PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - feeling sick ?
Thread: feeling sick ?
View Single Post
Old 2nd Dec 2002, 08:47
  #8 (permalink)  
Circuit Basher

 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Dorset
Posts: 902
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
ABO944 - it's probably part related to stress / workload and may well be that psychologically you're now expecting to feel ill when you fly.

I've been flying in small aircraft now for 30 years (also got a back seat ride in a Hawk once!) and have done all kinds of aeros and full spins, etc - there have been occasions where my body has said to me 'Thank you very much, I've had enough. Can you stop now, please??'. Sometimes it's environment related (cabin air too hot, slight fumes, bright sunshine), sometimes stress (for early stage of spin training, etc), and sometimes diet related (stomach too full, stomach too empty, wrong kind of food!). I have never yet barfed (even in the rear end of a C130 doing low level flights over Welsh valleys with 80% of the other passengers inspecting their breakfasts! (

I have also occasionally (rarely) felt iffy after landing; I recall one particular trip in a C172 where I was P1 that was pretty lumpy in turbulence and I felt fine until on the ground - for about 3-4 hours afterwards, I was distinctly queasy.

Some people can just be more sensitive to motion sickness than others. The RAF has the occasional jet jockey that is perpetually airsick - it sends them through a de-sensitisation course which involves sticking them in a centrifuge and generally trying to get their bodies used to the sensations. If the pilot cannot be cured after all their efforts, then it's generally a ground-based job or P45 time.

I would not advocate drugs as the first route - try to identify what is causing the nausea first. My wife has problems with sea sickness and has used accurpressure bands [Proprietary Name Sea Bands] (which are readily available from Boots et al) with success.

Good luck and keep the paper bags handy!!
Circuit Basher is offline