at least. Don’t worry if I repeat myself because that’s what happens in a conversation when you want to emphasise something.
Please don’t be upset by the use of CAPITALS and exclamation marks !! They are used to contrast one statement versus another and occasionally to 

indicate disapproval, or something I find funny or at odds with the facts.
One of the easiest things in the world is to tell other people what to do. One of the most unsuccessful things in the world is telling other people what to do[…]”

“TURBULENCE”
 
Turbulence may be very uncomfortable, but that’s not the same as dangerous.

I’d better get on with this subject as I’m sure it’s what you’ll be looking through the book for. I know it doesn’t help you much to know that almost everyone hates turbulence … even people who enjoy flying but remember you’re not alone by any means when it comes to turbulence.

In the old days, when I was first an airline pilot, I used to dislike turbulence because it was hard to drink a cup of coffee and have a fag if the plane was rocking around! I hesitate to use the word fag instead of cigarette but I was telling someone about this and she burst out laughing, trying to imagine me with a cup of coffee and a ‘fag going’ whilst flying the plane, all without a worry in the world. (She said that she’d never see turbulence in the same way again). Apart from that, turbulence was to me what waves are to a sailor… part and parcel of the job. The sea has waves and the air has waves, one you can see and the other one you can’t but they’re the[…]”

“SEAT BELT SIGNS”

Most fearful passengers see the seat belt signs as an indication of safety. If they’re on it’s unsafe if they’re off it’s still unsafe, but less so. The seat belts are not illuminated or turned off for those reasons.

In this era of litigation, one of the things an airline is careful about is making sure they can’t be sued by a passenger or even worse, be sued by an employee. So the Captain will have the seat belt signs on and off like a fairground ride to cover him/herself and or the company.

Nevertheless, you should always follow the instructions of the crew and if the belts signs are on, you are required by law to put them on.

Because we are short of time and I want to get through everything as quickly and honestly as I can, I need to let you into a little secret, but one that you must keep and tell no-one else.

Quite often a member of the cabin crew would pop into the cockpit and ask me if I could “turn the signs on while we clear up.” I would oblige, and so everyone would have[…]”

Read here  Feel the Fear and Go Flying Anyway

Best wishes,

Captain Keith