Worrying the night before a flight - is it normal?

Like Peter said – it really (at least for me aswell) has nothing to do with the hours. On the contrary, now after 1500 hours and better equipped than ever before – i sometimes seem to worry more than when I was a “Rookie” … Maybe because I have a very good idea now about all the things that can go wrong ;-)

It’s maybe also a personality thing. I can get completely paranoid about the safety of my kids, for example. Also I have read hundreds of accident reports and additionally i have a very vivid imagination.

What has been mentioned here before is true for me aswell: Once I am in the air I am cool and concentrated.

This is really interesting to read. I do about 100+hrs a year instructing/examining (not my primary job) and I can honestly say I don’t worry in the slightest the night before about the flying. It seems that weather is the most influential factor from what people have written, and instructing / examining you are generally in the local area so the chances of getting caught out are much reduced. I suppose the other thing is that I spend a lot of my airborne time teaching stalling, aeros, emergency drills, circuits etc so things like potential emergencies seem less of a worry. Good reminder for me that my students / candidates may be experiencing quite different feelings though.

I use to worry – no more. I will assess the flight the day before and have a pretty good idea whether it falls into one of three categories – absolute certainty, marginal, pretty unlikely. If it is the last and passengers are involved I will point out that almost certainly we will have to cancel but if, and only if they are willing to take their “chances” then we will take a look tomorrow. I forget it until tomorrow, put it out of my mind and take a decision when I see the TAFs the next day.

Absolute certainty is easy so its a quick check to ensure nothing has changed and off we go.

Of course the marginal is the difficult one. Personally with maginal I usually find the flight is possible but the timing is far less predicatable so that becomes the driving factor.

As I say I have given up worrying about it when I realised that all that really matters is the weather on the day, its not worth obsessing or being disappointed, far better to take what you find, decide what window of opportunity you have, and if it works out all well and good. If the widow is too narrow because the need is to be somewhere and the asessment is marginal or pretty unlikely not even to bother, find another way the day before and forget about the possibilty of flying.

Personally my margins are pretty conservative for two reasons. Firstly for pleasure I dont fly if need to be somewhere so thats easy. Secondly because I do go places for business I know it is not worth the stress and inconvenience for those I am meeting to committ to a marginal forecast so I make an early decision not to go or make certain that they are happy with which ever way it turns out and that we reschedule if necessary. It makes the decision the next day straighforward.

So I think it is the old argument that all the stress comes from introducing some element of “needing” or “wanting” to go, whereas if you eliminate the need or the want you eliminate the stress.

FWIW and thinking about it I also find that flying a deiced twin with good performance has helped a great deal. As stupid as it is there are conditions in a single I find I have become increasingly uncomfortable with and some of that uncomfort is an engine failure. I know it is irrational but that is the way it is as with anything that is irrational.

I consider myself a risk aware person in a fairly realistic sense, but do find the butterflies most everyone on this thread mentions familiar. Would be really interesting to hear what the real pros have to say?

Peter wrote:

At 2000 hrs I find it the same as at 200hrs. I am quite capable of being awake the whole night… Fortunately, and maybe there is a medical explanation for this, I find that lying there with eyes shut is almost as good as sleeping – for one night only. The IR has made no difference – it probably just expanded the wx spectrum in which one will fly

Since I got my IR ticket, I have confidence when flying VFR that I can handle worsening wx. So it’s not the same stress as before which means better sleep. But IFR can still ruin a nights sleep, especially when it’s IFR weather.

Regarding our performance, I’ve read about fatigue in many accident reports and I’m sure it does influence me. For a 2-3 hour flight in the morning I’m sure it’s quite OK even with less hours sleep. But if I’d plan a return trip at night, for example if I’d start flying in my line of work, fatigue would be something to take into calculation. An early departure, meetings/work all day and then return flight at 7pm would exhaust me, even when I’m at my best.

I don’t understand exactly what people are worried about. You are trained and have done whatever planning is needed. If you get to the airport or in the air and something changes, you deal with it.

I get being concerned about inconvenience but for VFR or IFR around Europe I don’t see it so much as a safety worry

You don’t understand us because you’re a cool Mustang driver ;-)

Interesting thread. While I can certainly relate to the ‘butterflies’ on the way to the airport, especially if I haven’t flown in a while, I don’t think I ever lost sleep over a flight. I generally sleep well, and have slept well in situations that were far more stressful than a flight in a SEP. Interestingly, the ‘butterflies’ vanish as soon as I start the preflight. I put these ‘butterflies’ down to positive stress that helps to concentrate.

That said, I do recognize the ‘pilot mode’. Concentrated, gathering all information and preparing and planning. Then again – that’s what we should be doing before launching into the blue yonder, no? I wouldn’t call the ‘worrying’.

Also, I don’t fly for a living and am generally not too stressed about canceling a flight. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Happened just a week ago, I was invited to a 4th of July party in Bishop, about 1:45h flight (in a 182RG) from L.A. The wx didn’t look good already the day before, so I repeatedly checked it. Had a good night’s sleep and re-checked in the morning. And canceled. Would have loved to go, but the idea of being stuck between several CBs in the Owens Valley didn’t appeal….

I think despatch rate is a totally different matter that should not be related to the question.