Am the same as most people here, only 125 hrs, but being in a plane doesnt scare me height wise at all.
Went up the eifel tower a couple of weeks ago however and was bricking it, clinging onto the railings and everything!

Slack afternoon, so I'll add my experiences to the list. I think you're onto something, here, willyb.

50,000 ft in a Canberra, even higher in a Victor 2 - no problem.
Last w/e up a ladder painting upstairs external windowframes - shaking like a leaf!

But here's an anomaly - one wet dinghy drill years ago, I did a wide circuit of the rescue launch suspended by the wire from a Sea King and I loved it! Doesn't seem consistent, to me. What do you think?

Late Thought: What about "wing walkers"? Do we have any of those here?

Fascinating stuff guys. I can sympathise with all of you as I have had the same fears for all of my 30+ years flying career. How can it be possible to hang upside down in (say) an SV-4c at 1500' but be unable to look down from the roof of your own house:confused:

Worst experience was waking up in an American skyscraper hotel and flinging open the curtains in the morning. I'd forgotten that room 4510 was on the 45th floor - and had floor to ceiling windows.......................:eek:

Flying alongside a TCU looking up and then looking down gives me the eebie jeebies. Also, when flying gliders and I'm just below the base of a cloud building speed, same thing. It gives me the exact feeling as if I was on the hughest indoor trampolin about to jump. It's not the feeling of that it's a long way down, it's more like the fact of having a structure so close to you're head and still being so high up. I really cant explain it.

I do some climbing, mostly indoors. It's god fun and gives me sort of the same rush. Also it's a way for me to work with my fear in a controlled environment and I get to push my self as far into my fear as I wish. Anybody with a fear of heights (or whatever the fear that we agreed it was) should try it.

/LnS

I think it's only natural for people to feel a bit of adrenaline and apprehension when looking over the edge of a cliff or tall building. I'm sure people can become desensitized to it though. I've been a climber for a good few years now, when I started, I used to get visited by Elvis (shaky legs half way up the climb). But since then, I've found myself hanging upside down and seen an RAF Hawk fly underneath me. It didn't scare me, but it was certainly a rush!

As for pilots, well, I'm part way through ATPL training and can safely say that I've never felt any fear of the height I have been at... except when I had only just started and wasn't sure if the plane was going to fall out of the sky when stalling!

It's not the height that scares me, it's the consequence of having that height, and then not... if you see what I mean!

Here's another pilot vote for whatever--acrophobia or bathophobia--I've got it. I cannot stand anything higher than I'm willing to fall and it is FALLING that frightens me. Honeymoon in YYZ, Mrs GF wants to visit the CN Tower, she saw it, I'm embarassed to admit, no way for GF. 38 years in planes, nary a vertigo or airsickness incident, that includes 1200 hours of fighters, 6000 in heavies and 2000+ in bizjets.

GF

Fear of Heights
 

I am 100% with Galaxy Flier! I have something over 4000 hours in military FJs. I have flown high enough to see the sky black above me and the Earth curved below me and it doesn't bother me at all and never did. I do not like standing on high places, land or buildings, and I particularly do not like looking down from such places. Can't explain it and I don't do it.