I have something to confess: I fly despite suffering from light form of vertigo. Getting on the panoramic observation deck of a skyscraper is fine, but I won’t lean against the fence or spend too much time looking down. When we visited Toronto years ago we went on the CN Tower, but getting on the glass floor required quite an effort. To be fair, I did not really stay on it… it was more like a crossing. Standing at the foot of a building and looking upward also makes me fill a bit dizzy. This is purely physiological, it makes me feel unsafe beyond any cognitive process.

When I started flying I was wondering if I could control it or if this would prevent me to become a pilot. I rapidly found out that the concentration required by flying made my mind sufficiently busy to avoid any problem. Looking at the ground while in cruise sometimes generated stress and thoughts like “there is only this plane floor between me and 3′000 feet of nothing”. The way I found to manage this kind of self-induced distraction is to force myself to focus on something else. Fuel management, navigation update, engine parameters monitoring, in such a situation anything goes.

I also felt some kind of vertigo when flying IFR in intermittent IMC. The constant changes in light in peripheral vision generates kind of a visual tunnel effect which sometimes gives me the impression that the plane’s nose is falling down. Never up, always down. IFR pilots learn to focus on the instruments, and particularly on the artificial horizon. This helped me a lot. Looking at this familiar instrument is reassuring and contribute to prevent self-induced stress.

One of the worst cases I had to deal with was while flying a steep-turn during a training flight. Instead of concentrating on the horizon (natural in this case), I took a look at the wing and the ground beyond. The combination of direct sight of the ground, the high bank angle, the turn rate and the two G’s triggered an adrenaline tsunami… After levelling the aircraft I had to breathe deeply and imagine for a couple of seconds that I was somewhere else. Just enough to bring the stress back to a normal level.

Flying is an ongoing learning process and this not only applies to flying skills. I learned and continue to learn about flying but also how to control myself, how to better communicate, how to stay organized and how to work under pressure. Can you suggest another hobby with so many positive impacts ?