flyskyhawk2008
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I'll use the same answer I did yesterday:
First, let me tell you that aviation is the safest form of travel per mile in the United States today. Your changes of being in an aviation accident are better than 1 in 10,000,000.
Next, there are bars at every airport. Since you're 21, I'm not encouraging you to drink, but if you want to have one alcoholic beverage before your flight, that might calm you down a little.
Why are you scared? What goes through your head when you think of flying? Personally, I'm more afraid of driving in my car than flying my plane. All airplanes use the same principals: lift, thrust, weight, and drag. Lift is provided by the wings. The wings create lift because of thrust from the engines (the speed that is created after the engines rev up). Weight is obviously the airplane and everything in it. Drag is the atmospherical force that has to do with friction.
Engine failures are not a problem at all. Almost all commercial airliners have at least two engines. If one fails, the remaining engine is perfectly capable of creating enough thrust for the wings to generate lift so that you can land at an airport. In fact, the remaining engine can power you through the rest of the flight if the pilots wanted it to, but the FAA encourages them to land immediately after any mechanical problems. If both engines fail, you still have an extremely high chance of getting to land at an airport safely. For example, say your plane is at 30,000 feet. If both engines fail, the plane simply allows gravity to increase the speed of the plane so that wings will still generate lift. The pilot then glides down and lands at a nearby airport. Your plane will never fall from the sky; that is theoretically impossible.
You may not know it, but there are thousands of airports in the U.S. Many of these airports are not home to airlines, but they still have runways long enough to allow jets to land.
Your pilots are some of the most highly trained workers in the United States. They are not just your average Joe who decided to ask the gate agent if they would "just let me do this one." Pilots of commercial planes have gone through extensive training, spending thousands of dollars in the process, to learn how to operate a plane safely, whether during normal operation or an emergency. Airlines are responsible for keeping aircraft up to date on maintenance checks, and they do a heck of a good job of it. If they didn't, the FAA would ground an airline's fleet.
And finally...almost every commercial airplane is under the guidance of the world's best air traffic controllers, from takeoff at the runway to arrival at the destination airport. The controllers provide separation between aircraft by relaying instructions to the pilots, after observing planes in the sky via radar scopes.
Other Tips:
- Don't be afraid to fly. It's incredibly amazing.
- Don't be afraid to look out the window. Enjoy the scenery that you've never seen before. The world looks so different from up there.
- The airplane will make noises that you might not like, such as engines slowing down or humming noises before the plane lands. Don't worry. The noises are being created by parts of the airplane that are assisting in its safe operation.
- Turbulence is going to shake the plane a little. Don't worry. The pilots have equipment in the cockpit that enables them to not even look out the window to fly the plane. They'll do their best to avoid turbulence and make the ride as comfortable as possible, but when turbulence comes about, the plane pretty much ignores it. Once the turbulence ends, it's like it never even happened.
Have a great flight! Happy flying, as always. |
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