Home › Forums › Controversial Topics › Why do people get nervous when they fly? › Reply To: Why do people get nervous when they fly?
akuperma
Private pilots may not have as much experience as airline pilots, but that’s like comparing a regular person who drives to a bus driver. The bus driver obviously has way more experience as he is driving for a large part of the day almost every day. but everyone will go in a car even with a relatively new driver. And that’s without the fact that most new drivers only learn how to parallel park and make k- turns. just to pass a 5 minute road test ( at least in NY). Pilots go through intense training and actually simulate different types of emergencies (stalls, engine failure, engine fire etc.) and train to fly, not just to pass the test, which takes around 3 hours.
As for any mechanical failure in flight, most if not all can be dealt with safely. The only reason the plane will crash is if the pilot panics. That’s why we train over and over for emergencies until it becomes muscle memory.
CTLAWYER
I am rated to fly an airplane single engine land.
I have flown a piper Cherokee, Cessna 152 and currently fly a Cessna 172.
Small planes are actually safer than larger planes in the event of an emergency, because they can land safely almost anywhere, including beaches, water, fields, highways and even trees. Landing areas for large planes are extremely limited to airports and water, and water landings don’t usually end well. The only time I can thing of where it did end well was the “miracle on the Hudson”.
More than one engine does not always mean safer. If the engine fails on a single engine plane, you can easily maintain a glide to a safe landing. If one engine fails on a multi- engine plane, it requires extreme effort to maintain control. Many times it becomes impossible to maintain altitude.
Private pilot refers to a pilot without a commercial license, regardless of amount of experience.
Pilot who fly private jets, are commercial pilots who fly business jets. Many of them are just trying to gain enough hours to get an airline license and then move on to an airline.