Shytorque
Wire dream or nightmare..never read before of it nor told anyone that I have a similar one.
My fear of heights started with my mum hysterically screaming at Simon's Yat..a lovers leap over the Wye. Around the same age, 6, I slept off the roof of our prefab clasping an umbrella having seen a cartoon character do the same..did it hurt. Then a mate impaled himself on the spiked railings whilst conkering opposite Rochford Nick. My fear of heights had sown the seed.
My fear of flying was my first solo at Rochford when no one taught me what to do if I bounced and a PIO. One of the two useless instructors ended up in the CAA.
The month before I started at flying college two dead in a mid air after a controller had resigned because the procedures were dangerous. Two guys on my course had a mid air over the isle of Wight..one of the two areas the whole college fleet were sent to practice air exercises. Dopey
My aerobatic instructor was frightened of unusual attitudes and aeros so I did forced landings.
I joined BEA the month a Vanguard broke up caused by a corrosion problem that had been ignored for two years.
Then I started flying jets with guys who were frightened of the Trident and wouldn't let me try my hand shortly followed by my best mate dying in papa India. The captain had a nervous tick which got worse the closer one got to the runway..there was a joke regarding the radio altimeter.
By that time I was verging on neurotic as I didn't understand the system that put the worst pilots into management, fortunately I was helped by normal line pilots.
6 years on I put out a May Day on a VC 10..close to 40,000ft in a cloudless sky over Pakistan. Eventually I took out the autopilot as a last result as we all thought it would break up..problem solved runaway yaw damper. After that I lost a lot of my fears.
They more or less disappeared over the Pyrenees in severe cat when I was going through a divorce as I realised there was a positive side that I wouldn't have to go back to her indoors.
Later on I did NLP which allowed me to climb to the top of a mast 60ft above the ground.
In between I flew with a captain who had hid in the toilet when the destination went out in fog, various guys who were petrified, those with nervous to ticks, alcoholics and the worst was a 54 year old on a RIO with a double crew..he was so frightened he wouldn't go into the crew bunk nor fly the leg. Poor sod confided his fear but had another 6 months to get his pension. Died 3 months after retiring.
Had a mate who had a severe skin disorder and popped antidepressants..left and within a year was a fleet chief and trainer in the gulf..skin healed..would get his mates to check him out, write his own rosters to safe destinations and fly with experienced co pilots of his choice.
I lost my license and got into gliders..mountain flying, instructing and acrobatics. Wearing a parachute helped a lot but avoided close proximity to other aircraft as have had far too many lucky airmisses. Paraglide as well now..reserve is usable above 400ft whereas gliders it's above 2,000 ft realistically.
Still get frightened especially when I see better men than me crash but absolutely no pressure to fly in crap conditions.
Last flight last week was another fearful one having seen a video of an accident caused by wind shear..Kelvin - Helmholtz effect and flew into the same turbulence myself...5 minutes of trying to get down in one piece.
Of the 32 guys who graduated with me none kept flying after they retired..food for thought.