If you are very nervous what you should do is notify the cabin crew and tell them you are nervous. Ask them if it is possible to pop into the flightdeck before departure, we always like visitors to pop in and we will always try and help with your nerves and answer anything you care to ask about, as long as we have time.

But just seeing the flighttdeck can and sometimes help people who are affraid, it's just a real shame we cannot allow it during the flight anymore, sometimes we would allow people to sit on the jumpseat during take off and landing and see it from our point of view. Best office view in the world.

Thanks Ross I`m not too sure if seeing all the buttons/electronics in the cockpit would help me, it might make me panic more and my imagination run wilder although i think i would quite like to see take off through the front window it must look amazing.
Most cabin crew are brilliant with very nervous passengers, a young woman on my flight coming home from Turkey (the return trip of the bad turbulance flight) was very near hysterical, she had been on the same flight going out. We had a few hiccups when the plane tried to leave the airport, first a security scare then all power failed, anyway, she could not settle at all so the crew took her out to the back of the plane, one of them stayed with her at all times during the flight home, they really calmed her down.
Thanks again
Loulou

This topic was originally about turbulence but has now moved on to other things, including fear of flying. Please note that we do have a Fear of Flying topic, where Ross has also been posting:

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=5890

David

Thankyou david fo stepping in . I started this post looking for reasurrance about turberlance and now somehow it seems to be about brace positions and plane crashes, this is not what i was looking for,can people please think when they post about what they are writing as the last few posts could really frighten people, what started of as good advice and good explanations, which i am grateful for, as got out of hand and i am sorry if this post as added to peoples anxities. sorry this was not intended.

Hi natrose ... I have now removed 27 posts of off-topic discussion from this thread, and transferred them to the correct topic about 'Fear of Flying'.

Hopefully that should now restore this topic to what you had originally intended - a discussion about turbulence.

David

I just had to 'add my bit' - just returned this morning from a very bumpy flight home from Gran Canaria - the turbulence started within minutes of take-off from Las Palmas and continued all the way up the Atlantic and all the way over Portugal. I was tired (2.40am departure) and felt a bit queasy anyway from too much all-inclusive at the hotel, and I have to say, I was close to tears a couple of times on this flight. I'm a sensible sort of person and this type of thing doesn't usually bother me too much, but with the pitch black outside and no 'comforting' words at all from the pilot, it was a flight I'd rather forget

Hi Cyberspacekadette
I must admit i like the captain to speak during the flight it is reassuring and somehow makes me feel safe .
Sue

What airline did you fly with? Pilots english may not have been good enough to make a comforting PA. I always make a PA to the passengers if we are in turbulance and even try to add a bit of humour to take their mind off it.

We flew with First Choice - and the pilot was very English!!! He spoke to us at the beginning of the flight to explain the route and expected arrival time, and he spoke again on descent to tell us which way we'd be approaching Manchester (which was a fat load of use because it was thick cloud until 20 seconds before landing - we would have seen our house if the weather had been better) he told us about the temperature in Manchester and what the weather had been like in the previous day or two, but not a word about the turbulence, I've been on flights before where the pilot has apologised for turbulence or gone to the trouble to give us an easy-to-understand explanation for it, but this pilot mustn't have felt the need

Ex militiary pilot by the sounds of it since most pilots in FCA are. Yes sometimes you find a few pilots who just can't be bothered to give reassuring words to their passengers who might be a little nervous, thankfully they are few and far between.

Probably to busy to doing the crossword

hi cyberspacekadette

as i have previously said we had turbulence coming back from tenerife
we were flying with good old brittania ( one of my personal fav's ) and i must say we heard from the captain 2 or 3 times. it is very reassuring to hear their voices at a time of need!!!!
if only ALL airlines and pilots followed suit, then i'm sure all those nervous people who will never fly again..... WOULD

lou x

But unfortuantely Britannia is no more.....they are now ThomsonFly. Although I assume the Pilots are the same? But I must admit the ThomsonFly flights that I have taken recenteky are no where as good as when they were Britannia, and the Pilots never speak on the PA, at least not on the flights I have been on.

