Motion Sickness

[Red 3]

Can anyone help me?
I have always wanted to be a commercial pilot but suffer from motion sickness. (when it gets turbulent!) I presume that the various drugs/pills you can take for this are banned by the CAA? (as they have various side effects) I have recently seen an advertisement on some US pilot equipment websites for a Relief Band which is worn on the wrist like a watch and produces no side effects. Has anyone heard/tried this?

I would love to hear from anyone about this -
or who suffers from it!!

Cheers!

[Bear Cub]

I haven't tried them...because I don't get airsick when flying (nor when not flying, funnily enough)...BUT...I attended a flight safety evening when over in the USA and there was a presentation on them - done by a guy whose wife wears them all the time...and says they are marvellous.

I bought a set from the local high street store - cost around $5 (about £3). They are for my wife...who hasn't been flying since I bought them.



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[F/O Speaking]

Hi Red 3!

I dont know much about medication and that sort of thing but you may find that it won`t affect you when you are sat at the controls of an a/c. I suppose that its a bit like people getting car sick, the driver never does.

I`m a professional pilot and I nearly always get sea sick, yet when I`m at the controls of an a/c the turbulence doesn`t bother me.
I think that the story would be different if i was sat down the back.

What i would do if i was u is go on a couple of trial flights to do a bit of hands on flying. Sitting at the controls may help. Explain to the instructor and they might be able to sort u out.

[Roadtrip]

Red Line -
Don't give up. I know first-hand that you can't learn a damn thing about flying while you're busy filling a barf bag. A good percentage of new pilots get airsick. At the beginning of military flight school, the Flight Surgeon gave me some pills called ScopeDex for five flights after I kept feeling sick. After the five with the pills I was a bit apprehensive about flying without them but then went "cold turkey" and "G'd" my brains out on an aerobatics sortie and never had a problem. Never been airsick since, even flying basic combat manuevers and fast-mover low-levels. I don't think it was nerves because flying never frightened me, just made me queesy. I think it's just something your body gets used to. See a aerospace medicine specialist if you need to. What you're experiencing is probably just transitory.

[JBravo]

Just keep barfing the first times. It is a hell to get used to it, but you WILL get used to it. Friend of mine got sick everytime we where flying at the start of our PPL in Arizona in mid-summer (TURBULENT!). He got sick many many times, also at the controls, but after the sixth or seventh flight he didn't get sick anymore when he was at the controls. Only as a pax he still got sick. But that was getting less and less everytime he flew. Now he doesn't get sick anymore, even as pax. And there are many of these kind of stories. You just have to get through the first phase.

regards
JB

[PeeToo]

Just to endorse what others say - I now have 5000+ hrs, everything from C150 to B777 and I still get sick as a passenger in anything stronger than the mildest turbulence. If I am handling the controls or can see the instruments I am OK, but down the back -puke city!

My fear of being sick when someone else was flying made me postpone becoming an instructor and thence to ATPL, so my career went on hold for 15 years before I finally decided to grasp the nettle. I wish I had done so earlier.

So, dont do what I did!

[Lady Heath]

Red 3

This might sound like a bizzare bit of advice but a friend of mine who has his PPL -used to love these fairground roller-coaster - upside-down type rides found as time went on he couldn't handle them as he got queezy - when he did steep turns and instrument flying he felt motion sickness that he had never felt before - obviously this worried him but at the same time he was experiencing discomfort in his back - to cut a long story short he went to see a CHIROPRACTOR who told him his spine was slighly out of allignment - seemingly there are people who don't realise this as they are very healthy otherwise - but this has an effect on your balance as the spine up the neck helps to transmitt the data necessary for restoring balance (in simple terms)!!

It would do you absolutely no harm to check this out - he got cured of his motion sickness as they adjusted his spine with a few clicks!

try looking up info using a search engine or something



[This message has been edited by Lady Heath (edited 14 February 2001).]