Is it me?

[Sloper]

Goodaye all

 

Been working about 5m in a cherry picker the last couple of days repairing a building at work. (tip dont drive a tip truck through a shed with the body up?)

 

l have always had a problem with heights and l still do even though l make a point of confronting it.

 

But

 

l have no problem flying, l cant work out why.

 

Does anybody else have this?

 

regards Bruce

 

 

[SDQDI]

Yep I can't stand ladders or rooftop work I don't like it at all but I love flying go figure.

 

Someone told me of a survey of commercial pilots and a surprising amount admitted to a fear of heights. (Not sure if that's true or they were just trying to make me feel better lol)

 

 

[mothra]

I'm not afraid of heights, I'm afraid of falling from height. In fact its not the fall, its the sudden stop at the bottom I'm not keen on..

 

In the air I used to have moments of WTF am I doing here, now all gone.

 

 

[joeyo68]

I'm afraid of heights. 30 feet up on a building can be terrifying, but no problems when I fly, and have been flying for nearl 30 years.

 

 

[rankamateur]

I can go 25' up a 30' windmill tower but can't go 30' up a 40' tower, no logic to it, just do your head in trying to work it out.

 

 

[Marty_d]

In a plane, it doesn't matter how high above the ground you are, the floor remains right under your feet (hopefully).

 

When I started hang gliding I would be sh*tting myself while running over the edge of a cliff, then absolutely fine as soon as I was in the air.

 

By the way, just noticed that General Discussion has 6,666 threads. I was going to start a thread to point out this fact but it would have been counter productive - kind of a variation on the "observer effect".

 

 

[kaz3g]

I think it must be something that happens as we get older. We do become more aware of our mortality.

 

As a kid I did gymnastics and diving as my chosen sports at school. I happily swung from a trapeze or climbed the elms and spruce in the garden. I drove like a maniac but had no fear of dying or being horribly injured...even though a few of my friends did just that.

 

Now I feel decidedly insecure on an extension ladder or cleaning the leaves from the gutters and, although I love my flying, sometimes I have those WTF moments in the air now, too.

 

Kaz

 

 

[Sloper]

Thanks for your replies, l thought l was strange (well may be l still am but thats another topic)

 

As l said l like to confront this and carefully do what l need to, have a few breaks and tend to drink way too much coffee.

 

But at the end of it l get it done.

 

As a side note one of the guys in the office who can see me working is visably disressed and shaking watching me.

 

regards Bruce

 

 

[flyerme]

yep strange that! i was never afraid of hights as a child but now!!!! and yet totally fine in a SMALL plane(never been in anything bigger than a cessna 182 and dont plan too!) yet go up the escalator at adelaide royal hospital and im sweaty and shakey? go figure?

 

 

[Bandit12]

Me too. Used to hate climbing up to check the wing tanks on the C172 and C210, but happily climbed in and went flying. Still don't like changing light bulbs either.

 

 

[skeptic36]

yep strange that! i was never afraid of hights as a child but now!!!! and yet totally fine in a SMALL plane(never been in anything bigger than a cessna 182 and dont plan too!) yet go up the escalator at adelaide royal hospital and im sweaty and shakey? go figure?

Aren't you the guy in the pic jumping his motorbike about thirty foot in the air, with only one hand on the bike

 

 

[facthunter]

Anyhow you are NOT unusual (as far as the height thing anyway) .I still hate being inverted in an open cockpit hanging in the straps, even though a canopy would not save you.. Nev

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Raised in the bush, all the kids climbed to the highest branches of the biggest trees and if you didn't follow suit you ended up without friends. I never had a problem getting up there but coming down was sometimes a bit of a nightmare.

 

I've never liked confined spaces either. My high school had plenty of adventure activities so they suggested anyone with phobias should confront them by taking up an activity that challenged it. Consequently we acrophobiacs and claustrophobiacs spent the next two summer camps learning rock climbing, abseiling, caving and potholing. I thoroughly enjoyed it but it never cured the heebie-jeebies.

 

I never noticed it when flying until carrying external loads on the hook with helicopters. That's another challenging and very enjoyable activity but the 'height' aspect is very noticeable. It was that which showed me the difference between flying and ladders, for example. When you're flying there's very little perception of height but when you look down a ladder, or the cable carrying an external load, you can see it extending away below you and it provides a perspective view of the height.

 

 

[flyerme]

Aren't you the guy in the pic jumping his motorbike about thirty foot in the air, with only one hand on the bike

yep as long as im flying in some way im fine?lol

 

 

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

Raised in the bush, all the kids climbed to the highest branches of the biggest trees and if you didn't follow suit you ended up without friends. I never had a problem getting up there but coming down was sometimes a bit of a nightmare.I've never liked confined spaces either. My high school had plenty of adventure activities so they suggested anyone with phobias should confront them by taking up an activity that challenged it. Consequently we acrophobiacs and claustrophobiacs spent the next two summer camps learning rock climbing, abseiling, caving and potholing. I thoroughly enjoyed it but it never cured the heebie-jeebies.

