Post trauma suggestions?

[pipercubbie]

This is embarrassing. I am a female Flight instructor with about 4500 hours, accumulated over about 15 years of flying. I race bikes, kayak, and have hitchhiked solo throught Russia. I consider myself brave,and not a whiner normally but I have a hurdle over which I cannot jump. In 1992 I was giving a lesson (about emergency procedures, no less) when the C152 committed suicide, the victim of a solidly plugged fuel filter. We were over hilly terrain, and at about 3500 AGL. I performed all emer. procedures and pre-crash procedures perfectly and both student and I emerged unscathed. The A/C, of course, was totalled. The FAA and NTSB exonerated me, and praised my performance. I began flying again with the chief pilot the next day, and have been flying since. HOWEVER...the sound of the stall warning horn squeaking on and off all the way down (which is what happens when the engine dies and you maintain a nice slow rate of descent)remains burned in my brain to this day. With every passing day, stall training with my students becomes more difficult for me. I have disengaged the stall horn, tried coaching myself, bullying myself, everything down to aromatherapy. Why, after nearly ten years, cannot I get over this fear of stalls, when I NEVER had it before? Any suggestions? Thanks... <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

[RW-1]

First off, there is NOTHING wrong with you. BTW being a female has nothing to do with it either hehe ...

You are great enough to identify that you have an issue, and are asking what to do about it, there are others who would just give up.

Heck, don't be embarrassed I hate stalls, even though I do them on occassion (Now I fly heli's, and auto's are way more fun IMO, maybe I made the switch unconcoiusly to avoid doing more of 'em <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> )
I think it's just the impending deck angle on departure stalls that get me (I have found that if I concentrate outside the plane and pick areference as I wait for the break, I'm better at it. Thanks Ron, wherever you are for getting me through it)

Anyway, moving onward, my advice is to go beyond stalls if you can. you have a fear of the horn that you have associated with the mishap event, and it seems to be the nasty trigger of an unpleasent experience for you (I mean what mishap is pleasurable anyway? <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> )

I have not yet, but want one day to resume some fixed wing flying, and to include spin and inverted/unusual attitude recovery training (SIC: Aerobatics)

If you are so inclined, doing aerobatics in a comfortable environment would place you way beyond stalls themselves, and make you more confident in your abilities in those areas beyond the stall to the point where stall's may not bother you any more.

My thing is if you can replace the fear factor with something else when doing them, you will feel more at ease with yourself.

Another option easier to do to "recondition" yourself is another technique that was used on me by a CFI for stalls. go up with someone you trust, a fellow CFI or someone who can funbction as a safety pilot. Start with approach stalls, however start high up, and only use rudder to hold the aircraft from banking, you can "walk" the aircraft down from altitude with the yoke in your lap, the horn going off intermittantly as you stall and accellerate, then stall again. Wehn that CFI did that to me, I learned to be comfortable in the stall, and took away some of the fear too.

Since I note that you have continued to instruct after the mishap, I believe you can lick this.

Of course, just venting the fear a lot also can do it for some, feel free to email me if you wish to talk, etc.

I hope what I've said helps, if only to ease your mind about posting it.

[ 21 December 2001: Message edited by: RW-1 ]</p>

[Whirlybird]

pipercubbie,

I'm wondering if you aren't trying too hard. You say you've been pushing and bullying yourself; can't remember your exact words. Perhaps this is reinforcing the fear. I used to be scared of heights; I was determined to get over it and pushed myself. But every time thatI got scared it reinforced my belief that heights were scary, and it got worse not better. Eventually I realised I had to take things very slowly - try one step at a time on a ladder, not climb the highest one I could find right off. Like you, I'd always been able to do most things, so that kind of approach didn't come naturally, but it did work. So maybe you should accept that you're scared of stalling for a very good reason, and be a lot gentler with yourself.

I'm not an expert, but I hope maybe that helps a bit.

[pipercubbie]

Wow, two great replies, both from wop wops, er, I mean rotor pilots!

Points well taken; I guess the appropriate SOP is to hire an aerobatics instructor pilot and just go do a slew of stalls.

And why is it we can't be as easy on ourselves as we are our students?

I appreciate the input. Before the accident, I always considered myself careful, but bulletproof. Oh, we rue the day we discover we are but mortal after all, eh?

Thanks,all...
Pipercubbie
PS...Under the category of interesting trivia, now that you've mentioned fear of heights, I think it was the University of Ohio that did a study of civilian and military pilots about 1.5 decades ago and determined that over 65% of all full-time pilots are blood-curdlingly acrophobic. Are we a weird lot, or what? :)

[Whirlybird]

Yeah, weird isn't it? How many pilots are scared of heights I mean. There was a thread on PPRuNe about it some time ago; one person posted asking if it was just him - and dozens answered that they were scared too. <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> The only time it got me when flying was when I went on a helo mountain flying course and got shown how to throw yourself off a pinnacle - great fun, but terrifying.