Sorting out G-Sensitivity

[Whiternoise]

I'm currently learning to fly gliders, with the aspiration to get a PPL and possibly go commercial after i've done my degree (2nd year physicist). What i didn't realise until a few weeks ago is that i have an annoyingly low tolerance to vertical G-forces.

It started off pretty badly, my first two flights were awful - i felt nauseous and nearly threw up after landing. I took an aerotow launch and things went a lot better, i coped well and all was good. More recently i've been flying without too many problems, the winch launch isn't so much of a problem for me any more, and i was getting into banking, flying the approach and doing most of the landing (with a few butterflies in my stomach on the steep finals). So that went on for about 6 flights, no serious issues.

Now, i started a weeklong course and things have been going downhill. I'm getting what seems to be really serious vertigo whenever i come out of a corner too fast (and have to correct by raising and lowering the nose). I feel pretty nauseous, my head starts spinning (almost like it's pulsating from side to side and it really feels like it's pulsing) and i've had to request the flight be cut short twice.

Eating a bit of ginger before the flights seems to work reasonably well to settle things but i tried a winch cable break today and it was awful. To recap, it's a sharp acceleration into the climb (50-60kts in around 3 seconds) and then a cable release at 300-500ft. The result is the glider going over the "top" of the ascent and diving to preventing a spin from a low speed turn - so you get a few negative g's and a second or so of zero gravity. The first time was ok-ish, besides the fact i just sort of froze and let my instructor follow through the demonstration - landing straight ahead. The second time again, tensed up a lot after the pull and we did a 360 "rectangle" to land into the wind, and again this pulsing feeling came back after doing a couple of sharp turns.

What's annoying me is that i think it's really holding me back. All my life i've wanted to fly, i took the initiative with cheap flights at university and it's basically coming crashing down. From what my instructors have said, i'm not a bad pilot - i'm coming along well with most of the basic stuff but my air-sickness is stopping me from progressing (or it will in the near future). It's getting to the point where i considered ditching the course and going home to take up canal boats or something!

Is there anything i can do about it besides just sticking with it, feeling a bit iffy and eventually (hopefully) desensitising? How much different is flying powered? I'd have thought that it's mostly a much smoother ride (unless aerobatics are involved).

Also, what's causing this vertigo feeling (to reiterate it's a combination of a mild spinning effect with the addition of what feels like my whole brain is pulsing)? Is it a normal symptom of motion sickness or should i see someone about it?

Thanks!

(i wasn't sure where to post this, but presumably medical is a good place to start)

Oh, and it generally sorts itself out after i'm down (plus the mild episodes inflight tend to go away once i've levelled off and breathed deeply a few times) - i've been feeling a bit ick the last couple of nights, (feels like a fever on my head, but i think it's most likely to be sunburn!) but as it tends to go completely by the morning i'm not that bothered. I don't think it's labyrinthitis, i've never been seriously crippled by motion sickness save the odd barf in a car many years ago and the only time i've had a sensation quite like this before was when i was on a flight to Sweden a while ago and i had to stick my head in a bag for most of the ascent - what i mean by all this is that i'm pretty sure it's the g's causing it rather than anything else, which is what makes me hopeful that it can be sorted.

[Nearly There]

http://medind.nic.in/iab/t07/s1/iabt07s1p37.pdf

There is some exercises in the link above to desensitize your 'feelings' and also some good info on there.

[cats_five]

Have you discussed this with your instructor(s)? If not, do so. They have probably met people with similar problems before and helped them overcome it.

You might also want to see if motion sickness medication helps - remember that you need to take it well in advance of flying. Ask the pharmacist for advice on which one to try, bearing in mind that it mustn't make you sleepy. (sorry no personal experience of this kind of drugs as I only suffer when exhausted and of course I don't fly then)

Also don't fly on an empty stomach, or on a very full one, and make sure you keep well hydrated and comfortably warm.

Someone at my club relied on ginger biscuits at the weekend and the end result was messy. Maybe it was you!

Finally, the sensations in the front of a 2-seat glider are different to being in a single-seat, motorglider or GA plane as you are sat a long way in front of the CoG etc., and when the glider turns or pushes over you get a lot more movement than the chap in the back seat, or in a single-seater. You go solo in the front seat, so that's where you sit to learn, but I guess it's possible a few back-seat rides might help - I suspect that you are reaching the point where you are getting anxious which is making it worse. (It's also easier to fly co-ordinated from the back seat!)

