Tips for airsickness...

[Star Alliance]

Hey fellas,
As some of you know, I've begun training for my PPL within the last few months, and most everything is going well. I have a great instructor, I'm flying a 172 with a G1000, and I really only have one complaint.
Recently, I've been experiencing bouts of airsickness. This is really strange, because:
1. I don't get motion sickness when riding in a car, bus, airliner, etc., even rollercoasters and whatnot.
2. It's just recently onset.
Today was my fifth time in the plane, I think (I fly every Saturday). The time before this, we began working on stalls. I was fine until we got right into the thick of things, and I started to feel nasty, little by little. I finally told my instructor that I wasn't feeling good, and we headed back to the airport. No puking, I chalked it up as 'fluke'.
Ok. Today, we go up, head to the maneuvering area, do a bit of stall review...and I felt great. I was actually pretty excited about this, 'cuz I figured it meant smooth sailing. So, we descend to about 800' to do some ground referrence maneuvers, and we do some turns about a point, and I'm alright. Suddenly, I say, "Dan, I'm not feeling good. I think we should head back." No sooner did I ask in which direction I should hurl than did he hand me a ziploc, and I promptly recounted my breakfast to him, in the flesh.
So, does anyone have anything they can reccommend for this? Keep in mind that I'm in Florida, so the heat probably can be accountable for some of it, and I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, so that does help either.
I'm open to any suggestions!
Thanks in advance,
Mitch

[Crunk415balla]

I get it too. Never in normal flight, never driving or anything. BUT, I hate rollercoasters. HATE EM. And I hate the feeling of G's and what not. But in flying, I tollerate them. I've never had trouble with this up until now. We did Clearing turns, steepturns, slowflights, and stalls wednesday. We've done it all before, but this time we did 35 stalls in probably 30 minutes, and a clearing turn for almost each one. Put that on top of all the steep turns from before, and I felt sick and had to go back to the airport. I had a horrible feeling in my gut all the next day. Only got .9 hours out of a 1.5 hour flight too, which sucks as I only fly once a month just about. I've been told before its something in my inner-ear that makes this happen to me, but its not a problem unless we do steep manuvers excessivly I guess. I hope it goes away.

[JSchraub]

Just keep flying... If you do not get used to in with in a few more lessons there are these wrist bands you can try out. My nephew wears them when he flies.. Its also very hard to get used to this if you are not flying regularly. You guys are in for a real treat when it comes time for the hood.. heh heh

Those bands I was talking about are
here http://www.landfallnavigation.com/-sms01.html
yes is says sea, but these are the ones he uses.
Or here is a hi tech one
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Re...9698145-7870323

[AJ]

Two good tips: heaps of airflow (via vents etc) and do not fixate on points close to the aircraft when moving, if you start to feel sick look out towards the horizon or a distant object until it passes.

[Star Alliance]

Anthony,
Thanks for the tips. However, in 95+ degree weather, and moving at 80 kias, the vents aren't doin' a whole lot.
I will try the fixation trick, though. However, it's kinda rough to do that while doing the whole ground refference deal.

[JSchraub]

Open up a window

[MCM]

Don't worry about it... its something that happens to a lot of people when they are learning to fly. A good friend of mine (Now flying the B744) chucked up on every one of his first 8 lessons... but he grew out of it. And I've heard of people much worse.

In most cases of this airsickness when you are learning, its just the visual cues and the body sense are unusual to the body. Most people grow out of it with time as you get used to the feeling of flying.

The heat is a killer, and if you aren't getting fresh air, it makes life very hard!

Unfortunately you are in a catch 22... because as AJ says, looking outside for the horizon and not fixating is a big key, but of course when you are new you are always fixing on close points, or even inside the cockpit making it worse. You are also concentrating really hard which makes it worse.

Add to this the manoeuvres.... they are often quite abrupt... doing repetative turns, stalls, all throwing you about... and as a new pilot we're not exactly smooth on the controls!

If you notice you are feeling a bit "clammy", sweaty palms etc... ask the instructor just to stop what you are doing and flying a bit of straight and level for a bit... keep those vents open, and look to the horizon. I always carried a bottle of water with me to sip from. Hopefully it will pass (often in a matter of moments).

