Air Sickness

[Pilot Pete]

As mentioned in another thread, I was air sick:yuck: on my last training flight. Up untill then I have been fine. Does anyone have a remedy for this ailment that has worked for them?

 

 

[dazza 38]

Yes, dont get on the piss the night before. Seriously though, It happens dont worry about it to much.I think its best to make sure your eat breakfast in the morning, and have it a few hours before so it digest or start too digest.Some people skip it or dont eat much.Alot of people take sea sickness tablets, but I dont like have any drugs in my body before flying.

 

It does get easier as you brain and inner ears get used to being upset, with unusual sensationions when the fluid moves around.( I know when I started driving diggers and spinning around from picking up dirt and dumping it 180 degrees and more around i used to get a little dizzy:beg:.

 

Try and relax and look at the horizon, your brain needs to look at something which doesent move Ie- stable.

 

Its get easier with time up, by that i mean more experience of your body being used to it.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

What sort of manuveurs are you doing that made you sick? I find straight and level climbing slightly the best cure.

 

 

[Pilot Pete]

Rolling left and right arround the axis using ailerons and rudders trying to learn not to let the nose swing arround.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

I found the first 5 hours or so in the Drifer fairly intense, you are up there floating around with nothing between you and the wind. I found I had a lot of issues due to much adrenalin and it was really clouding my judgement after 5 hours I noticed it was lot less intense and things settled inside my head.

 

 

[Pilot Pete]

I noticed that I am fairly jittery and sweaty so nerves are pretty bad:yikes:

 

 

[dazza 38]

I noticed that I am fairly jittery and sweaty so nerves are pretty bad:yikes:

That will do it mate, just try and relax.IMO

 

 

[Hongie]

oh yeah! i know all about airsickness mate! on my tif i nearly spewed, well i felt like i did actually, but nothing came out luckily! i've slowly gotten better over the last few hours, i've taken a couple of travel calm tabs, but they are only ginger extract basically, and they seem to work. Not sure if thats the case, or the placebo effect kicking in. I think it's mainly nerves hey, i find when i'm busy flying, and not having time to think about anything except exactly that, i'm fine. This morning for instance at mackay airport, we did 6 or 7 circuits before the tower opened, and yeah no dramas at all...

 

good luck pete!

 

 

[Thirsty]

Ginger works for my wife. I reckon it's mostly anxiety though! On out recent trip to Temora she was fine, even through the bumpy stuff because I made her relax - helps a lot. If you're uptight and stressed you'll probably find it's worse. You really need to try and relax and just remember you're doing this for fun!

 

 

[Guest Wigg]

Ginger works for my wife. I reckon it's mostly anxiety though! On out recent trip to Temora she was fine, even through the bumpy stuff because I made her relax - helps a lot. If you're uptight and stressed you'll probably find it's worse. You really need to try and relax and just remember you're doing this for fun!

John used to suffer the motions of airsickness (although never actually being sick) he to would break out in the sweats & shaking. It turns out that he had not had enough sleep before flying.

 

 

[Pilot Pete]

After waiting for years to fly I suppose I have lost sight of the main reason for doing this, and that is for the fun and joy of it. But still , flying at 60 kts in an open aircraft bouncing around at3000 ft is going to take a bit of getting used to.

 

 

[Pilot Pete]

I've invested in a packet of ginger. I'll see how that goes.

 

 

[geoffreywh]

Some poor buggers (like me) just get sick and it spoils flying ......But, don't bother with Ginger. that's ok for beer. But for airsickness ( which I suffered from when I first started) use "Quells" they will make your mouth dry, so don't forget your water bottle, I used half a pill half an hour before the lesson. After about 6 or 8 lessons I didn't need them anymore.

 

 

[old man emu]

Motion sickness is the curse of my life. I get car sick if the car is chucked around and I'm not driving. I can't ride on roller coasters, and I hate lifts that descend quickly. As for flying, well ... I managed to upchuck my breakfast about half way through one lesson recently. Thank God for plastic fantastics. What didn't end up in my lap ended up in the footwell and filled it like a plastic bucket.

 

I have tried Quells, ginger tablets and still have come unstuck. There is actually a phobia which is the fear of getting air sick. Once you realise that it is your fear of getting sick that is making yourself sick, you can try to develop exercises for that work for you. Also, when you are learning to fly there is a great deal of fear and anxiety. These compund the problem and as you feel the sickness coming on, you add another fear to the pot.

 

There is one saving grace, however. I find that once I have thrown up, I'm as right as rain. I suggest that you accept it as your lot in life that you are going to get sick during the time you are training, especially when you are doing manoeuvres that involve changes in G Forces (turning, rapid up and down movements). Also the stresses of landing will bring it on during circuit work.

 

My suggestions:

 

1. Tell your instructor that you are prone to airsickness, and when you say "Enough!" it means that you want to hand over the aircraft and to fly straight and level while you upchuck; then get back on the ground ASAP.

