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CriticalStrawberry t1_j1hwpni wrote

Reply to comment by eventhestarsburn in (Video) Wild landings at DCA today with wind gusts up to 48 MPH by JohnCalvinCoolidge

>mostly I just don’t love taking off, but landing doesn’t bother me much these days

I would've guessed the opposite for most people with a fear of flying. What about taking off scares you?

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hannahmadamhannah t1_j1hz1fw wrote

Taking off seems wrong. Landing seems normal. Things that go up have to come down!

Also, taking off means anticipating anxiety for the duration of the flight. Landing means things are over, one way or another!

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Much-Revolution-2925 t1_j1hx908 wrote

I used to fear landing more as well, but then a pilot told me that taking off is actually far more dangerous! If there are any pilots on here can you confirm…and if so, why?

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CriticalStrawberry t1_j1hygvz wrote

Edit: if you have a severe fear of flying, maybe don't read the below!

Aerospace engineer and hobbyist pilot. So I agree with that pilot, but I just intuitively thought most people feared landings.

Landing, at least in good weather, is very simple. There's not a lot that can catastrophically go wrong. Once you're lined up with the runway and on glideslope in, you can glide in and control your lift and speed with flaps and air brakes even if your engines quit. You already have momentum, altitude, and energy to use to get you out of most situations.

Taking off, you have no altitude, no speed, etc to work with. If an engine quits, the other has to go full throttle just to keep you in the air let alone climb. Plus, you just left the runway, so there's usually no where to land in front of you and turning is where you lose most of your altitude and energy. On long haul flights, you're also usually too heavy to go back and land right away, as most commercial aircraft landing gear can handle significantly more weight on takeoff than landing. In general, there's just a lot more consequences when things go wrong on takeoff than landing.

On landing, if all else fails a pilot can "deadstick" glide it somewhere. On takeoff, if everything goes wrong, the plane turns into a brick.

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Much-Revolution-2925 t1_j1hywa0 wrote

Lord. I’m sorry I asked for details. From now on I’ll be drinking heavily at the airport bars pre-flight.🤣🤣 Thank you for the explanation! That makes complete sense.

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Illin-ithid t1_j1i5n3s wrote

Keep in mind that crossing a street in DC is more dangerous than flying on a commercial airline. So "more dangerous" is relative and modern aircraft are generally amazingly safe.

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eventhestarsburn t1_j1hz7cg wrote

Take off is when the majority of incidents occur, i believe. Like if something is going to go wrong during your flight it’s probably going to happen within the first few minutes of the flight. I do hate the one descent into DCA because of how sharp those turns are. The views of the monument are beautiful but man those turns are rough. But in general with landing my mind is like “well, we’re already going towards the ground so if something bad happens at least we’re already headed that direction” which is kinda dark lol

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sunshowered t1_j1hy5l5 wrote

I’m the same way. Takeoff is scary to me because you get catapulted up into the air, the plane turns/banks hard out of DCA, and then the engine noises change and the angle of plane drops as you hit cruising altitude—it feels like falling or something going wrong. However, my fear is probably due to a bad helicopter flight where we had to do an autorotation (i.e., they cut the engine and the centrifugal force of the falling aircraft causes the rotors to keep spinning). …Maybe I have PTSD

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CriticalStrawberry t1_j1hyxz0 wrote

As I said in another comment, the fear is founded as takeoff is much more dangerous than landing. It just seems counterintuitive to me.

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