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When I was doing the flight school, the first 20 hours were early morning or late evening to avoid turbulence. At around 30 hours, I was flying light planes ver

When I was doing the flight school, the first 20 hours were early morning or late evening to avoid turbulence. At around 30 hours, I was flying light planes very low over fields and forests in the middle of the day, I had motion sickness so bad that I was barely able to ride my motorcycle back home. I asked the instructors about this and they said something in the lines of "we all had it, it is going away with time". The next year I never had motion sickness when I was in control of the plane, but if I had a copilot when we were switching control I still had some motion sickness in bad conditions. Several years later I almost never have any problems, unless I spend too much time looking at the maps and not outside of the cockpit. It goes away with time, it seems. I never tried sailing in the past few years to check if I can get seasick, but I noticed I am almost unaffected by car sickness that I had a lot when I was a kid. One way to partially train for this was doing a couple of in-flight maneuvers that provoke sickness to almost anyone, including some seasoned pilots: inducing close to zero-g conditions, either by doing short slingshot maneuvers (point at 20-30 degrees nose-up and then push the stick keeping 0.5g, then 0.3g, then 0.2g) or doing it faster while extending the flaps to full, the sensation is very bad if someone does it to you, but it can be even enjoyable if you doing yourself flying alone. I practiced the slingshot part for a few weeks, this is what it took me to get to ~ 0.2g without feeling sick.

madengr 6y ago
Do you get motion sickness in VFR conditions, especially having to focus on instruments? I’m contemplating getting a PPL, but I’m very prone to motion sickness trying to read while flying. If I’m not resting, turbulence is just fine. First-person-shooters make make me sick, but third-person do not.
- AdrianB1 6y ago
  Yes, I used to get it in VFR, IFR flights are heavily restricted in my country (they are completely forbidden for light planes, same as night flights).
  - Svenstaro 6y ago
    What country is that?
    - rytis 6y ago
      Romania, judging by the profile.
- RNCTX 6y ago
  As a kid I was always prone to car sickness. As a pilot I can shoot approaches with the hood on in turbulence for 2-3 hours a day and it doesn't bother me much. 4-5 hours in a single day when I was doing my instrument training was pushing it, but a lot of that was probably related to heat, dehydration, etc as well I think. As a kid I was also prone to seasickness which subsided as I grew older, but since moving away from New Orleans into the center of the US I have completely lost any tolerance for boat-related motion sickness, I've found. I think it's like so many other things: high tolerance comes from regular use.
- gbacon 6y ago
  Phil Greenspun writes[0] about motion sickness for student pilots. > I get violently seasick in any normal ocean swell but have never thrown up on a commercial airline flight. Personally I find light planes in good weather to be somewhat more nauseating than commercial airliners, but nowhere near as bad as a boat. That said, I felt really sick during my first lesson and continued to get queasy whenever my instructor touched the controls. If you tend toward motion sickness, try to find an instructor whose style is to talk you through everything rather than demonstrate and correct with his or her hands and feet. A $100 electronic ReliefBand[1] for your wrist will probably help but the keys to avoiding motion sickness while training are the following: > - Eyes out of the cockpit; fly by watching the nose’s position relative to the horizon and periodically check the instruments to see if the visually established attitude is getting you what you want in terms of airspeed and climb rate > - Instructor talking to you instead of working the stick him or herself > - Fly on non-turbulent days > Maybe it will take you a few extra hours to get your certificate but you’ll have more fun. > Oh yes, be sure to carry a barf bag for any passengers. In the immortal words of Charles Wright, instructor at East Coast Aero Club, “Having a passenger throwing up violently a few inches from you can be very distracting.” […] > Personally I found that motion sickness was less of an issue at 50 hours than 5, less at 100 than 50, and barely a memory at 200 hours. The only way that I can bring on any symptoms is to let a friend fly through bumpy skies while I dig through luggage in the back of the airplane. The foregoing notwithstanding, I still try to avoid turbulence because I find it wearing and uncomfortable. [0]: https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/learning https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/learning [1]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001B8BGS/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001B8BGS/

madengr 6y ago

Do you get motion sickness in VFR conditions, especially having to focus on instruments? I’m contemplating getting a PPL, but I’m very prone to motion sickness trying to read while flying. If I’m not resting, turbulence is just fine. First-person-shooters make make me sick, but third-person do not.

AdrianB1 6y ago
Yes, I used to get it in VFR, IFR flights are heavily restricted in my country (they are completely forbidden for light planes, same as night flights).
- Svenstaro 6y ago
  What country is that?
  - rytis 6y ago
    Romania, judging by the profile.
RNCTX 6y ago
As a kid I was always prone to car sickness. As a pilot I can shoot approaches with the hood on in turbulence for 2-3 hours a day and it doesn't bother me much. 4-5 hours in a single day when I was doing my instrument training was pushing it, but a lot of that was probably related to heat, dehydration, etc as well I think. As a kid I was also prone to seasickness which subsided as I grew older, but since moving away from New Orleans into the center of the US I have completely lost any tolerance for boat-related motion sickness, I've found. I think it's like so many other things: high tolerance comes from regular use.
gbacon 6y ago
Phil Greenspun writes[0] about motion sickness for student pilots. > I get violently seasick in any normal ocean swell but have never thrown up on a commercial airline flight. Personally I find light planes in good weather to be somewhat more nauseating than commercial airliners, but nowhere near as bad as a boat. That said, I felt really sick during my first lesson and continued to get queasy whenever my instructor touched the controls. If you tend toward motion sickness, try to find an instructor whose style is to talk you through everything rather than demonstrate and correct with his or her hands and feet. A $100 electronic ReliefBand[1] for your wrist will probably help but the keys to avoiding motion sickness while training are the following: > - Eyes out of the cockpit; fly by watching the nose’s position relative to the horizon and periodically check the instruments to see if the visually established attitude is getting you what you want in terms of airspeed and climb rate > - Instructor talking to you instead of working the stick him or herself > - Fly on non-turbulent days > Maybe it will take you a few extra hours to get your certificate but you’ll have more fun. > Oh yes, be sure to carry a barf bag for any passengers. In the immortal words of Charles Wright, instructor at East Coast Aero Club, “Having a passenger throwing up violently a few inches from you can be very distracting.” […] > Personally I found that motion sickness was less of an issue at 50 hours than 5, less at 100 than 50, and barely a memory at 200 hours. The only way that I can bring on any symptoms is to let a friend fly through bumpy skies while I dig through luggage in the back of the airplane. The foregoing notwithstanding, I still try to avoid turbulence because I find it wearing and uncomfortable. [0]: https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/learning https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/learning [1]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001B8BGS/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001B8BGS/