Fear of Heights
Hi all,
As my user name suggests, I have a fear of heights. I'm an SPPL with roughly 20 hours spread over a couple of years of disjointed training.
This year I finally decided to go for the PPL for once and for all as the flying bug just won't leave me. I have yet to go solo but am very near that stage.
As far as I'm aware, I have always had a fear of heights, nothing too serious but something I considered a healthy fear. Then in my 20's I developed an unexplained fear of flying, i.e. - big jets, going on holidays etc. This annoyed me so much that I had to learn all I could about flying which culminated in my first trial lesson. I was a bit shakey on the lesson but the bug bit me big time.
Now, when I do circuit work or fly around the control zone at 1000 feet I have no problem at all and feel quite relaxed even in rough air.
However, I have just completed my first dual cross country, more as an experience excercise than formal training (its a club I'm training with as apposed to a school) and when we climbed to 4000 ft I got quite rattled. I was surprised how different the view was between 1000ft and 4000ft.
Now I know that the plane doesn't know it's at 4000ft and I know that height is your friend when flying and I know that it's totally illogical to be worried but I'm very concerned that this will put an end to my flying.
At no stage did I ever feel like I was losing control but I did wonder what I was doing up there when it scares me. Unfortunately, my fear manifests itself in sweaty palms so my instructor had no problem realising what was happening. I had to point out to him that I get sweaty palms watching a scene in a movie with someone hanging off a cliff or tall building and consider it normal for me. I'm worried that he might tell me that flying is not for me.
So, is flying for me ? I've heard about pilots with a fear of heights before, Brian Milton if I'm not mistaken, is one so obvioously it can be overcome. Is there anyone on the board with a similar experience or a great method of curing this annoying phobia ?
All advice and help greatly appreciated.