Anyone ever had a passenger have a panic attack in flight?

[Electrogunner]

I had an experience flying to OSH'19. First time there and the first long xc in my newly minted -10. After getting some gas south of Gary,IN the wife and I took to the lakeshore route around Chicago. It was hot and bumpy and the wife started getting sick just north of Chicago. I continued toward the Fisk arrival while trying to keep her calm and not come unhinged. While approaching Fisk she was not doing good so I went to the higher/faster arrival altitude. We had planned for her to help with traffic and get the appropriate approach instructions as I needed them. At this point she was curled up in a fetal position in the right seat sweating profusely. I was on my own and also talking to her to calm her( not working). I had my hands full looking for traffic, following arrival instructions and trying to calm her while keeping my hand on the mixture knob on my throttle quad in case she shifted from being in a fetal position. Then they instructed me to make short short approach because of traffic coming from warbird island, basically wings level and touchdown. Still managed to touch on the yellow dot. Not a fun arrival and longgg taxi to HB parking. It was several hours before she felt better. Hopefully OSH '21 will be a easier arrival.

[F1R]

Better give that woman a DFC or some very special rewards for enduring that misery. That girl must really love you.
Definitely a keeper. In case it helps others, a series of short early morning flights in cool air(before the sun is up and making thermals) will usually cure a motion sensitive, but otherwise eager to fly passenger for all time.

[bill.hutchison]

I give discovery flights as part of my CFI gig. I haven't had a passenger lock up yet, but I've frequently considered what I would do if they did. You never know quite how a newbie is going to take flight in a small plane the first time.

Some CFIs have said a whack to the body or nose gets them to free up. I suppose that might be anecdotally effective but I do wonder about the reaction to that when I need to get control of the airplane. I mentioned this to another, very seasoned CFI and he suggested the following:

"Don't hit them. Gently cover their eyes. They'll let go."

Haven't had to try that, but I think that will be the first thing I try before karate-chopping them in the cockpit.

[Roadjunkie1]

I was born and raised on tandem aircraft and these stories add one more reason that, for me, is a good seating arrangement. Hind sight: some of these stories made me laugh out loud as I imagined the scene but were NOT funny at the time.........

One of my more interesting passengers was the wife of my A&P/IA. He had 80/87 running in his veins (remember that? Purple, smelled wonderful....!). You could not keep him out of the air. His wife, however, HATED to fly. Interesting relationship. I can't remember the reason she was in the back seat of the Cub (with the stick removed) but I was given the job of getting her back to her home field. I figured out pretty soon into the flight that turns freaked her OUT. As soon as that wing came down, she was grabbing for things. Huh. So I minimized our wing-down turns until I got back to the home field. All turns in the pattern were FLAT TURNS with the ball slammed against the edge of the vial, my face feeling like it was smashed against the window but she was fine. You all know what a flat turn feels like She thought they were fine as long as those wings stayed where they were supposed to be: horizontal! I have not flown with her since.

My instructor had a student in the front seat of the Super Cub freeze on the controls.......on final approach and had to aggressively slap him in the head before he let go. He did not get his license......

I always brief my passengers before flight. One of the things I point out is the small stack of barf bags behind the rudder cables on their right side. I jokingly say that if they chew tobacco, those bags are a great place to spit. I do NOT mention getting sick. No one has ever asked me what I meant.

That said, I have not had more than two or three people actually get sick. I had a USAF jet jock who hadn't pulled "G"'s in 15 years get queasy when we were dog-fighting; he explained that USAF pilots don't do negative "G"s. They go inverted and pull

[LouFly]

I was flying a Cessna for a friend doing Young Eagles. Spent 20 min encouraging an autistic boy to fly without success until on final about 300 AGL he gave the yoke death grip. Luckily I was twice his weight, but made me think about that going forward.

[Ralph Inkster]

Originally Posted by LouFly

I was flying a Cessna for a friend doing Young Eagles. Spent 20 min encouraging an autistic boy to fly without success until on final about 300 AGL he gave the yoke death grip. Luckily I was twice his weight, but made me think about that going forward.

I had an opposite YE experience one time. My young passenger was maybe 210 lbs of solid muscle, probably his school star football player. He looked eager getting into the plane but it became very apparent he wasn't having a good flying experience while we were climbing out. I glanced over to see he had quite the ashen facial appearance and more concerning, he had his hands, not touching, but in a white knuckle grip around the base of the control stick. What to do... I leveled out and distracted him to look sideways at another plane way off to our right side. As quickly as I could I lifted the control stick out from his hands and stowed it away on my left side. I figured I couldn't distress him any more than he already was, I made a quick but very gentle circuit back to the airport and the smoothest landing ever... I'm not sure which of us were more relieved to be on the ground.

This was before Vans circulated the SB for bolting the control stick in, which I don't comply to even to this day.

[N804RV]

I was giving rides in the Navy flying club's T-34 some years ago. I took off from NAS Lemoore and landed at nearby Hanford municipal.

Filled out all the pax waivers and put them in the mailbox there at the field to be legal. Then, started giving rides to the 3 of my wife's friends who were brave enough to climb into the back seat.

For each, I took off, climbed above the valley haze so they could get a good view of the mountains. And, then back in for a smooth, straight in landing. All as gentle as possible with a little chit-chat from me to try and reassure them.

The first two went fine. Neither was very talkative. But, they said it was really cool and "thanks a lot!" once we were back on the ground. The 3rd one however, didn't go so well.

As soon as I gently eased the stick back, she started screaming, and didn't stop. I didn't even bother raising the gear. I went once around the pattern and landed, did a fast taxi back to parking and shut the engine down before coming to a stop. --She still beat me out of the plane. I was worried she was going to trip and hurt herself. But, she made it down ok, apologizing profusely the whole time.

Its kinda funny now. But, at the time, it scared the **** out of me.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Roadjunkie1

One of my more interesting passengers was the wife of my A&P/IA. He had 80/87 running in his veins (remember that? Purple, smelled wonderful....!).

80/87 was always red around here. Purple was marked gas, used in farm implements or boats.

[Jeff Vaughan]

I had a Young Eagle grab the stick a few seconds after rotating. I yelled let go! And he did. The rest of the flight was fine After that. ALL MY Youg Eagles flights after that I had the passenger loop their thumbs around the shoulder harness. I tell them to squeeze the webbing on take off. All has been good.

I di have a panic attack as PIC 30 years ago. I calmly told my passenger to hold the yoke steady. When he seemed to get the control I told him what was going on. Never had an issue since then.