Losing confidence in flying - any advice?
I am a frequent traveller, usually well in excess of 100 flights per annum for the last 8 years. In addition I have direct flying experience of several years in gliders etc (only around 80 hours, but a lot of 5 minute circuits!!).
Additionally, I have a life-long profound passion for aviation which has helped put the 'icing on the cake' in terms of making a great job into a fantastic one.
But.....here's the deal - on an Air Nelson Q300 late last year we had an encounter with what I can only imagine was mountain wave (lenticular clouds abounded, turb was encountered in lee of Southern alps on descent at circa FL100, wind gusts of over 70 knots were reported in the local valleys that afternoon). To say I have never experienced anything like this before is an understatement!!
Anyway, since then I have flown 30 or more times, except that strangely I now I have a background feeling of apprehension which I never had before, and I feel unsettled in the air.
I know the turbulence generated airframe loadings below the design load, and I know it was probably a large margin to the ultimate failure point but since this encounter I just cant seem to get the rational part of my brain to connect with the irrational part!
Any advice would be appreciated!
Regards
Reilly05