How do you get passengers over the fear of flying?

I find that people are very enthusiastic, personally. Unfortunately
though, this can wane somewhat after the 2nd or 3rd wasted trip
to the airport when the weather wasn't good enough to go flying,
or the plane had gone tech or whatever. This hasn't happened to
me since I've owned my own plane though...combination of knowing
(with reasonable certainty) if the plane's serviceable and not having a
booked slot so am able to fly whenever there's a break in the weather.

Some people do ask "is it dangerous?"...I just look bemused, look at
myself and say "I'm still here". That usually makes them smile and
realise the chance of anything happening is extremely slim! If they're
interested I explain what normally causes fatal crashes and how
these factors wouldn't apply to the current day's flying.

Paul

"Gerald Sylvester" wrote in message
news
I recently got my PPL and find that most people are scared sh*tless to
go up. One friend came along and was just blown away and had a ton
of fun. Just about everyone else is "oh my god, I am so scared
of airplanes."

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
news:WSaNb.49062$sv6.126431@attbi_s52...
| It's important to realize that your fearful friends may be right.
| Recreational flying is more dangerous than any activity that most
Americans
| engage in (unless we count dietary and exercise habits as an
"activity").

There are also smoking, logging, and water skiing, too name a few other
activities that are more dangerous than flying. Motorcycle riding is
pretty
dangerous, too.

Sure, but none of those is an activity that most Americans engage in. Most
Americans avoid activities as dangerous as recreational flying.

You can make your recreational flying far less dangerous than the norm if
you just avoid some activities, such as low level maneuvering.

Maneuvering accidents account for 22% of GA fatalities, so avoiding
maneuvering does help a little. Takeoff fatalities are the next biggest
category (17% of GA fatalities), and that's a harder activity to avoid if
you're going to fly.

On the other hand, student flying is about four times safer than personal
flying overall, and student flying includes an especially high concentration
of low-level maneuvering, as well as takeoffs and landings. So we're a lot
better off if we fly like students.

--Gary

patience!!

my mom and dad visited soon after i got my cert. it was a hot summer afternoon
and i was desperate to show off my new skills. i knew she had fear of heights
and was hesitant, but i forced her into it. as we were taxiing she was almost
crying, forced me to shut down - and headed back to the FBO.

good thing too - as my dad and i were cruising over denver we were getting mod.
turb, and 3-400 ft up/down drafts. my dad was calmer than i was.

the conditions were so back we aborted our landing at centenniel, headed back
to FNL, and the the rollout a gust of wind almost swerved me off the runway on
rollout.

my mom was sitting happily in the FBO watching the weather channel drinking
coffee.

lesson learned, and thinking back, i'd probably be more than nervous too -
especially being stuck in the back seat

fast forward to a few years and lots of hours later:

when my mom visited last fall she finally agreed to go up with me - and we took
an afternoon trip up to wyoming in a more spacious 182. i informed her of all
flight characteristics - cutting back the engine, banks, etc. she had a great
time for a first time pax, followed and tracked are time with the GPS, and the
only time she clenched the seats were during our turn to base - and even said
"looks like we're too far right" as i overshot slightly.

learn from my mistake - and don't push anyone

"Gerald Sylvester" wrote:
Is this me or is it just the general public?

There are three common reasons people fear to fly in light aircraft with
private pilots:

1) They are afraid of *any* flying. This is a personal control issue
almost entirely unrelated to the real risks involved.

2) They know the prospective pilot and do not trust him.

3) They understand, somehow, that private flying is far more dangerous
than any activity they normally pursue - unless they ride motorcycles in
city traffic or engage in something similarly risky.

There is nothing you can do about the first problem.
The second is a personality and reputation issue which may or may not be
subject to change.
The third is the tricky one. Do you attempt to allay prospective
passengers' fears by telling them that flying with you is safe? I cannot
do this: if someone wants to fly with me, I'm all for it, but I'm not
going to talk anyone into it.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

Let's put it this way.

A pilot flying a commercial jet or airplane is at his job. Not that that is
a guarantee or anything. He's also responsible for all his passengers, and
will loose his job and livelyhood should he do something stupid. As several
pilots have done, who reported for work drunk.

A professional airline usually has many people involved in the operation of
a flight, and any one of those people can pull the plug on the pilot or the
flight should they be doing something stupid, like drinking, or perhaps
trying to take off with a few nuts and bolts loose. The theory being that
the chances that multiple eyeballs will see a problem is higher. And
maintenance crews and staff are dedicated to keeping the planes flying.

A professional pilot also probably has lots more hours under his belt
stepping into the jets cockpit than many private pilots. And, has
experienced his share of issues, problems and perhaps emergencies. That
experience means something.

As to your remarks about who designed these planes. Glad they had
supervising engineers looking over their shoulders, and glad they had
engineers working under them to cover their mistakes when they were too hung
over to do their jobs.

Point being - one person can make a mistake and not recover from it. Many
people can work on a project, and every person gets a chance to catch a
mistake prior to it getting loose. Not that it's perfect. Just better.

Finally - not knocking pilots. Just saying that I'd have a tough time
getting into a plane with them and literally trusting my life to them.
Particularly when their flight experience may be measured in tens our
hundreds of hours. Flying may still have lots of lessons to teach them.




"Nomen Nescio" ] wrote in message
...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

From: "Kevin Hill"

As a non pilot - I would NOT get into a private (cessna type, mooney
type)
plane with ANYONE I currently know. At least when I fly commercial, I
know
that they have at least had some kind of professional training (I hope)!

