Airsickness

[U2]

I'm a young cpl VFR pilot and would like to go as far as possible with my career. However, I get sick from too many steep turns and unusual attitude sequences. Everyday charter flying is no problem, but to many "g"(s) and I start to get airsick. In the past heat and sinus congestion have contributed to the problem. From what I have read in books, ones tolerance to this is low during adolesences, but improves with age. My older sister used to get airsick as a child even in straight and level flight in an airlines, but as an adult she is o.k. Also tolerance is supposed to improve with exposure, but will it eventually improve?
I can take pills to prevent airsickness, but would rather work on not getting to that stage.

I would appreciate any advice from those who are in the know or who have been through it all.

U2

[mintfavour]

This was a subject in the Flyer magazine a couple of months ago. The "Flying Doctor" so to speak gave all his advise and why air sickness occurs etc, only to be bombarded by letters in the following issue saying what a load of bolloks, so in the end the finally conclusion was you are just going to have to wait until you get used to it.

I myself find that some days I can wang the aircraft al over the shot and be totally fine, and then others where I feel a bit sick, but fortunately never have been yet.

So I dont know
really after all that

Good luck

[fireflybob]

I don't know about Australia but I believe the RAF in the UK run a specific "desensitization" course for air sickess.

It might be worth checking to see whether such a course is available in Aus and whether you can get on it.

[gingernut]

I recommend "Sea bands" for my pregnant patients, who shouldn't take drugs. These are metal braceletts that are worn on the wrists, and exert pressure points on certain lines of energy within the body. Sounds a load of mumbo jumbo to me, but they may work for you, and are safe to use !

[min]

What about ginger?? Used as an "old wives remedy" for morning sickness (have no idea whether it works or not!!) but may be worth a try??

M.

[PODKNOCKER]

I was sick for the first 30 hours in a Jet Provost. They sent me to Church Fenton for treatment on the spin table, which works for a while, but you have to keep flying. When I left the RAF and joined a cargo airline flying CL44s I hadn't flown for a year and had a problem base training (4th in the seat)and still feel rough if I get carried away in my light aircraft showing off. I'm now a B747-400 Captain with 13000 hours..hang in there and keep flying as often as possible.

[ 17 October 2001: Message edited by: PODKNOCKER ]

[Sean Dell]

U2 - I used to suffer dreadfully from airsickness, which stemmed primarily from my w****r of a flying instructor on the UAS who used to derive great pleasure from trying to make me throw up. It nearly put me off flying for good. However, I stuck in there and subsequently became a flying instructor myself. During this time I had to learn to teach aeros and spinning, not something I was looking forward to. Fortunately I stumbled upon an excellent instructor who listened to all my worries. He taught me slowly within sight of our home airfield (in case I felt unwell) and reminded me that lots of people get airsick and that it was very easy to make someone else sick whilst you were flying! So my advice would be to fly with someone who sympathises with your predicament and shout as soon as you feel unwell (no heroics required). Try and fly theses manouevres as much yourself. You will probably find you have more tolerance than you thought and find that your feelings of airsickness are more a fear of feeling airsick and letting yourself down.

Good luck

SD

[U2]

Thanks eveyone for your vote of help.

I shall continuously spin around on my desk chair for a few weeks until I can get a charter to do.

U2

[Bird Strike]

As Min mentioned, ginger can work quite well. I've personally never been air sick, but have felt quite nauseous in cars (although never thrown up), and used ginger tablets successfully.
Also I have heard quite a lot of success stories with ginger tablets for airsickness. You should be able to buy them in health food shops.

Good luck

[go with the flow]

Just a few practical things.

1. Motion sickness is in large part a failure of parts of your brainstem to cope with the fact that movements of your head in space (ie 3 axis) do not correlate with the visually detected movement of your environment. In turbulence, the instruments don't move much relative to your head/eyes even through your inner ear knows that it's being thrown around. Main thing therefore is to keep your eyes as much as possible on something that is not moving in local space (ie the horizon) as your eyes and inner ears will then correlate. Can be difficult in IMC obviously but it may at least be useful to know. This also explains why motion sickness is better eyes closed: there's no discrepancy between eyes and ears.

