My wife getting scared

Shirl writes:

Yep. I've been teased that my preflights are like 100-hr inspections. I
do everything you listed above, and it didn't stop the oil cooler from
failing.

Was it your own aircraft?

----clip----

I'd be interested to know, of those who survive engine failures or
other occurrences that bring airplanes down, what percentage give up
flying.

Shirl

************************************************** ******

Shirl

I ejected from a fighter type aircraft, in the middle of winter, in
the middle of a snow storm, in the middle of Greenland and after being
picked up by a Danish chopper and my return to the 'Big PX', jumped in
another jet and started flying at regular intervals again.

Not even bad dreams.

Continued to fly GA and instruct, after retirement, until came down
with A-Fib which I felt it was not then safe for me to fly.

Now get my kicks from reading and posting to users groups )

Big John

Shirl wrote:

I'd be interested to know, of those who survive engine failures or other
occurrences that bring airplanes down, what percentage give up flying.


I had a low altitude engine failure in my first plane (it was totalled). I
never seriously contemplated quitting. Three days after I was released from
the hospital, I joined a flying club and got checked out in one of their
planes. That was 14 yrs. and about 1800 flying hours ago.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

--
Message posted via http://www.aviationkb.com

In a previous article, Jay Honeck said:
2. Mary and I could be killed driving on the highway any day of the
week.

Statistically, that's true. In human terms, though, my wife knows maybe
25 pilots, and 2 of them have died in airplanes in the last couple of
years. She knows hundreds of drivers, and none of them have died in car
crashes recently. (Ok, one of them was kidnapped, raped and killed by a
guy impersonating a police officer who stopped her driving, but that's
another fear of hers regarding our four teenage and early twenties
daughters.)



--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
There are two ways to write error-free programs. Only the third one works.

Statistically, that's true. In human terms, though, my wife knows maybe
25 pilots, and 2 of them have died in airplanes in the last couple of
years. She knows hundreds of drivers, and none of them have died in car
crashes recently. (Ok, one of them was kidnapped, raped and killed by a
guy impersonating a police officer who stopped her driving, but that's
another fear of hers regarding our four teenage and early twenties
daughters.)

Fear can paralyze people. If you read the papers, you'd never leave
your home, for fear of catastrophe at every step.

We've lost 3 friends to two flying accidents this year. One was
probably fuel exhaustion, the other was probably flying VFR into
IMC. These are the kinds of accidents it is easy to explain away
("That will never happen to me!") but in both cases the pilots were
known to be meticulous, skilled operators. So what can you do?

The kinds of crashes that REALLY scare me are the ones where a control
surface fails, or a wing comes off in flight. There was a Cherokee
235 that crashed last year after the wings departed the fuselage, thus
far for reasons unknown. Did the pilot yank the yoke back in his lap
at redline? Or was it just metal fatigue in our old fleet, like the
Grumman seaplane in Florida?

Second scariest (to me) are mid-airs, but that's not too worrisome out
here in the wide-open spaces of Iowa. Still, it happens, and it's (of
course) the one you DON'T see is the one that gets ya.

We'd all like to believe that we are superior pilots, possessing
superior judgement and skills. In fact, as private "hobby" pilots,
we're probably at the bottom of the skill heap, simply because we
don't fly often enough to get/stay really good. Once I accepted this
fact, not long after obtaining my ticket, I found myself becoming a
much more conservative (some might say "boring") pilot.

Conservative seems to be the best approach to longevity. It's the
strategy I'm planning to use so that I'm still around to fly with my
grandkids...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Paul Tomblin wrote:
In a previous article, Jay Honeck said:

2. Mary and I could be killed driving on the highway any day of the
week.


Statistically, that's true. In human terms, though, my wife knows maybe
25 pilots, and 2 of them have died in airplanes in the last couple of
years. She knows hundreds of drivers, and none of them have died in car
crashes recently. (Ok, one of them was kidnapped, raped and killed by a
guy impersonating a police officer who stopped her driving, but that's
another fear of hers regarding our four teenage and early twenties
daughters.)



I'd rather die in my plane then get kidnapped, etc. For sure!

Jay Honeck writes:

On the plus side, this fear has made us VERY meticulous and careful
pilots. Preflights are NEVER omitted, fuel tanks are ALWAYS filled,
gas is ALWAYS tested, maintenance is ALWAYS done. Still, we all know
that "**** happens", and we could become statistics at some point.

If you are indeed that conscientious, the risk is very small. Perhaps "****
happens," but not nearly as often as people who prefer to avoid or deny
responsibility would like to believe.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Jay Honeck writes:

On the plus side, this fear has made us VERY meticulous and careful
pilots. Preflights are NEVER omitted, fuel tanks are ALWAYS filled,
gas is ALWAYS tested, maintenance is ALWAYS done. Still, we all
know that "**** happens", and we could become statistics at some
point.

If you are indeed that conscientious, the risk is very small. Perhaps
"**** happens," but not nearly as often as people who prefer to avoid
or deny responsibility would like to believe.



How would you know?

You don't fly and never will,.


Bertie

On Oct 1, 12:42 am, (Paul Tomblin) wrote:

She flies with me if we're going somewhere she wants to go. But 90% of
the time if I'm just going for the sake of flying, she doesn't want to go.
I used to drag her along, and she'd read a book or fall asleep.

Paul,
I have a similar situation after two local plane wrecks in two
consecutive weekends. My wife met both of the pilots a few weeks
prior. I liken General aviation to driving a sports car or riding a
motorcycle, we do what we can to mitigate the risks, but in the end we
accept certain inherent risks because of the reward (To us anyways).
This does not hold true for our families ! I would sugest that if your
wife doesnt enjoy flying you should not drag her along but find a
pastime the two of you enjoy and just go flying on your own time. The
reason that I bring this up is because I have met two women over the
course of my flying career who lost their families (Spouse and kids)
to GA accidents. Hope this helps ,
K Baum

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
"I've gone through over-stressed to physical exhaustion -- what's next?"
"Tuesday."
-- Simon Burr and Kyle Hearn

Now that two people she's met have died flying in a relatively short
period of time, she's getting less and less secure about my own flying.
Every time I head out to the airport, she gives me the talk. "Be careful.
Don't die. If you have the slightest doubt, come back." Etc. And so on.

I don't think she'll tell me to stop, because she knows I was a pilot
before we married. But what can I do to reassure her? The pilot
community is pretty small, and losing three people associated with our
little club is pretty scary for her.

Paul,

Sounds pretty familiar... my wife is on the same page as your wife. I
had two co-workers die in a plane crash in 2002, and my boss barely
survived it.

The sad truth is that too many people die in GA accidents, many of
them unnecessarily (bad choices, bad luck, or all of the above).

The best you can do is to be as safe a pilot as you can, demonstrate
to her that you are doing everything you can to stay safe, and resign
yourself to the fact that she probably won't fly much with you. Solo
is how you will do most of your flying unless you have other pilot
friends to go up with.

Dean