Then I'm sure you'll be thrilled to hear that some of the engineers that
designed those
airliners, and their engines, were classmates of mine 25 years ago. Some
of whom
I helped carry back to their dorm while they were puking their guts out
after overindulging
at the weekend kegger because they were so tripped out on LSD that they
didn't
know how much they were drinking. Think about that next time you get on an
airliner!

As for the "professional training", do you think we were taught to fly by
amateurs? Or
just spent enough time with MS Flight Simulator that we decided to get in
a REAL plane?
BTW, I'm willing to bet that most private pilots could safely handle and
land any airliner that's
flying today. Should the need arise.



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"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...
The third is the tricky one. Do you attempt to allay prospective
passengers' fears by telling them that flying with you is safe? I cannot
do this: if someone wants to fly with me, I'm all for it, but I'm not
going to talk anyone into it.

Same here. When pilots are dismissive of others' safety concerns, it's
disconcertingly reminiscent of stereotypical drug-use peer-pressure in high
school: what's the matter, are you chicken?

But if prospective passengers ask, I'll say that I think it's reasonably
safe. I think the type of flying I do with passengers is going to be at
least as safe as student flying, so I cite 1 in 250,000 as my best estimate
of their chance of getting killed if they go for a one-hour flight with me.
But I don't presume to try to persuade them as to whether that risk is worth
taking.

--Gary

"Nomen Nescio" ] wrote in message
...
As for the "professional training", do you think we were taught to fly by
amateurs?

Yeah, pretty much. Light GA flying has an fatal accident rate about 100X
greater than turbine corporate GA and airline flying. Since the vast
majority of accidents are pilot induced, there is no other conclusion except
that the pilots are poorly trained and exhibit poor judgement compared to
corporate and airline pilots.

Mike
MU-2

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
news:WSaNb.49062$sv6.126431@attbi_s52...
|
| It's important to realize that your fearful friends may be right.
| Recreational flying is more dangerous than any activity that most
Americans
| engage in (unless we count dietary and exercise habits as an "activity").
| According to AOPA's Air Safety Foundation's 2002 Nall Report
| (http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/02nall.pdf), personal (non-business)
| GA flying has an average rate of one fatality per 56,000 hours of flying.
| At that rate, among people who do 100 hours per year of personal flying,
| about 1 in 20 are killed within 25 years. To put that in perspective, for
| 40-year-olds with a life expectancy of 80 years, 6.3 hours of life are
lost
| for every hour flown. For 10-year-olds with the same life expectancy, 11
| hours of life are lost for every hour flown.
|

Wanna check your math, there, Gary? And maybe you could mine the data for a
little more interesting information. You do come up with good stuff.

It would be more accurate to say that there is one fatal accident (as
opposed to fatality) every 76,000 hours of flying. That would be one fatal
accident every 760 years for people flying 100 hours per year. However, most
people fly much less than 100 hours per year. They also do not have long
flying careers. Most people fly for less than 20 years of their adult life.

It would be interesting to know whether accidents cluster around those who
don't fly very often (less than 50 hours per year) or those who fly a lot or
even professionally.

Gerald Sylvester wrote:

Any ideas? I hope this doesn't sound stupid but just my impression the
since passing my checkride.

Yep. Fly for a few years and don't bend any planes. People will begin to believe
you're a safe pilot after you establish a good track record. They may be wrong in
this belief, but they'll fly with you.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."

base on my personal experience:

Do it short. Max 30 minutes of flight.
Never, never, never exceed 15 degrees of bank

Paul

"Rick Durden" a écrit dans le message de
m...
Gerald,

Congratulations on passing your flight test and getting your
certificate.

You'll find that a huge percentage of people think little airplanes
are death traps for many reasons. While general aviation's lousy
accident record certainly contributes to it, some folks are frightened
of heights, some of surrendering control to someone else in a
situation where they cannot do anything about what is going on and
some don't trust the pilot. How are you perceived by those people?
What kind of driver are you? Are you known for speeding, weaving in
and out of traffic, hard acceleration, heavy braking and no regard for
your passengers? If so, very few people will get in an airplane with
you. If you are known as one who avoids risks then you may find it
easier to get your friends to fly with you.

There are some good articles on how to give a first ride to people.
By and large the rules are keep it short, do it early in the morning
or in the evening when the air is smooth, describe what you are doing
and keep it smooth with shallow banks and very conservative
maneuvering...no stalls or steep turns. A passenger you scare may be
the voter who casts the deciding vote to close your airport. Take
barf bags, put them in reach and mention factually, and briefly, that
if they feel uncomfortable to use the bag. If a passenger expresses a
feeling of discomfort, terminate the flight. Interestingly enough,
those who have done the research have found that if the flight is
ended prior to the passenger throwing up, his or her tolerance will
increase and the passenger will do better on the next flight. If the
passenger actually throws up, the tolerance decreases and it happens
faster on the next flight.

You'll also find that your circle of friends will change as you tend
to associate with those who like the idea of flying.

All the best,
Rick

Gerald Sylvester wrote in message
link.net...
I recently got my PPL and find that most people are scared sh*tless to
go up. One friend came along and was just blown away and had a ton
of fun. Just about everyone else is "oh my god, I am so scared
of airplanes." This weekend I was going to go with my CFI to celebrate
my passing my checkride in a brand new SR-20 and people are still
shaking in their boots scared to hell and simply will not go.

Is this me or is it just the general public?

Any ideas? I hope this doesn't sound stupid but just my impression the
since passing my checkride.

Gerald