2. The best vestibular nucleus suppressant (brainstem dizziness centre) is a drug called cinnarazine: however not appropriate unless you're a SLF as it can cause some drowsiness: but may be handy for those days when you are.

cheers

[Roller Merlin]

U2, I speak from experience, having suffered chronic motion sickness in cars as a child, and every time I went up in an airplane. It was like a curse that no-one else had and seemed quite unfair. This was until I underwent the RAAF desensitization program during basic training. After that it was like my brain and stomach had been reprogrammed, and after the standard 15-20 minutes of maneuvers, concentration remained, and the heat, sweat and palor did not appear – nothing happened! It was great to be just like nearly everyone else, and not impaired.

Occasionally a rare queezy recurrence happens after not flying for a while, but it quickly disappears. Also when not poling the aircraft in aerobatics and g, it is more likely to feel 'a bit off' since one does not receive the sensory inputs from the contols, and concentration levels are lower, so the inner ear ‘signals’ are more noticeable by the brain.

However I have a buddy who did the same program with me, and it worked for him until he pulled g. Seems he had some deeper psych or motivational issues with it – like he was forcing himself, and eventually he gave up the training. Regardless, this sort of program works well to fix the physical problem, and the curse is removed.

The program works on moving the head forwards and sideways in a constant rotating platform, nodding forward, back sideways etc…to stimulate the inner ear and inducing coriolis ‘tumbling’, then recording the recovery times from the illusion. The intent is not to feel sick in the process. The RAAF program goes over 2-3 weeks, about 6-8 times per day of about 5 minutes each time throughout the day. The direction of turn is reversed in the middle of each period. Your spinning chair idea is actually worthwhile, but it is more like going to the local kids park to jump on the whirly thingy. It attempts to accelerate the learning process of the brain to not to respond badly to the inner ear signals, and response times are graphed, and generally seen to drop from typically around 7 seconds to about 2-3 seconds. The RPM is increased when response times bottom out, then response times jump up again, then fall over then next few exposures. This continues until the machine is spinning quickly and response times are bottomed out about 2 secs. Then you jump into the jet and yippee, no sickness (for most). But you must keep some stimulus happening after the program. A fellow on the course got in the device and really pissed me off by charting the response time I got after three weeks, on his first go at max rpm. That is the difference.

The AVMED staff at RAAF Edinburgh (SA) may be able to give you the best advice. Good luck – and never give up.
RM

[ 18 October 2001: Message edited by: Roller Merlin ]

[Ibis]

Vitamin B6 helps me!!! :)

[U2]

Thanks for your post everyone.


I gave the ginger a try. Went for a check flight in a hot aircraft. Did a couple of steep turns and stalls and I held up ok. A few belches and slight unease, but safe and comfortable.

I tried kwells tablets, they work but if I take more than half a tablet my head goes into stalker weirdo mode because too much of that stuff send my head spinning.

I hope the ginger works in the long run.

U2

[Zeus]

Keep spinning around on your desk chair!
It will build up your tolerance..

Good Luck
:)

[DX Wombat]

There is something else which you should remember and that is to make sure you eat something before flying. Try a piece of bread with a nice ginger preserve spread on it. The reasoning behind this is as follows: if you don't eat something in the carbohydrate line you will start to burn fat which will produce ketones, the ketones will make you feel even worse, you will ingest even less CHO to prevent vomiting but will' in fact' just make the situation worse as you will burn more fat, produce more ketones and so on. The ginger preserve will provide a quick sugar fix and the anti-emetic properties of the gnger, and the bread will provide a slower-release form of CHO. Hope this helps. :)

[rippler]

There's a new device out that works in a similar manner to the seaband by stimulating the median nerve in the wrist. Its called the ReliefBand. It differs from the seaband in the fact it stimulates the nerve using electrical impulses, instead of just applying pressure. It is fairly expensive though, and i'm looking at building a cheap imitation which should do exactly the same thing. Reviews and online ordering can be found at www.avweb.com (http://www.avweb.com) and www.aeromedix.com (http://www.aeromedix.com)

Rippler.

PS U2, I too suffer from airsickness when I fly prolonged sequences of steeps turns and high G. This was especially a problem when I was a teenager and flew gliders. After 20-30 mins of thermalling I would feel too sick to continue and have to return to the circuit.
BTW Roller Merlin, how did they monitor the response times? Via electrcal contacts? And how would I contact AVMED? Thanks in advance, Rip.

[Human Factor]

Used to get horrendously sick in the back of AEF Chipmunks, but the more I flew, the better I got. I can even tolerate spinning and aeros these days for about 35 mins at a stretch. You will get over it in time.

Besides, at 35000 feet, people complain if we start pulling G!
:D

BTW, don't fly on an empty stomach.

[ 03 November 2001: Message edited by: Human Factor ]