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Thread: Handling motion sickness

  1. #11

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    Some data points.

    Fresh cool air is a big help in the cockpit when you are sweating through learning the mechanics of a new maneuver.

    Flying acro yourself is easier than sitting next to the guy flying the acro. If you are going to do a roll or a loop, you instinctively set yourself for the acceleration as you start to move the stick and rudder. Your body anticipates. The guy not flying is always half a beat behind. Once upon a time, when I was trying to get my snap rolls to stop on heading I did 6 in a row with a CFI on board. He asked to stop for a while as he was getting airsick. The good news is my snaps are much better now.

    From performing in some of the same shows as Sean Tucker, I can report that he is extremely professional and knows the limits of himself and his machine. I once saw Sean abort his act halfway through because some drops of oil appeared on his windscreen. Turned out that one of the upper hoses of the inverted system needed a little tightening. He gets credit for not trying to carry on with the state of the airplane less than 100%. And his son Eric is a good stick too by the way.

    If you want to ease into something like acro and build up your tolerance for non-level flight, I suggest starting with wing-overs, lazy-8's and chandelles. You can do these in any airplane. You can start flying your lazy-8's to 15 degrees of bank and work up to 90. Easy to do in any airplane and you have to use smooth skills to make them fly well. Chandelles teach you about flying at the low speed end of the performance envelope. A lot of acro involves finessing slow speed flight in attitudes that you don't fly in the pattern. If you are not skilled at slow flight, the top of a loop can be a more exciting place.

    Most of all, you have to want to learn the new skills enough to persist at pushing the limit of your comfort. You have to keep at it.

    In about 1981 I was standing on the OSH flight line for the afternoon airshow and then World Aerobatic Champion Leo Loudenslager zoomed to airshow center and ripped off what looked to my novice eyes a perfect rolling 360 about 200' in the air. 360 degrees of turn while executing 4 continuous integrated rolls to the inside of the circle. I thought "Wow! I want to be able to do that." It took a lot of work and practice. I can do that. Thank you Leo.

    Best of luck,

    Wes
    N78PS
    Last edited by Hal Bryan; 07-02-2012 at 03:21 PM.

  2. #12
    steveinindy's Avatar
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    From performing in some of the same shows as Sean Tucker, I can report that he is extremely professional and knows the limits of himself and his machine. I once saw Sean abort his act halfway through because some drops of oil appeared on his windscreen. Turned out that one of the upper hoses of the inverted system needed a little tightening. He gets credit for not trying to carry on with the state of the airplane less than 100%.
    That he does. I'd never heard that one before but I did hear him once make a wisecrack about "almost leaving my lunch in that last loop" when a kid asked him if he ever got dizzy. The kid's dad asked him "Are you serious?" and his reply was "It happens even to better pilots than myself".

    Anyone who does professional airshow aerobatics has my respect. I do everything I can to keep the aircraft dirty side down at all times unless it's during upset recovery training.
    Unfortunately in science what you believe is irrelevant.

    "I'm an old-fashioned Southern Gentleman. Which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-***** when I want to be."- Robert A. Heinlein.



  3. #13
    Joe Delene's Avatar
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    Like others I think the more you fly the better it gets, all the more so when you are handling the controls. Back in the day I could do anything, including the 'rudder triplet' & inverted spins. Now days I'm content with much less.

  4. #14
    steveinindy's Avatar
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    'rudder triplet'
    What is that precisely?
    Unfortunately in science what you believe is irrelevant.

    "I'm an old-fashioned Southern Gentleman. Which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-***** when I want to be."- Robert A. Heinlein.



  5. #15
    Joe Delene's Avatar
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    The 'rudder triplet' was a maneuver done in advance jet training in the Navy. You pointed your T-2C ''Buckeye" straight up in the vertical. At a certain airspeed you went full rudder one way, then the other & then back to the other side. On the last full rudder deflection you held in full cross controls as your airspeed bled to zero. As you lost all airspeed on top the plane would tumble like a leaf blowing in the wind. After a period of time you neutralized controls, built airspeed & recovered.

    The idea being to develop confidence in the ability to recover from out of control flight in any attitude. The T-2 was used because it was much more forgiving than most of the swept wing jets for this type of training.


    Yes, I was pretty gung-ho back in the day. I can still handle bumps & all but these days I strive to give as smooth a ride as possible.
    Last edited by Joe Delene; 05-19-2012 at 05:58 AM.

  6. #16
    steveinindy's Avatar
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    The idea being to develop confidence in the ability to recover from out of control flight in any attitude. The T-2 was used because it was much more forgiving than most of the swept wing jets for this type of training
    Interesting. I don't know if I would want to try that even with someone who has a lot of experience at it in the right seat. At the same time, it sounds kind of fun but it also sounds like something that would make me shout at my shoes (or the ceiling depending on which way gravity would carry vomit at that particular moment in time). That said, it does sound like a damn good way to train for upset recovery which is one area where most pilots (including myself) are severely deficient as opposed to where they probably should be.

    This is another reason why I look at Navy pilots with a healthy sense of respect. Not only are they kind of crazy to do night instrument landings on carriers, they have to endure things like the rudder triplet to just get the chance to try the "crazier" stuff.
    Unfortunately in science what you believe is irrelevant.

    "I'm an old-fashioned Southern Gentleman. Which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-***** when I want to be."- Robert A. Heinlein.



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