I must be insane

[chomp_rock]

I'm 6'4" Charlie, I know what it is like to cram into a small aircraft as I do it quite often. You should see me cram into a Cessna 150!

Aerobatic pilots do come in all sizes , I'm almost 2ft taller than Patty Wagstaff

[beaky]

Yeah, I suppose simply getting used to it is more important than being very fit... but all the full-time airshow and competitive pilots I've seen seem to be pretty athletic-looking.
Fun pix, Doug- wish I'd had a camera along for my aerobatic flight!!
Here's a picture of a 242, though:

Fixed gear, and a bit draggy, but it's meant for training. And the leather seats, 5-point harness, and very nice-feeling stick really drive home the point that this is a plane for zooming and flinging around.

[Saratoga]

Looping, rolling, it's all pretty damn fun in the end!

[C]

I'm 6'4" Charlie, I know what it is like to cram into a small aircraft as I do it quite often. You should see me cram into a Cessna 150!

Lol! I know what you mean. Almost every aircraft I fly in I have my head almost touching the canopy, even with the seats lowered as much as possible. In most aircraft with ejection seats they like you to have about a fist's clearance between your head and the canopy, and sometimes its very marginal...

It is good though, because you soon know if your straps are too loose, as your head will soon be banging the canopy as soon as your the wrong way up!!!

[TacitBlue]

All this talk of airsickness worries me. Im going to be taking flying lessons this summer (very soon! cant wait!), and my main concern is that I'll find out that I get extrememly air sick. Ive never gotten sick on an airplane before, but I havnt been in a light aircraft for probably 10 years. Probably wont happen, but you never know.

[C]

If you're actually flying the aeroplane I find you tend to get much less queesy, as you're concentrating on other things...

[beaky]

All this talk of airsickness worries me. Im going to be taking flying lessons this summer (very soon! cant wait!), and my main concern is that I'll find out that I get extrememly air sick. Ive never gotten sick on an airplane before, but I havnt been in a light aircraft for probably 10 years. Probably wont happen, but you never know.

Don't worry about it. Only time I've ever gotten the slightest bit nauseous on a normal flight was when I was a bit under the weather and had also just scarfed down some fast food. Felt a bit "off" while the CFI was flying, but as soon as I had the controls I was fine.
 If by some chance you do feel ill, best thing to do is relax and keep your eyes outside, on the horizon. Just breathe normally, relax, and don't move your head around too much. It'll probably pass.
If it doesn't, don't be discouraged. One never really knows when airsickness will strike; even old hands get a little queasy now and then.

[Saratoga]

Remember if you get airsick, it's just your mind playing tricks. Obviously, make sure someone else is flying, mention it to them, then just lean back as much as possible and relax. As long as the plane isn't moving too much, it will pass. That's what the AF taught me anyways.

We had an airsickness chicken switch in the T-38. You pressed it whenever you got overworked and the pilot knew to chill for a minute. Then it flipped around, I was the pilot, someone pressed it and I could either chill or happen to not see it.

[Hagar]

Remember if you get airsick, it's just your mind playing tricks. Obviously, make sure someone else is flying, mention it to them, then just lean back as much as possible and relax. As long as the plane isn't moving too much, it will pass. That's what the AF taught me anyways.

That's all very well but what happens if you're flying solo?

All this talk of airsickness worries me. Im going to be taking flying lessons this summer (very soon! cant wait!), and my main concern is that I'll find out that I get extrememly air sick. Ive never gotten sick on an airplane before, but I havnt been in a light aircraft for probably 10 years. Probably wont happen, but you never know.

Thinking about being sick will most probably cause you to be sick. My advice is to forget all about it & enjoy it. Light aircraft are quite different to the big airliners but you've obviously done it before & have never been sick. Why would this change now? I have always been given a sick bag to carry but in almost 50 years of flying in all types I've never been sick in an aeroplane. A conventional trainer (even an advanced jet trainer like the T-38 ) cannot be compared with a specialised highly aerobatic display aircraft like the Extra 300 or Pitts Special. As Charlie & Rotty confirm, it's different when you're in control. I know people who suffer from travel sickness as passengers, yet these people are perfectly fine when they're driving the car themselves.

Enjoy your lessons chaps.

[Woodlouse2002]

Remember if you get airsick, it's just your mind playing tricks. Obviously, make sure someone else is flying, mention it to them, then just lean back as much as possible and relax. As long as the plane isn't moving too much, it will pass. That's what the AF taught me anyways.

We had an airsickness chicken switch in the T-38. You pressed it whenever you got overworked and the pilot knew to chill for a minute. Then it flipped around, I was the pilot, someone pressed it and I could either chill or happen to not see it.

As with all motion sickness, such as being carsick, seasick or airsick it isn't just your mind. It's your stomach prostesting about being jostled around continuously. So to sit back and relax is the worst way to try and avert it as that would mean your not concentrating and so your whole mind is free to think about how you feel sick. The best thing to do is do something to take your mind off it, like taking control of the aircraft for example. Or navigating. If you can't do that then concentrating on the horizon can sometimes help.

[Hagar]

If you can't do that then concentrating on the horizon can sometimes help.

This reminds me of an article I read in the latest issue of Prop-Swing, the official magazine of the Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society. I'll quote it word for word.

=============================

Q. What are those windows for in the side of the (Hawker) Hind over the lower wing?

A. Windows in Hinds: here I'm sure I'm right. Towards the end of the First World War the activities of gremlins was officially recognised (on the formation of the RAF on 1st April 1918 ). It was recorded that the young gremlins (brought in due to losses at the front) who were unused to flying became airsick. The effluent was highly corrosive, necessitating immediate action. Fortunately my grandfather, who was engineering officer of No 56 sqdn, noticed that when aircraft were damaged by enemy action there were no problems. This led him to the conclusion that, when they could see out the young gremlins were not sick. The result of this discovery has been far-reaching. Transparent panels proliferated, and they can now be seen on the underside of wings. There are also small holes near the trailing edge for gremlin access (check the SE5a). On some large aircraft transparent panels are now fitted on both sides of the fuselage & sometimes in front.

Steve

[Saratoga]

Hey Hagar, that's a cool article.

[MarcoAviator]

All this talk of airsickness worries me. Im going to be taking flying lessons this summer (very soon! cant wait!), and my main concern is that I'll find out that I get extrememly air sick. Ive never gotten sick on an airplane before, but I havnt been in a light aircraft for probably 10 years. Probably wont happen, but you never know.

I wouldn't worry about it. All this talk about airsickness is related to flying at abnormal attitudes and pulling Gs ... you won't be doing either.

I was worried about the same thing when I started flying and in the end I never got sick.

I did get sick once (just nauseous, didn't throw up) but that was after 1 hours of instrument practice, under the hood and in miserable turbulence (I am talking about the kind of turbulence that would make you smack your head against the side doors). Turbulence was so bad that I was fighting for control at least once every 3 minutes. It was a choppy, sharp, rythimc type of turbulence... the worst.

I just went out yesterday and I flew under the hood for almost 2 hours in pretty annoying turbulence and it didn't affect me at all.

[Saratoga]

If for some strange reason it does affect you, it more than likely won't do it again from what I've seen. I've been flying since I was 16, and I haven't been airsick as far as I can remember. I mean I had my share of bad feelings in the AF, loops, spins, stuff like that, but got used to it quick and never threw up. Nowadays, easy stuff.
If you do get sick, give it some time. It will pass and won't bother you again.