Feeling sick
 

Hey everybody.

Right, so I have started my PPL. I have done a few of my exams, and it all seems to be going OK. I went through a lot of paper work and red tape to get to the stage I am at now, but after all that I have a problem. One which all the paper work in the world can't overcome. I feel sick as hell when I'm flying! Back-seating is bad, and I thought that as soon as I'm in the front, concentrating, looking ahead out of the windscreen etc, that it would get better.

Not so. It's almost worse! We had to cut the lesson short because I was feeling that bad. It is really putting me off my game.

I should mention that often I get sick in a lot of things. Boats, buses, cars, 'amusement' park rides, etc, etc.

Anyone else been in a similar situation? Got any advice?

Cheers.

In 1969 I had exactly the same experience. Having spent every moment dreaming about flying, it was a bitter moment.

However . . . my instructor was a lovely chap, and he persuaded me to persevere and that the nausea would slowly subside and eventually disappear.

44 years and 20,000+ hours later, it proved to be sound advice!

Stick with it mate.

Had this problem too.

My first few lessons I was fine, even though my instructor kept asking if I was alright. Then I started feeling sick on lessons, according to my instructor it's completely normal which is why he was always asking if I was ok.

I now have a shiny jet job, so stick with it!

As said, student/trainee pilots can experience motion sickness and this topics has been discussed 'ad nauseum'. Funny that you didn't try to have handful of lessons before working on the exams/theory as much, considering your other motion sickness experience on the ground.

While there's reason to be upbeat about body/brain getting used to flying and associated turbulence/loading, not so sure in your case of being sick in various moving vehicles.

How have you dealt with car/bus/ride upset? Can the mitigation be applied to flying? For some, not enough looking outside (ie brain getting confusing signals, looking at lap/book/seat in front) triggers it. For some, the turbulence/bumpiness.

Does your sickness get worse if worrying about it?

For most people, it's only/mainly flying that can make their stomach upset, not cars. I'd say 99% of those would do just fine if they stick to it and relax and take it as our 'reptile brain' (the basic animal part) needs bit of time to adjust to weird sensations/visual/sensory cues.

Having said all this, I had student who'd get queasy under hood if doing anything but S&L and gentle turns without much thermal turbulence. I also read about and talked to one pilot in person, who could not work as flight instructor (often first job in helicopter arena in the USA outside military) because he'd get queasy if not flying hands on himself.

So, not in order:
Step 1 - go get proper lesson in front seat and FLY the aircraft (except the stuff FI has to do initially)
Step 2 - take the queasiness as 'rite of passage' with your sensitive body and just something to overcome gradually, NOT DEAD END TO YOUR CAREER PLANS. That'd just stress you more in cockpit and exacerbate things.
Step 3 - identify/try some tricks that help with sickness on the road. Look out, chat with FI, hum a song, whatever does it.

My first few lessons often left me feeling far from good. I had the same concerns initially that maybe it was all over, but it didn't take long and now I'm fine in extended flights doing a lot more 'interesting' manouveres than the initial lessons that I was feeling sick after.

Ginger tea has some very good results. And is better than fizzy ginger beer if its doesn't work.

Perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.

I presume you are quite a small person there can be things going on with natural frequencys of your stomach the trick there is to make sure its full soup is the best for that.

Also try using anti-seasickness bands - they operate on a nerve inside the wrist which actually does seem to make a difference for many people, so long as they're correctly positioned. (Acupressure/shiatsu uses the same point for morning sickness.)

I agree with MJ about having a reasonably full stomach, but I'd add stay as cool as you can comfortably be. Being too warm is never helpful where motion sickness is concerned.

Apparently i was the first student to go sick on my instructor, and the things that helped me after his advice were:

Eating something before the flight (like a banana)
Staying cool & not wearing too many layers
Making sure the headset was not too tight

It sure helped & i feel fine now, hopefully works for you!

Similar to mad_jock's recommendation: ginger capsules did it for me during the first PPL lessons.

An instructor recommended extra strong mints. While a pack in the pocket may have been purely psychological, none the less I went on to complete fATPL with no issues.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Mad jock, I'm not really that small, I'm 6ft 1 if that's what you mean?

Also, humming a song? I might try that. I like the whistling tune that john wayne whistles in 'the high and the mighty'. Might try that! haha

I've heard that ginger helps. Personally I hate the stuff, but I'll maybe give that a go too.

And just to add, the training here is on Florida, so it's VERY hot in the cockpit and the 'ventilation' isn't great. That doesn't help things at all.

MartinCh: yes, it gets very bad when i think about it. I try not to and relax, but that's easier said than done :(

If you don't like ginger, go for the capsules, their taste is nil. And if it's hot take care to drink enough, dehydration aggravates motion sickness AFAIK.

6'1" it might be altitude sickness :D

To be honest if you are training in FL in a C150/152 its no wonder you are feeling ruff.

I was doing some hour building over there and after two weeks was on my way home.

Usual screw up with flights and I took $400 to take an alternative route.

Ended up in a TP heading down south to Miami bouncing around low level.

They started handing out food and I went for the salami bun thing. I was the only one eating. As soon as I opened up the packet and the smell wafted up the aircraft there was muttered swearing and the rustle of sick bags which then changed the smell to barf which triggered the rest of them off.

The hosties were very kind and gave me another three of them to take with me as I was on a German carrier next to be fed with that minging black bread and sauerkraut.

A few years ago I had a student in his early 20's who would throw-up at least once on every single flight ... sometimes twice. That didn't stop him though - and I didn't have to motivate him either. He just wanted to achieve his goal. It took about 300 hours, but he eventually got his CPL. After that, he left aviation - no clue what he's doing now :).

I'm training in a PA28 btw. I'm starting to get used to it, slowly. Getting up at 0500 really makes it worse, but I went for 1 and a half hours the other day, without feeling too sick! But yeah, I might try ginger capsules if it doesn't get better, but I'm sure it will :)

That's a very inspirational story mattpilot! haha Wonder what happened to the guy.....