Author Topic: Ever Puke in the Cockpit?  (Read 575 times)

Offline muckmaw

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« on: August 08, 2004, 09:47:26 AM »
God, thats how I felt yesterday!

I am on lesson 5, and after practiving turns around a point, as head out over the beach to practice S-Turns.

For some reason, when the instructor did the S-turns first, to demonstrate, I got so nauseous.

I guess it was the 45 degree banking from left to right and then back again!

Thankfully I never puked by man was I miserable! It almost ruined the fact that afterwards I made 3 landings on my own for the first time!

Anyone else ever get motion sick and have any advice?

Offline XNachoX

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2004, 09:51:35 AM »
Ya, grab the flight bag and get the puke bag out.  I puked during my spin lesson and he didn't realize anything had gone wrong until I didn't say anything on the comm for awhile :D.  Of course I had eaten a cheeseburger earlier that day in dire anticipation of the event.  I know....I know.

Offline muckmaw

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2004, 10:24:19 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by XNachoX
Ya, grab the flight bag and get the puke bag out.  I puked during my spin lesson and he didn't realize anything had gone wrong until I didn't say anything on the comm for awhile :D.  Of course I had eaten a cheeseburger earlier that day in dire anticipation of the event.  I know....I know.



:rofl :rofl

Offline RTR

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2004, 10:25:35 AM »
Muck motion sickness can be a result of having your head in the cockpit.

I would be willing to bet that during the demo you had your eyes in the cockpit, watching instruments.  Try getting your eyes out side of the cockpit (where most of your attention should be anyway) and just use quick glances at your instruments. Get a good scan going etc.

Hope this helps a bit.
Cheers,
RTR
The Damned

Offline crowMAW

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2004, 10:26:34 AM »
Keep the air vent pointed at your face.  Anticipate what your instructor is going to do and focus your eye on where you are going, which may not be straight ahead.

I've felt slightly nauseous only a few times in the air, and it was usually caused by not knowing what was happening with the airplane (feeling not in control...oddly that happens more often in airliners than anywhere else for me).  The only time I really felt like I was going to barf was when someone else at the controls was doing aerobatic manuevers.

Offline thrila

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2004, 11:13:35 AM »
eat bananas for breakfast.  They taste the same when you bring them up.
"Willy's gone and made another,
Something like it's elder brother-
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Offline beet1e

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2004, 12:07:06 PM »
Joe - I once felt pretty chitty in a glider once, as we theramalled in the skies around a large power station...

Had one passenger who was a Kenyan gentlement. Owing to his natural skin colour, I could not tell from looking at him that he was feeling ill, and he tried to hide it. Finally, he could contain himself no longer, and relieved himself into the side pocket of his anorak!


Slightly more worrying was when I made my instructor puke - LOL! It was in a C182/RG "Skylane", a plane with a heavy elevator. I was practising tight turns, but tended to "porpoise" the aircraft in the turn. Thing is that the instructor had been drinking heavily the night before and was in no fit state to act as PIC. Luckily I was not a novice - was just doing a type conversion.

Offline X2Lee

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Re: Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2004, 12:22:39 PM »
I had spin training  and acrobat training I never felt remotely ill

But the round and round rides at the fair? I always felt sick after a while. Go figure....

Offline muckmaw

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2004, 12:26:25 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by thrila
eat bananas for breakfast.  They taste the same when you bring them up.


Now that's funny.

Offline SFRT - Frenchy

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2004, 01:51:36 PM »
Well if you ask me, I have never ever been sick in a plane. I can eat 20 raw eggs, half a little of tekila and fly upside side all day long.

Now if you want the truth, oh man, even at 1300h I keep getting fairly nauseous, especially when I don't fly (like teaching basic flying to a newbie). When I have like 70h, I flew passengers to the beach, it was fairly bumpy and I ended up throwing up in my map. Picture the face of my passengers.:rolleyes:

Getting a thick meal with stuff like tapioca may help. Goibng empty stomach get the thing worse.
Dat jugs bro.

