Nervousness
 

Hi, i have always wondered, do the pros flying for the majors ever get nervous when flying, or after flying for so long all fear has been alleviated.for example, listening to my air band on dark wet and stormy nights, i hear pilots reporting 'activity' etc, i cant help but wonder if they are nervous.After all there has to be a mutual respect for both the weather and the aircraft.
cheers :8

Nervous is perhaps the wrong word, but I certainly have a healthy respect for mother nature and am aware of the risks of my profession. Having lost colleagues in the past (helicopters), I have realised that there is only so much one can do and the rest is up to God, or circumstance for the non religious.

Managing the bit that I can control is hard enough work, and often involves gut feeling. When I start to feel "unhappy" it is time to review all options available, including not flying that particular trip.
I would think that anyone who is truly fearless becomes a danger to himself and those around him.

that is a very good post. i never thought of fearless pilots like that.it appears that a certain amount of respect is whats needed and some element of fear! have you ever had any hiccups if you dont mind me asking? :8

...Cheating death on every flight. :uhoh:

Boeing737,
as any offshore helicopter pilot will tell you, the first night landing after summer in zero wind conditions usually gets the heart rate up.
And we've cancelled flights due to the weather exceeding what we thought was prudent and safe to operate in, after all we just move people to and from their work stations. There is always tomorrow.

Whilst our 737 operation is far less weather dependent than S76Heavy's heli ops, I would say when bad Wx conditions prevail, a heightened sense of alertness tends to exist. One is listening to other traffic's radio calls, studying the weather radar carefully, checking alternate destination's met reports, that sort of thing.

It is NOT a nice feeling when you can't get into your destination due to weather, having just minimum fuel required to divert to your alternate destination, for this reason we might take another 15/30 minutes of holding fuel to lower the blood pressure.

Two comments:-

Fear keeps you alive - a pilot without any threshold of fear would not be a safe pilot.

F.E.A.R - stands for "False Evidence Appearing Real"!

I saw a similar post a few years ago on a Canadian website. I agree with all the comments above. I'm not currently flying commercially but I imagine that an analogy would be ... ever driven a vehicle in a blizzard with freezing rain (aka 'ice rain') and snow pounding your car on a snow covered highway with huge icy ruts ? Well, that kinda makes a person a little anxious .... especially when you see other vehicles on their rooves and down in ditches !! Not nice :ooh:

Yet, on a nice sunny day ... most peole are perfectly realxed :) !!

CG.

.Fear is a response to a threat to physiological or/and psychological integrity. It is neither true nor false. It can be very disabling in any safety situation.

Annick Goutal? What, who is that?

A nervous pilot means that he/she is uncomfortable about something which does not look or seem right and he/she needs to avoid taking off, landing, or (going thru/very near some weather?) doing whatever they are about to do, especially IF plenty of reserve+contingency fuel is still available. Forget the extra cost or scheduled departure/arrival time!


Awkward might be the word when flying with a First Officer who seems a bit sarcastic quite often and needs to be more patient waiting for a captain's slot in a few more years.

Iggy, know you read German, so for an answer to your question, look here ;)
Rgrds
j[/SIZE][/COLOR]

So, these are aircraft that have some sort of pleasant scent to them?

Vielen Dank Nachbar (which Nickname?): Die werde ich meiner Frau zeigen. :D

How was your reply added to MY previous remarks? Is such technology from the "X-Files"?

Must be tired. I assumed that breathing air near the Gulf Coast was healthy, at least in the winter, and the strange (but moist) 'Foehn' winds come only in the summer:confused:

Yes some of the so called pros never get over some fears, some have en event in their past to cause this but with others it's a lack of understanding on the subject... people fear what they don't understand.

Nervousness or being overly concerned about something can create tunnel vision causing everything else to go to hell in a handbasket while that one thing is getting all the attention.

Examples... calling out engine failure memory items when we hit wake turbulance or slowing the plane at high flight levels due to turbulance and dangerously approaching stall speed... that's fear crippling the old chap.

The truth
 

:D :D :D :} :} Ou Boy,

Where I am from we call it Training, Training and Training and Standard Operating Procedures. Fear C´mon:D Proper Understanding of things would be a better word:D

SM