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Post by trimtab on May 3, 2008 8:27:25 GMT -7
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Post by Galvin on May 3, 2008 12:03:02 GMT -7
The title of this thread describes me ( and, I suspect, others) perfectly.
I have had almost terminal acrophobia for years. Something having to do with an incident as a baby they tell me. While in an airplane I guess I am convincing myself that I am watching the world go by on a TV screen and even open cockpit aerobatics were OK back when. But, like many people, when there is a definite connection to the rest of the world, like the actual measure of height one gets when passing a support tower on a ski lift for instance, it really gets to me.
I tackled my phobia head on when I worked at Rocketdyne in my youth after freezing up on the 232' level of a big test stand while changing a hydrogen sniffer and leaving the stand on my hands and knees.
I subsequently forced myself to repeatedly go up the outside ladder on the run tank of various hydrogen/oxygen rocket test stands, all of which were over a hundred feet high, to perform mass spectrometer leak checking. I was doing it in all kinds of weather and using the 50 'stainless steel fire poles we had installed for quick evacuation of the stands as the means to come down as well. I got to where I could do it without freezing up but was never actually comfortable with it.
Acrophobia is obviously something you now and then have to get a booster shot for as well because watching this video is almost enough to send me into therapy.
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Post by propnuts on May 10, 2008 6:45:59 GMT -7
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Post by trimtab on May 10, 2008 7:49:54 GMT -7
Also looks like a great place to yodel or sing Doo-Wops!  |
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Post by Grug - American Neanderthal on May 11, 2008 18:10:02 GMT -7
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Post by Patch on May 12, 2008 17:05:41 GMT -7
I used to work in the grain elevators when I was around 18-22. I was terrified of heights, but loved to fly. My boss was an old Lithuaniun, he could be mean as hell (taught me a lot about doing the job right though) I'd been on top of the silos before taking up an electric manlift. That I didn't mind too much. One day, we burnt the belts of the main grain leg. We get to the top of the silo and he starts telling me what I'm carrying the rest of the way up. I laughed and said there is no fn way I'm climing up there! After receiving a 5 minute verbal lashing about getting thrown off a silo or something, I found myself 180' above the ground, looking at beautiful lake Erie from 25 miles inland. standing on a piece of expanded metal. I was scared shitless. I had one hand on the railing and a wrench in my other hand. Well....... one hand was on the railing until one of the belts got smacked acrossed it followed by about another minute of verbal lashing. About 6 months or so later, I had no problem going up and standing on top of the safety rail to change the airplane lights. I remember going up once when it was real windy out. the leg was swaying in the wind. I was deafened by the wind. I finially got to the top of the leg and when I went to the other side of the leg (about an 8x8 platform all together) There was approximately 2.8 billion birds (give or take 2.79999999 billion) That jumped up 2' in front of me. I damned near jumped of that leg. Another time, we had to change out the grease in a grear box/speed reducer. So up you go with an emty 5 gallon bucket for the old stuff and a 5 gallon bucket of new stuff. We can all guess that the 20yo is going to carry the full bucket and not the emty one. Couldn't pull it up with a rope because it would get tangled up on this particular leg, so I had to one handed all the way up. If you think that you can throw the old grease pail off the top and miss the sheet metal covered unloading area below, you would be mistaken. If you think the manager would think it's funny that you need a new piece of sheet metal, you'd also be mistaken. Had to spend time at one of the older elevators with the old style counterweight/rope man lifts. The thing was so old I don't know how it wasn't condemmend. You couldn't adjust the counterbalance in the thing, and i was the lightest guy there, so most of the time, I just climbed the ladder on the side of the silo. We were doing some stick welding up top of the silo (120') Guess who got to climb up with 150' of cable coiled around my neck and shoulder. The stuff almost weighed as much as me. I got out of that business after nearly taking a plunge off a 130' silo in freezing rain.
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Or this - Full size, be sure to scroll up