Terror flieger since 1941.
------------------------

Offline muckmaw

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2004, 02:11:50 PM »
ALright, I'm getting alot of horror stories here but aside from RTR and Crow, I'm not getting alot of advice on how to avoid future bouts of airborne ralphing.

I'm thinking of trying those wristband things...not the $80.00 jobs, the ones you get at the drugstore...

Offline X2Lee

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2004, 03:18:24 PM »
I'm not getting alot of advice on how to avoid future bouts of airborne ralphing.



here is a tip  
 focus on the horizen.... or if yer spinning pick out a spot on the ground to focus on.
This works on boats also.

Offline mjolnir

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #12 on: August 08, 2004, 04:42:52 PM »
Muck, ever been in the barony chair?  The AF uses it to help guys in pilot training get over airsickness.  You can make your own at home, and as long as you've got someone willing to spin you until you can't see straight (wives work well for this), you can be cured in no time.  

Here's how it works.  You get a spinning chair, sit down, and close your eyes.  The first test is to have someone spin you at a constant rate until it doesn't feel like you're spinning anymore.  Then they'll stop you and you open your eyes and almost fall over because all the fluid in your inner ear is messed up.

Next one, same setup, only this time turn your head to one side and lean forward.  This time when you stop, try to raise your head upright and not fall over.  

The last thing is just really something to do for fun, but pick something on the wall like a clock, and while you're spinning, keep it in sight as long as possible (keep turning your head so you can see it).  When you stop and stare straight ahead, your eyeballs will still be moving back and forth rapidly.  

All this might seem pretty silly, especially while you're doing it, but if you can get used to having the inner ear fluid spun and be comfortable with it, you'll do much better in the plane.  Most of the time, when someone pukes, it's because of spatial disorientation (your body thinks you're doing one thing, your eyes are telling you you're doing something else).  
Like the other guys have said, get a good solid crosscheck moving, with the majority of your focus being outside in the direction that you're heading, and occaisional glances inside at the ADI, HSI, altimeter and airspeed.  

P.S.  If you're still having trouble after a few more rides, email me and I can go talk to the Aerospace Physiology people, see if they can offer some more advanced stuff to help.  They deal with this all the time.

Offline cpxxx

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #13 on: August 08, 2004, 05:36:52 PM »
Never been sick in an aeroplane. The only time I felt queasy was returing home in a Piper Cub one afternoon after a night drinking until four in the morning on an offshore island. I did feel a bit sick after a 5G session in a Pitts and light headed and sore but happy.

I have heard that drinking 7 up can relieve the symptons, maybe Sprite too.  

It is in part psychological and as mjolnr says partly spatial disorientation. I got sick on a ship once during a storm mainly because I stayed below decks with my sister and her boyfriend. Both were sick as dogs. In the end I left them too it and went up on deck and felt better. Previously on a ship in a gale I deliberately had a big greasy meal on board to see if I could keep it down. I did but again I avoided the lower decks. It proved to my own satisfaction that travel sickness is largely in the mind.

Offline Curval

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Ever Puke in the Cockpit?
« Reply #14 on: August 08, 2004, 06:57:42 PM »
I read a great story about an RAF flyer who, when he flew his first sortie, was so terrified and exhausted from the experience that he hurled in the cockpit a couple of times.  He felt terrible about it and while taxiing the plane to the hanger area began to question his fitness for duty and even his manhood.

He basically fell out of the aircraft and, while prone on the ground, was horrified to see his crew cheif climb up and look inside the "weathered" cockpit.

"Hmm, well I've seen alot worse." was the guy's reaction and it was the best thing the pilot could have ever heard.  Knowing this veteran had seen hundreds of men return in similar fashion from their first combat flight made him feel he wasn't different and that others had the same reaction.

He went on to become an ace.

Hang in there dude.

:)
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