FEAR OF HEIGHTS

Can you be an acrophobic and a pilot?

MIKE DAVENPORT

According to Professor Google, I have acrophobia—an acute and, as it turns out, somewhat irrational fear of height It likely started when as a very young kid when my stepdad took me onto a swinging bridge and then promptly showed me how it got that name. All I actually recall is hanging on with all my might and screaming my head off. That moment must have been a turning point in my life because I’ve been afraid of heights ever since. I don’t do ladders, steep hills or even look out of a high-rise window. Indeed, as I have often shared with friends—I don’t even like being this tall, and I’m just 5-foot-6. What if anything has that got to do with aviation? I have been asked how it is…

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Plane & Pilot (Digital) - 1 Issue, January/February 2025

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