I have the ladder problem and the fear of falling out of or off of some structure. However when I first started flying in fixed wing as a flight engineer I felt that if the pilots had the gonies to get up front I could man the panel. I had the utmost feeling of safety and would be able to participate in the flight with no feeling of uneasiness. However when I first started to fly in Bell HTL-1s (very early model 47) I was scared sh*****s because of the feeling of being totally exposed to the elements but at the same time not feeling the wind or the rain or the snow. As my flight time started to build in the Bell and our Sikorsky helicopters that feeling went away. However it was replaced by another feeling of uneasiness and I would believe you guys suffer from the same feeling when flying at high altitude. You might attach that feeling to the fear of heights but you might consider this. You are piloting a device made up of thousands of individual parts all flying in formation. These parts are subject to wear, to overstress, faulty manufacture , faulty design and possibly poor maintenance. In the military the poor maintenance never entered into it because I had to maintain whatever I flew in so I made sure it was right. But the wear and overstress were always on my mind. You can get just as dead if you have a structural failure at low altitude and the same at higher altitudes but you have a longer time to contemplate your fate on the way down. This is not offered in a humorous vein as it relates directly to my job in the aircraft industry.