Originally Posted by Chesty Morgan
I get a little bit anxious as a passenger in turbulence. I think this is because it's almost impossible to see a decent horizon from the cabin and therefore get your bearings. The best thing to do is probably look out the window anyway!
I find the same thing (lowly PPL student)...turbulence when
I'm flying doesn't bother me...although I haven't ever experienced a Chesty-magnitude event. And a good thing too, in 30/40-year-old piston singles.
But even though I've flown (i.e. as freight) regularly most of my life, I get distinctly anxious as a passenger, and always have. Personally, I suspect it's just because I don't have either control or even forward visibility, knowledge of the weather ahead. My solution is a bit simpler - I do as little flying as a passenger as possible!
Something I like even less is an IMC approach that's taking a lot longer than it should. Have had that at LHR a few times. Once we get about 10 minutes past the flight deck's reported touchdown time and we're still flying through murk, I start wondering what the odds are that large parts of the Home Counties are about to join us in the cabin. Silly, but there you go. Even less fun was sitting in the back of an MD-11 (Swiss?) into Narita in the middle of a driving rain storm. The controllers were either being completely unreasonable that day or the pilot was exploring a new, experimental 60 degree glideslope. I swear the airbrakes were on from initial descent until about 30 seconds before touchdown, and my strong impression was we were desending at a high rate of knots for most of it. I think it was the loose items and small children rolling towards the front of the cabin that tipped me off.
I guess what I'm groping towards is the conclusion that powerful sedatives are probably the best solution for your business flights. Wish I knew where to get some of those.