Handling motion sickness

[WLIU]

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