Fear can be defined as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger whether the threat is real or imagined. All my life, I had lived with a fear of heights yet never had a panic attack induced by being up to high. It seems, I never allowed myself to climb steps, hang on the edge of cliffs or any other high place. When challenged to walk to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (It used to be allowed.) , I only felt the fear of heights on one swayback where the donkeys would walk across the 3 foot gap which was about 1/2 mile deep. My hiking partner also walked across while watching me go all the way around the path with my face to the canyon wall hugging it all the time. By the way, they train the donkeys to walk the path while following their mothers. When the donkey is 3 years old or so they train them to take a rider. After all, why teach them to take riders if they are too clumsy to walk the path.
When I took a job as a roofer, I would simply never look down and when I had to go to the edge, I would crawl. The fact is if anyone joked with me or touched me when I was close to the edge, they were likely to get a very hard punch or two. Money or dare would overcome my fear of heights but it always returned. While in Italy, there was a trip to the Devils Cave at the bottom of a 300 foot drop. I was telling the rest of the party, I could not cross the bridge to get to the elevator when a friendly Canadian woman started pushing me across the bridge. She jumped back as she recognized she was about to be punched. I have never hit a woman in my life but she was to be my first exception. I waited in a souvenir shop and had a couple of beers as everybody else took the 2 hour tour. The pictures showed I had missed a fantastic cave.
Fear is interesting as it is it seems to be a controllable emotion. You either avoid the stimulus or control the anxiety. Now I decided I wanted the sensation of flight more than I was concerned with the fear of heights. I have not been hang gliding extensively (16 dune flights and one 2000 ft tandem), but I have yet to see anybody who actually paid their money and got ready for flight back out due to fear. Maybe because the initial lessons involve a childlke game of running down a hill with a kite strapped to your back. The most reluctant of our group which was Carson did not sign up until he saw his wife and me fly. Then he joined the fun. Cait joined a year later and over came her fear of heights for a wonderful time.
Years ago, I used to go hot air ballooning on a regular basis. I used to let the pilots use my farm as a balloon port. Every chance I got, I would hitch a ride. It was an almost surreal out of body experience where you silently floated above everybody and every place and silently observed the world. At no point did I ever have any fears and I really never had any fear of flying in jumbo jets.
The closest I had to anxiety in an airplane was a breezy. Now this was an open body homemade airplane with a Corvair bucket seat up front and the rear seat behind. The only canvas was on the wings, tail and rudder the rest was an open pipe frame. the engine was mounted above the wing and it was behind the passengers in the pusher configuration. It was owned by a pilot friend and we were all drinking at the 4th of July party and my wife said she wanted a ride. I simply couldn’t be shamed into letting her do it alone but you have to really understand the concept of just using canvas on the wings, the motor behind the wings and and sitting on an old car seat in the middle. I Googled breezy but couldn’t find any pictures. The closest to it was the following.
Breezy Airplane
No Lie it was fantastic and until I went hang gliding it was the closest thing to really flying. We flew up and down the Delaware River, over the islands and the boaters. We were higher than the hawks and our bodies were totally caressed by the wind. It was fantastic. The only moments of anxiety was when I really looked at the craft while climbing on it and then when we took off from a cliff there was a slight drop before the lift of the airplane took us up, up, and away.
Tags: Ballooning, dream, family, Fear, Flying, Hang Gliding, health, homemade airplane, life, lifestyle, longevity, parenting, seniors, sports, travel
November 20, 2007 at 9:03 pm
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