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C7814U at aol . com wrote:
> Several years ago I worked in the
Opa-Locka Airshow and
> all the acrobatic pilots wanted
something to eat before
> they flew. They said it was better
with a full stomach
I’ve paid close attention to airsickness
literature and comments forever since I’ve suffered from surge-nausea
since childhood.
I, too, have heard from reliable sources
that having a full stomach reduces the airsickness (or any other motion
sickness) problem.
Surge nausea seems to come from a conflict
between what your eyes are seeing and what your inner-ear is reporting. If your
inner ear reports heavy weight but otherwise stationary but your eyes see that
you’re going around a 60° bank and turning, that’s a conflict.
When your eyes see the world outside the window looking stable but your stomach
and inner ear say you’re going up and down and sideways, that’s a
conflict. When your eyes see a normal looking cabin wall but you feel
movement, that’s a conflict.
Here’s a good quote:
Humans have developed motion sickness as a defence mechanism. The area
postrema is a small part of the brain
responsible for inducing vomiting when poisons are detected, and for resolving
conflicts between vision and balance. When aboard a ship with no windows, one's
inner ear
transmits to the brain that you are in motion, but the eyes tell the brain that
everything is still. The area postrema will always believe the inner ear signal
over the eyes, as the eyes are more susceptible to trickery (see optical
illusion). Thus, the brain will come to the conclusion that one is
hallucinating. It will further postulate that there is a hallucination because
of poison ingestion, and so will attempt to rid of the poisons by inducing
emesis. Looking to the horizon resolves this conflict, and hence alleviates the
nausea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_sickness
You can get over being bothered by it in a
certain circumstance by just getting a lot of exposure so your brain figures
out that it is NOT life-threatening.
In the mean time, when you get this
conflict, your system dumps digestive juices into your stomach. If your stomach
is empty, it gets very toxic and you throw up nasty stuff. If your stomach is
full, you digest your lunch.
Since I learned this, I’ve found it
works for me. I may well feel queasy when in turbulence even with a full
stomach, but I never throw up. The only time I’ve actually thrown up in
an aircraft was riding in an Army helicopter, doing a lot of ground reference
turns while I took pictures and landing and taking off all day. I was queasy
but tolerating it till we refueled near noon and went out for more with no lunch.
After a while I heaved that nasty stuff overboard. (Fortunately, we were
flying doors open so I could take pictures.) Then the OIC took his turn, then
the crew chief took HIS turn.
I’ve never felt really close to
heaving with a full stomach.
And, heck, if you are going to heave, it’s
better to have a nice, big meal to do it with, not just that nasty concentrated
stuff followed by dry heaves.
Finally, the best news: Learning to fly
and flying cured virtually all of my motion sickness. Before learning to fly,
I was unable to ride across town as a passenger without wanting – really wanting
– to heave. Through flying, my brain learned that surges that don’t
match what I’m seeing are NOT life threatening.
My first flying lessons were only about 40
minutes because that’s when the nausea became too much. But I did a couple
of lessons in the same day and a couple more the next day. By the time I was
up to 20 hours, I was only bothered when it was turbulent. By the time I had
200 hours, I could ride as a passenger in a car without wanting to heave. By
300 or 400 flying hours, I was able to ride a ship on the ocean and ride some
of the rides at the fair!
Spook, When you go for the aerobatic
flight, keep watching the world outside and using your brain to translate what
you see and your knowledge of the maneuvers into what you should be feeling.
As long as there’s no conflict between what you see and what you’re
feeling, you’ll have the best chance of success.
For what it’s worth.
http://edburkhead.com
ed -at-
edburkhead???.com (change -at- to @ and remove "???")
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