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My gf and I flew between two tiny airports in Costa Rica a couple of years back, a Sansa operated 13 seat Cessna. As we went inland and over forests and volcano

My gf and I flew between two tiny airports in Costa Rica a couple of years back, a Sansa operated 13 seat Cessna. As we went inland and over forests and volcano we became enveloped by dark clouds, battered by rain. No lightning, but we were jolted up, down, left and right repeatedly. Meanwhile the two crew thought nothing of it, in fact one of them appeared to just be merrily using Snapchat throughout. I took this as a sign that we were in no real danger – if they were having to work hard to control the plane I'd be much more worried! My gf, who was absolutely terrified of the whole thing, didn't quite agree with me... Later that day, our new accommodation had a printed FAQ in the room including "which of Sansa or NatureAir is the safest for flying domestically?". The answer was "Sansa have the braver pilots".

ryanmercer 7y ago
>My gf and I flew between two tiny airports in Costa Rica a couple of years back, a Sansa operated 13 seat Cessna. As we went inland and over forests and volcano we became enveloped by dark clouds, battered by rain. No lightning, but we were jolted up, down, left and right repeatedly. Meanwhile the two crew thought nothing of it, in fact one of them appeared to just be merrily using Snapchat throughout. Flying back to IND from SFO mid last year we were in some really rough weather (hands down the worst turbulence I've ever experienced) for 20-25 minutes. It was bad enough reading was a futile attempt so I stowed my kindle in my bag and tried to get a nap, I'm sitting there 3/4 asleep with my chin on my chest and the lady across the aisle asks the lady next to me "oh my god, is he asleep or praying" at which point I looked up and said "I was trying to read but we're bouncing around too much so I thought I'd get a nap". At that elevation, if the cabin was compromised we'd have all been unconscious in seconds and if we were just damaged enough to crash, I figured I'd worry about being scared as we started to fall out of the sky as worst case we'd have 1-2 minutes before we hit the ground. The only time I get scared in a plane is take off, once the plane is doing about 3/4 of the speed it needs to, until maybe 5 seconds after the wheels leave the ground I'm absolutely terrified. I don't mind the steep climb, I don't mind the landing, but taking off scares me like nothing else climaxing when you feel the wheels leave the tarmac, my blood goes cold (and I'll even breakout in a cold sweat sometimes) every single time. That fear has always been there too. The first time I ever flew was in a small 4-seat with my 5th grade teacher. He took all of us in his class up that Saturday that were in scouts and any of our dads that wanted to go. I was absolutely terrified once he started accelerating and losing it, within seconds of wheels off the ground I was like "Look over there! Look at that, wow look at the ground, oh man everything is getting so small, wow! Can you tilt the plane so we can see better?" I must have been a rocket-sled dummy in a past life or something.
- Pigo 7y ago
  Every time I go through a bad turbulence, I picture myself as the narrator in Fight Club on one of his business trips. I look at whoever I'm with and say "Life insurance pays off triple if you die on a business trip".
- dmos62 7y ago
  Me and my gf were taking a cable car up this mountain from a Swiss ski resort during off-season to go hiking. The weather was pretty bad too, it was the end of the day, so we were the only people taking the cable cars. We rushed over there, because it was something like 16:25 and it was closing at 16:30. The whole ride is about 15 minutes. You might see where this is going. Exactly at 16:30, we're about 3/4 way up by then, all the cable cars stop, and start swinging. They don't normally swing while they're being pulled, if they stop mid-way, then they start to swing. Apparently, this isn't such a rare occurance, but we're not skiiers and this was very unsettling. You just see a long fall onto steep rocks below you and hear the wind howling, all the while the thing (that is hardly bigger than a changing booth) is swinging like a gigantic swinging set. It then started moving again after about 60 seconds, only to stop again after maybe 30 seconds, and then it started and stopped 2-3 more times. It was nerve wracking. I look back to it with a smile, but when the cable car finally arrived at the top we practically flew out of it.
  - _nalply 7y ago
    Perhaps stopping to prevent the car banging sideways at the walls when entering at the top. This could be an automatic safety feature. You wrote that the weather was bad, was it windy?
    - dmos62 7y ago
      It was, but not especially so. I hadn't considered that, that would make sense.

ryanmercer 7y ago

>My gf and I flew between two tiny airports in Costa Rica a couple of years back, a Sansa operated 13 seat Cessna. As we went inland and over forests and volcano we became enveloped by dark clouds, battered by rain. No lightning, but we were jolted up, down, left and right repeatedly. Meanwhile the two crew thought nothing of it, in fact one of them appeared to just be merrily using Snapchat throughout. Flying back to IND from SFO mid last year we were in some really rough weather (hands down the worst turbulence I've ever experienced) for 20-25 minutes. It was bad enough reading was a futile attempt so I stowed my kindle in my bag and tried to get a nap, I'm sitting there 3/4 asleep with my chin on my chest and the lady across the aisle asks the lady next to me "oh my god, is he asleep or praying" at which point I looked up and said "I was trying to read but we're bouncing around too much so I thought I'd get a nap". At that elevation, if the cabin was compromised we'd have all been unconscious in seconds and if we were just damaged enough to crash, I figured I'd worry about being scared as we started to fall out of the sky as worst case we'd have 1-2 minutes before we hit the ground. The only time I get scared in a plane is take off, once the plane is doing about 3/4 of the speed it needs to, until maybe 5 seconds after the wheels leave the ground I'm absolutely terrified. I don't mind the steep climb, I don't mind the landing, but taking off scares me like nothing else climaxing when you feel the wheels leave the tarmac, my blood goes cold (and I'll even breakout in a cold sweat sometimes) every single time. That fear has always been there too. The first time I ever flew was in a small 4-seat with my 5th grade teacher. He took all of us in his class up that Saturday that were in scouts and any of our dads that wanted to go. I was absolutely terrified once he started accelerating and losing it, within seconds of wheels off the ground I was like "Look over there! Look at that, wow look at the ground, oh man everything is getting so small, wow! Can you tilt the plane so we can see better?" I must have been a rocket-sled dummy in a past life or something.

Pigo 7y ago
Every time I go through a bad turbulence, I picture myself as the narrator in Fight Club on one of his business trips. I look at whoever I'm with and say "Life insurance pays off triple if you die on a business trip".
dmos62 7y ago
Me and my gf were taking a cable car up this mountain from a Swiss ski resort during off-season to go hiking. The weather was pretty bad too, it was the end of the day, so we were the only people taking the cable cars. We rushed over there, because it was something like 16:25 and it was closing at 16:30. The whole ride is about 15 minutes. You might see where this is going. Exactly at 16:30, we're about 3/4 way up by then, all the cable cars stop, and start swinging. They don't normally swing while they're being pulled, if they stop mid-way, then they start to swing. Apparently, this isn't such a rare occurance, but we're not skiiers and this was very unsettling. You just see a long fall onto steep rocks below you and hear the wind howling, all the while the thing (that is hardly bigger than a changing booth) is swinging like a gigantic swinging set. It then started moving again after about 60 seconds, only to stop again after maybe 30 seconds, and then it started and stopped 2-3 more times. It was nerve wracking. I look back to it with a smile, but when the cable car finally arrived at the top we practically flew out of it.
- _nalply 7y ago
  Perhaps stopping to prevent the car banging sideways at the walls when entering at the top. This could be an automatic safety feature. You wrote that the weather was bad, was it windy?
  - dmos62 7y ago
    It was, but not especially so. I hadn't considered that, that would make sense.