Afraid to fly

There are a number of reasons why I am now afraid to fly.

My first flight was with an Alaskan “bush” pilot who emphasized “local” conditions. He said conditions can change quickly and you have to be ready for change. He pointed this out as we approached the small airfield in Orofino, Idaho.

The airfield is surrounded by high hills. He said many pilots go over the hills and try a direct line to the airfield. He said that you should come over the hills and circle the space before you line up to the single runway. So we did. He said that it puts you in more local control.

I always remembered that. I flew probably a dozen small plane flights before I flew in a public airliner. I prefer the small planes.

While with the newspaper in Boise, I went as a spotter in a small plane to search for three boxers that went down on a flight from Boise to Great Falls.

We had a large part of Idaho’s primitive area to search. We cris-crossed a large area but hadn’t found anything when the pilot said he had to relieve himself. On his map it showed an emergency field in the primitive area. We spotted it and the pilot flew over it slow several times to make sure it was safe to land.

It was all grown up around it but the pilot assured me it would be all right to land. It was a pretty bumpy landing, but it ended okay. That’s when I got a little shaky, when someone was taking chances with me aboard. That was the start of my reluctance to fly.

Some years later, I had experiences with commercial planes. This time I was going into Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. Here you fly in at the same level as a series of tall apartment complexes. If you have a window seat you are at the same level as the apartments. They used to comment that planes would sometimes snag a clothesline. That was how close you were to the buildings. You would pass by the apartment buildings then drop abruptly and line up with the runways. One runway was built out over the ocean, so it was scary. Since then, Hong Kong has built a new airport away from obstructions.

I made that scary flight into Hong Kong on three occasions, liking it less each time.

Later on the same trip, we flew into Tan Son Nhat airfield in Saigon, used by both public and military flights. Pilots on public planes would approach normally, and then, when you were near the airport, drop rapidly to prevent becoming a target. That was a scary approach.

, on one of my approaches to Kodiak, Alaska, I had my scariest flight.

We left Anchorage and were told that we would be flying through a storm with high winds. It was a short flight, and the winds were hitting 70 miles per hour. As we approached Kodiak, the winds were playing havoc with our approach, and the pilot would rev up our plane’s motor and get us back in line with the runway.

Over time, it was apparent to me that pilots seemed happy to take chances with my safety.

Now, in more modern times, I am not inclined to fly with people that have been drinking or in planes that are not as safe. Those experiences, and with time for me to think about them, has taken away any thought of flying anywhere.