[gpn01]

Well the first step is to recognise the problem.....so you're on the way to recovery already! Definitely don't try and sort it out by yourself but enlist the help of your club's instructors and make sure they're full aware of your situation before flying. Longer term the solution generally seems to desensitize the body and to do that means identifying what the main issues are, identifying the likely cause and working with the instructors on how to best overcome it.

It may be that you have general motion sickness and I can reassure you, if this is that case, that it will go away with time - I used to be travel sick on ALL forms of transport - land, sea and air. I now fly aerobatics in a glider and don't feel sick (unless I've done several sorties in a row!).

It could be that you're G-sensitive (reduced-G sensitivity occurs in about one in a hundred people and your instructors should already have subtely check you out on this without you even realising it - that's why we throw in a gentle stall right at the beginning of your training and when you don't have your hands near the controls).

There's a few ways of making things a bit more tolerable as you build up your tolerence too - Don't fly in the middle of the day when it's thermic and instead fly in the morning or early evening. Check with the instructors about your cable break recovery too - whilst you need to briskly lower the nose, you should experience only reduced-G and not negative-G (if there's lumps of mud floating away and above you when you do a cable break recovery then you're being too vigorous!). When flying, look ahead towards the horizon - particularly when turning. Don't be tempted to look down the wing as you turn and definitely don't be looking sidewise as you enter or exit a turn or pull or push on the stick - your balance ssytem in the ears does not appreciate acceleration/deceleration forces and will quickly drop the hint by inducing nausea.

Drink plenty of water and, as mentioned elsewhere, don't fly on an empty or too full stomach.

Good luck and hang in there - it's worth it! (an active glider pilot and instructor)

[Whiternoise]

Thanks guys!

The rest of the week was pretty much fine. What i found was that once i was actually doing the flying, most of the sickness stuff went. For instance the winch launch used to be quite a rush, or at least it felt like a lot of acceleration, now it feels quite normal! Same for stalling and cable breaks, they felt awful at first but now it's just one of those things.

I'm not going to go down the drug route i think. I'd much rather suffer if i have to and get better slowly than rely on medication or personal effects (like the electro-wristbands) to get me through.

[cats_five]

Winch launching *is* a lot of acceleration if you think about it. You go from 0 knots to flying in 2-3 seconds depending on the winch and the wind. But I know what you mean - I've had a couple of P2 backseat rides recently and I realised what a rush it is.

Glad it's sorting itself out, and hopefully it won't be too long before you go solo.

[Whiternoise]

Heh, i've got to suffer spin training before that :rolleyes:

[gingernut]

:)Is there anything i can do about it besides just sticking with it, feeling a bit iffy and eventually (hopefully) desensitising?


Probably not, desensitisation is likely to help.

Avoid alcohol at least 48 hours before flying, maintain your hydration (the little hairs in your balance mechanism are 'specially prone to dehydration), and avoid medical treatments at this stage-whether prescribed or bought over the counter.

Taking the kids on a roundabout can get you used to dealling with those sickly feelings, and hopefully help you overcome the anticipation. And you can bore them with a practical demonstration of the Corriolus effect.)

Happy gliding. Keep away from Mam Tor, it scares the paragliders.:)

[cats_five]

Ah yes -spin training. I hate it. Thankfully I've always done it OK. At 10,000' it's not that scary as the ground is a long way away... But they don't let me do it that high anymore, plus it's not often we can get that high. We use a DG505 which has a vast canopy in the front giving one a vast view of the world going round.

Gingernut:
I'm fine in the air but watching roundabouts gives me sicky feelings - so does watching aerobatics, even though I used to do trampolining... The only times I've had genuine motion sickness (though never quite to the point of actually thowing up) has been when I've been very, very tired. One time I'd been up all night for an alleged ascent of Hellvelyn to watch the sun rise on midsummers day (the coach broke down so it was a night ramble near Ingleton), the other time after some XC ski-ing near Aviemore and I was sitting on a length-ways bench in the back of a landrover which I think was part of the problem. I was cold as well that time.

[Whiternoise]

Where do you fly from?

I'm at HusBos (via university), we fly K-21's and Puchacz's though there's a Junior and some Discuses for solo pilots.