There is an old saying that you're not really a pilot until you've thrown up in an aircraft... so congrats and welcome to the world of the pilot

If its continuting too long though... then speak to a Doc... there are options

[Crunk415balla]

Thanks for the links, Josh. I'm deffinately buying the $10 one. I'll be flying more often once I get a job, I was just going to wait until October when I start training for a job as a linemen at SQL, but to fund my flight training I had better go get one in the meantime. I think I'll be able to fly every 2 weeks, then maybe once a week by the winter. Getting used to g's isn't the only thing thats hard when you fly every 3 or 4 weeks, everytime I do the walk around I still feel as though I'm just learning to do it, and for the first few minutes of flight I'm usually pretty jerky until I settle back into the controls. I feel sorry for people in a similar situation who have much less of a general knowlage in aviation than I do, must be even worse for them.

Maybe the heavy winds and turbulance from the 3000ft+ hills we were flying next to helped contribute to my sudden nausia that lasted for probably 36 hours. I just hope we won't spend as much time on stalls next time, but stalls and landings are really the only two things I have left to work on before I can solo. I already have ATC down with almost no help from my instructor, thank you VATSIM and ATC scanner I grew up with.

[JordanD]

Heat definitely doesn't help in small planes. Most of them (I'm not sure if yours does) have NO a/c at all haha. Sometimes the heat's downright miserable since I fly at lower altitudes pretty much all the time. The last time I worked on steep turns for about 15 minutes straight and didn't notice anything until I was flying straight and level, and i just felt kind of "meh". Like they all said, you'll more than likely get over it as you fly more. It doesn't have any relflection on you as a pilot, so don't worry about it.
Also, you might want to mention to the school that they should get something called "sic sacs" or something like that, I think you can get them from Sportys. Might be a little better than a ziploc bag, because they're opaque.
How's the flying going tho Mitch?
G1000 though? Grrrrrr.

[Crism]

Air, air, air, air, air

I've got around 125hrs and I still get sick on bumpy days. The first flight I had in the Twin Comanche I started getting sick because it has the WORST ventilation of any plane that I've ever flown. I stuck my face in the air for a few minutes and I was back to normal again after that. I tried everything including the bands, watch thing, and pills. Nothing worked and the pills made me really tired (that was early in flight training before I had a medical and learned that nothing is really approved for flying).

It's basically a matter of getting used to it and if it happens, get air ASAP. Don't wait.

[Crunk415balla]

Mitch, the best part about a 172 is you can open the windows.

[LRJet Guy]

Do not list airsickness when you apply for your medical. Doing so is disqualifying.

That being said, if you continue to be air sick every flight, you might not be cut out to fly. You don't need the yoke in one hand and a yack bag in the other. Give yourself a chance to get over the sickness though before you hang it up. Flying around getting your brains beat up training in a 172 isn't really flying. It's a primitive form of torture that could make anyone sick.

[Crunk415balla]

Flying around getting your brains beat up training in a 172 isn't really flying. It's a primitive form of torture that could make anyone sick.

That made my day.

By no means would I consider giving up flying just because I was badly nauseated after doing 35 stalls, 2 of which became spins, and probably 17 clearing turns in 30 minutes on a windy day.

Mitch, don't you give up either. You're a new pilot and you've got a lot ahead of you. I'm buying one of those bands to help endure the torture of stalls next time I go up. Maybe you should try it too.

[JordanD]

That made my day.

By no means would I consider giving up flying just because I was badly nauseated after doing 35 stalls, 2 of which became spins, and probably 17 clearing turns in 30 minutes on a windy day.

Mitch, don't you give up either. You're a new pilot and you've got a lot ahead of you. I'm buying one of those bands to help endure the torture of stalls next time I go up. Maybe you should try it too.

Stalls? Torture? Nah, I love that feeling when you push the yoke forward to break the stall.

[Star Alliance]

Stalls? Torture? Nah, I love that feeling when you push the yoke forward to break the stall.

The odd thing is, I love that feeling too! My stomach? That's another story...
Thanks for ALL the feedback, guys. I'll definately remember, from now on, to pop the windows below 1000' and go wings level and stare at the horizon when I start having problems.
Take care, and Godspeed to all of ya.
Mitch