 

2. Carry an upchuck kit. A resealable Tupperware container of a litre or two capacity would be fine. Also a damp face washer to wipe your face after you have upchucked. The kit should include a packet of mints to take the taste out of your mouth. Also include a packet of antacid tablets (Quickeze) to kill the excess acidic stoamach juices.

 

3. After you have got back on the ground, have a good rinse off with cool water and take a drink. Cool off and walk around a bit. When you feel settled, eat something bland like unbuttered bread.

 

4. MOST IMPORTANT. Get back on the horse as soon as possible. Best if it is that day and take a 15 minute flight outside the circuit area and come home.

 

5. Remember that you have been wanting to learn to fly since Pontius was a pilot. You are not going to let your dreams be dashed by an errant vestibular apparatus.

 

OME

 

 

[Guest Wigg]

The chemist used to sell wrist bandages that had (I think) a magnet in it. the magnet is on the inside of the bandage & forms a pressure point. A friend of ours used to suffer from motion sickness, we drove her to Qld & she was not sick at all. Don't know if they are still on the market or not.

 

 

[old man emu]

Those wrist bands are supposed to work through an acupuncture pressure point to stop the nausea. As with all these alternative health products there are some who swear by them and others who deride them. If the ideas provided here are not effective, then why not give these wrist bands a go? If they work, great. If not, look at otehr ideas.

 

OME

 

 

[Bandit12]

I was once talking to a senior military flying instructor, who told me that through all his training, he was sick every flight. Over years it gradually got better, but even 20 years on he still got occasionally airsick. I noticed because he had a sick bag tucked into his flight suit every time we flew. Just don't let it beat you!

 

 

[Tracktop]

Fly a trike

 

I get a queezy stomach every time I fly in a 3 axis plane. Never had the sensation in a trike, pilot or pax.

 

The motion is totally different. and no I don't just fly in still weather, and I do happily fly middle of the day.

 

 

[airangel]

Sit on a brown paper bag.....That was what my mum used to say

 

 

[old man emu]

Ian is selling sick bags for $4.50 in his Post NatFly Sale!

 

OME

 

 

[dazza 38]

Those chicken Bags are great Spew Bags, the one that are white on the out side and silver foil on the inside.(No I havent used one but came Very Very close doing Aeros)

 

 

[dazza 38]

I better add to my above post, because we have lurkers from that other web site, you know the one, fruit or something, Anyway the aeros where done in a Yak 52 Ga not Raa.Just to make things clear .

 

 

[old man emu]

Believe it or not, but the condition in which we have a fear of getting airsick, or worse, fear of vomiting due to motion sickness in the air, is called aeronausiphobia.

 

If you have experienced motion sickness during your life that has resulted in vomiting, then you develop a fear of the consequences of air sickness. These fears were probably reinforced when you were a child through the negative feedback you would get from your family. First there’s the embarrassment of throwing up all over the vehicle and yourself. Then there were the repercussions of the clean-up and the hope that it would not happen again. Just the precautions were enough to generate a fear of getting sick. I well remember travelling by car for long distances and seeing the bucket, damp towel and bottle of disinfectant on the floor of the car - just in case.

 

The worst thing of all was that you had no control over the conditions that promoted car sickness. A kid can’t say, “Hey Dad. I’m feeling crook. Can I drive for a while?” I’ve driven in all sorts of conditions for over forty years – long distance, urban traffic, high speed pursuit, urgent response – and I haven’t made myself sick. But I’ve been sick when others have been driving.

 

The same situation occurs when you are learning to fly. You haven’t developed the confidence to put the plane where you want it to be. Its ups and downs are new sensations, and at the same time you are trying to show your instructor that you have got a bit more coordination than a drunken octopus. That’s STRESS production.

 

Your sub-conscious mind has learned that stress caused by being in a vehicle in motion makes you vomit. Your conscious mind doesn’t want to vomit. There is a battle royal going on in your body, producing gallons of adrenalin which increases your pulse rate, shallows your breathing and makes you sweat. The battle is always won by the sub-conscious whose victory cry is the technicolour yawn, which unfortunately is done at least 1000 ft AGL. The worst of it is that once you have vomited, the battle ends; you feel OK, but the distraction ruins any further chance of successfully completing the lesson.

 

As many have said here, greater experience reduces the frequency of airsickness but this is mainly a result of overcoming your aeronausiphobia. And that takes mind training.

 

OME

 

 

[kaz3g]

.........Try and relax and look at the horizon, your brain needs to look at something which doesent move Ie- stable.

Too true, Dazza

 

I used to spend a lot of time at sea and have been fortunate in that I have never been more than slightly queasy even out in Bass Strait in a blow.

 

Those I have known who have been more seriously afflicted have benefited from the advice to stand on the lower deck and look out to the distance from the gunnel (side) which minimises the effects of pitch and roll.

 

kaz.