I hate commercial flying worse than I hate fear. I’m not sure I will ever fly commercially again, will for sure do all I can to avoid it.

Float plane flying is another story! Love it and go every chance I get.

I've seen it all and have flown all over the world- never a thought of safety unless I was on an intercountry flight where FAA standards seemed non-existent and that was offen. Woke-up one time with a cabin filled with smoke and emergency landing in Ninghai- where they were speaking a dialect of Mandarin that was not conversational for me, had a noodle bowl and some unidentifiable parts of beef and jumped on the "fixed" plane three hours later. Great life experiences but I don't miss the glamour of business travel.

Flying is better than taking a bus!

NO

I have no fear of flying but hate flying on a commercial passenger airline. I hate going through security and being treated like I'm being admitted into a prison. I hate being jammed in a tin can like a sardine with 300 filthy people. I hate that airlines are allowed to sell advanced tickets and overbook their flights.

But I love to get on any kind of private aircraft and fly around. It's fun for me. I even went skydiving once and it was awesome. You can actually fly those parachutes while you are gliding down.

The funny thing is... I get nervous driving over a bridge. Go figure.

Dirty D pretty much summed up my thoughts. For me it comes down to (pick one):

Option 1: Spend 2 days in my truck driving to hunt camp in Wy, legally armed with my concealed carry, or 3 days to Idaho, with stops along the way to visit historic/scenic sites in either case. Return trip with meat in the coolers and rack in the back.

Option 2: One day driving 2 hrs to the airport, waiting to check bags and get thru TSA. Waiting to board. Waiting to take off. Maybe flying, maybe not. Maybe arriving in time for my connection, maybe not. Maybe have my connecting flight arrive, maybe not. Maybe flying to my destination, maybe not. Waiting for luggage that may or may not show up, waiting in line for a rental. Drive to camp. Return trip with all the difficulties and potential problems of flying out plus the added concern of meat spoilage and trophy rack handling.

Option 1 is the easy choice for me. I prefer to be in control of my own destiny to the extent possible. Being aloft in an airplane bothers me none at all. If ever I was to win big in the lottery the one thing I would know to do with all that money is to fly charter.

This pilot rammed up on a beach here a week before this.

I got a little fear.

No real fear here. I've jumped from them too. Bothe static and free fall. Free fall is pretty exciting. Static is scarier for me becuase you jump out and are suddenly ripped backwards. Free fall you still get the jerk back, but you control the when, where, and how.


I'm actually addicted to the show "Air Disasters".

We talked an air taxi service into flying us in when they were already having a hard time getting hunters out of the field. It was early October and the lakes were locking up with ice. Getting in was no problem, getting out a week later was. The first night we were there a third of the lake froze over. Me and my hunting partner were pretty sure we had a problem.

A week later, I think all of us, including the pilot, thought we were going to flip and drown when he tried to take off. He gunned it right from shore but there wasn't enough open water to make it. He told us to hang on as we went careening into it. Thankfully, we didn't flip. We got out on the floats with axes and paddles to break up the ice so we could get the plane turned around. We got it turned, he taxied us back to shore, threw us and most of our gear out and directed us to hike to a bigger lake at a lower elevation. He said he'd pick us up there if he could get off. He made it, but barely.

Just one of many fun trips.

It looks like that guy was taking off down-wind?? Probably pretty heavy too. I wonder what he was thinking?
Looks like that pileup would have been hard to survive.

My biggest fear of flying in light aircraft in Alaska is mid-air collisions. Lots of small planes in the air, my eyes are always open and looking; I don't always trust my pilot, although most of the guys I fly with are very experienced pilots, some of them do seem to get a like too comfortable with it.

One Flight out of Lake Clark Air was pretty scary
The owners Son flew us out towards Anchorage. He flew us 7 or 8 hunters above that river Flying like a madman....crazy flight. I was Glad to survive that flight....

I have worked overseas sent 1999. So ever month I’m flying to or from Africa, Middle East, Asia.

Just crashing lol

Took flying lessons when I was 18, did all but solo, Since, I have flown only twice on jets. Its not so much the heights as its the claustrophobia.

Hurricane flight in Atlanta and nose gear would not go up, bomb scare in St Louis, and emergency landing in Western CO because of a windshield defroster failure during a thunderstorm. Needed more fuel to get to Salt Lake? Left Phoenix with only half a tank.

I expect many malfunctions are not communicated to the passengers.

The roughest commercial landing was when I flew into ElPaso, blew the tires on landing and ole boy limped that joker all the to the terminal. We never knew it until we went to pick up our weapons. The lady at TSA told us it was going to be a long day and explained what happened.

Can't get to Nome without flying. Well, you can snow machine in the winter or ride a boat in the summer. So an untold number of flights in 38 years. Over 500,000 air miles with Alaska Airlines, and plenty more with Delta and United. As some have already mentioned, crowded planes, standing in line.
I Prefer smaller airplanes. Civilian Air Patrol, sheep hunts, moose hunts, wrestling trips. Only scared once on a search up the Noatak. I was taking ground school class and instructor and I were flying grid search in his personal 180. I learned the stall characteristics of that plane that day.
My bucket list includes a ride in a Warbird. If I win the lottery, my first purchase would be a Grumman F7F Tigercat and hiring an instructor to teach me to fly it.

I'd pass on the Flight lessons...but a lottery win would allow me a Second Brown Bear hunt before I die
Fingers x

aknome, you have excellent taste in warbirds!