 

I never noticed it when flying until carrying external loads on the hook with helicopters. That's another challenging and very enjoyable activity but the 'height' aspect is very noticeable. It was that which showed me the difference between flying and ladders, for example. When you're flying there's very little perception of height but when you look down a ladder, or the cable carrying an external load, you can see it extending away below you and it provides a perspective view of the height.

Try going up the mast on a 12-metre yacht, in a bosn's chair. if you make the mistake of looking down, it's like looking down your leg at your shoe; your brain tells you it's going to fall over. Dreadful feeling. Never get it in an aeroplane (except maybe a Drifter) because you're IN the thing, not ON the thing. Witches really have it tough . . .

 

 

[bexrbetter]

One of the few times I have worked for other people was for Tilemans in Dandenong who's specialty was repairing chimney flues.

 

I have a long list (tall list?) but 800 feet up (75 storeys) one of the Muswellbrook stacks (Bayswater power station) hanging in a rigger's harness injecting resin into cracks in the concrete tops the lot.

 

My second house in Chengdu is the 25th floor and roof with a spectacular view.

 

Not afraid of flying itself but I loath the containment and lack of me having control.

 

your brain tells you it's going to fall over.

Although wouldn't be as bad as a yacht of course, the first shock you get when you first go up a tower or stack is how far they move. Even the most experience can get some concern on very gusty days. The stacks at Muswellbrook had over 3 meters of sway at the top and your brain also tells you it will fall over.

 

 

[Chocolate]

Step off the skid on a 80 ft winch out of a heli.through the trees into bush land or winch up to heli. No worries. Luv the view. Climb a ladder or windmill...nugh!nada!noway! Hate the feeling. Go figure.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Low wings give you a floor and horizon. High wings leave you hanging underneath.

 

 

[dazza 38]

I used to get a bit of vertigo years ago as a teenager, but a twelve year stint working on high rise construction sites cured me of that.

 

 

[kgwilson]

I hate heights. I get dizzy in thick socks. Looking over the edge into the abyss scares the crap out of me.

 

BUT!! I spent 20 years hang gliding. I leaped off precipitous cliffs. I flew with mad mates who love aeros & seemingly had a death wish.

 

It is my faith that allows me to fly. The faith in my flying machine and my ability to control it. This is what I love and it is this that overcomes my fear and turns me into a flying junkie. Once I am strapped in nothing scares me. Like everyone I make mistakes but I always feel in control. The exception of course is trying to figure out how & why I crashed.

 

 

[dutchroll]

Goodaye allthough l make a point of confronting it.

But

 

l have no problem flying, l cant work out why.

There are a couple of different "flavours" of fear of heights.

The fear of heights you get on a cherry-picker, or a balcony, or a cliff, is really more a "fear of falling from height". This is very common and pilots are no exception. However when enclosed in a cockpit, the secure surrounds negate this fear of falling and so the "fear of heights" disappears. The brain is a strange beast.

 

Some unlucky folk have both a fear of falling from height, and a fear of heights!

 

 

[kaz3g]

Raised in the bush, all the kids climbed to the highest branches of the biggest trees and if you didn't follow suit you ended up without friends. I never had a problem getting up there but coming down was sometimes a bit of a nightmare.I've never liked confined spaces either. My high school had plenty of adventure activities so they suggested anyone with phobias should confront them by taking up an activity that challenged it. Consequently we acrophobiacs and claustrophobiacs spent the next two summer camps learning rock climbing, abseiling, caving and potholing. I thoroughly enjoyed it but it never cured the heebie-jeebies.

 

I never noticed it when flying until carrying external loads on the hook with helicopters. That's another challenging and very enjoyable activity but the 'height' aspect is very noticeable. It was that which showed me the difference between flying and ladders, for example. When you're flying there's very little perception of height but when you look down a ladder, or the cable carrying an external load, you can see it extending away below you and it provides a perspective view of the height.

I hung at the bottom of one of those cables once. Was ok while he hovered just above the trees with me.

 

Definitely didn't like it when he moved sideways a couple of hundred metres and put me 3000' over the Wongungarra!

 

Kaz

 

 

[AVOCET]

I hung at the bottom of one of those cables once. Was ok while he hovered just above the trees with me.Definitely didn't like it when he moved sideways a couple of hundred metres and put me 3000' over the Wongungarra!

 

Kaz

I'm sitting here with a big smile picturing you dangling from a rope 3000 ft agl

 

 

[pylon500]

Don't like the roof edge on the house or hangar, but don't mind a cliff edge PROVIDED I'm tied into my hang glider at the time!!!

 

Did get up to 7,000ft in my kite once and started to get the Heebie Jeebies looking down thinking I'm only being held up here by a bit of rope

 

But I convinced myself that if it broke at 100ft or 7,000ft, I'd be just as dead, would just have a bit more time to contemplate the folly of it all before I hit.

 

Had a student once that had done nearly forty hours learning and solo locally around the field, then we head off on his first cross country and climbed to 5,000ft, and he got very quiet for a long time