I appreciate Pilots have to concentrate on flying, but correct me if I am wrong, once the aircraft has reached its cruising altitude the Auto Pilot takes over and does all the work, leaving the actual Pilot free to do whatever....including talking to the passengers.

Indeed, on a few Britannia flights I have been on the Pilot even came around the cabin and spoke to passengers on a one to one basis just to be friendly. Now that IS exceptional service and is to be commended. They would do this if there was turbulance or anything that might be making the passengers feel uncomfortable. But ThomsonFly Pilots don't seem to be the same.

Thomsonfly is still Britannia, look at the front of the nose and you will see in small writing operated by Britannia airways. Smae pilots and pretty much same service.

Ah the good old autopilot does all work myth!

All the autopilot does for us his guide the aircraft where we tell it to go rather than us having to put small imputs in to keep the aircraft straight and level, it helps us to free up our capacity to deal with navigation, air traffic control, carry out our checks on the aircraft to make sure everything is going to plan, work out how much fuel we have to spare, plan our approach into our destination and brief it to each other and also get all the weather reports during the flight at destination as well as airports along the route just incase we need to divert.

Pilots are not really allowed to go wondering around the cabin anymore after 9/11 due to security risk, we can only really leave the flightdeck to use the toilet.

Hi again Ross. Now that makes for interesting reading because I was indeed under the impression that you guys switched on some device and the auto pilot took over complete control of the aircraft once it had reached cruising height. I'm not saying you guys (and gals) don't do anything, so please forgive me. Just goes to show how easily Joe Public can form the wrong impressions and get it all wrong.

It is such a great shame that certain practices are no longer allowed now, but I can understand why.

So keeping on topic then, you guys are always on hand to step in and take immeidate action in the event of severe turbulance?. Talking of which, do you have to make sudden or rapid chances in altitude/height to avoid turbulance or can you fly through it?

Is Turbulance the same as Wind Sheer? What actually causes turbulance?

We can disconect the autopilot at the press of a button, or we can assist the autopilot by adding imputs on the controls.

We fly through turbulance without any problems, unfortunatly at the moment we don't have the technology to see clear air turbulance on our radar screens.

Presumably aircraft are designed these days to withstand anything the forces of nature can throw at them and we the flying public have nothing to fear, even though it can be quite a frightening experience? Seeing the wings flap up and down, if one is seated near to them can be quite disconcerting.....you almost feel like they are going to snap off. I've only ever experienced a flight that encountered some 'light' turbulance but it is pretty unnerving when it happens.

Those wing can really flex, I have seen video footage of them putting a stress test on them and they took the wings from both sides and bent them up until both wing tips were touching before they snapped, that is impossible to do in flight so don't worry about them.

The whole point of building the wings so that they flex is to ensure that they don't snap off! If they were built so that they remained rigidly straight they would require comparatively little force exerted on them to make them snap compared to when they are designed to be more flexible. If planes were built with wings that didn't flex they would be dropping out of the skies a lot more frequently than they do :-0

There are few engineering structures which aren't designed to flex in high winds or under pressure. This includes most bridges and what made the Millenium Bridge over the Thames different was that pedestrians were able to notice it and most of us on most bridges don't The further work on the bridge stiffened it but didn't actually made it rigid because it would have been too dangerous to remocve all the flex.

A multistorey tour block can actually deviate from the true horizontal by 9ins or more on either side. In other words there can be 18 ins or more of flex in them up at the top! This is too small for most residents to even notice but it enables the building to absorb stress in high winds and not cause potentiall fatal damage to the actual support structure.

SM

Not only do the wings have to flex but also the rest of the aircraft. You don't notice it in flight because with all the cabin interior like overhead lockers and curtains breaks up the effect, but if you were able to get on something like a 757 which is long and thin, have the cabin stripped out so there is no seats etc. and stood at the back of the cabin, you would see the whole aircraft flex.

It is all totally normal.