airsick/nausea prevention

Matthew

Matthew

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Matthew
Passenger has had some problems with motion/nausea in the past. Not sure how much was 'real' and how much was caused by worrying about it.

Other than Dramamine, are there any other options (preferably chewable) for a 7-8 hr flight? And yes, I am aware of the ginger reputation.

Thanks.
 
Some people swear by those motion sickness bands you put on your wrist. Never tried one myself though.
 
Don't know about the nausea, but I personally think Mary Ann just hides her deviant tendencies with denim.
 
Ginger candy is another simple (and cheap) remedy.
 
Matthew said:
Passenger has had some problems with motion/nausea in the past. Not sure how much was 'real' and how much was caused by worrying about it.

Other than Dramamine, are there any other options (preferably chewable) for a 7-8 hr flight? And yes, I am aware of the ginger reputation.

Thanks.
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Having had regular air sickness problems for years while soaring, I found Scopolamine patches to be the gold standard. They require an Rx I believe.

They were taken off the market for some number of years for reasons I don't know. I gave up soaring before they became available again. Whatever their side effects are, they are miniscule compared to the drowsiness caused by Dramamine (the only thing that will make you drowsier is 3 hours of airsickness).

Airsickness does seem to have a strong psychological component. There was a certain kind of turbulence that tended to get me sick. It normally happened on what glider pilots call 'blue days' when there aren't any cumulus clouds. In the east, this is generally the 2nd or 3rd day after a cold front passes thru and the result of a high pressure system taking over. There are thermals but they are ragged and turbulent and they tend to get me sick. It got to the point where even thinking about flying on a crystal clear blue day would turn my stomach. Let me hear the audio signal from a variometer and I'm just about done.

However, Scop patches cut thru all that and would keep things together in my head and gut. Whatever the standard dosage was supposed to be, I learned to cut them in half or in thirds in the name of economy. It just didn't take much of it. And it was good for 2 or 3 days if you kept the patch on. Very effective.

Disclaimer: I never piloted an aircraft while under the influence of any of the aforementioned drugs.
 
bbchien said:
All of the above, and cruising above the condensation line REALLY really works, too
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What? I never heard about that! What do you mean? How does it work? I'd love to be free of my ReliefBand as well as air sickness.
 
Condensation line. Same as haze layer? Once you get above the line that marks the haze layer, the air becomes smoother.

For short trips I give the passenger a chewable pepto bismol. They think it helps, so maybe it does.
 
AuntPeggy said:
What? I never heard about that! What do you mean? How does it work? I'd love to be free of my ReliefBand as well as air sickness.
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tinerj said:
Condensation line. Same as haze layer? Once you get above the line that marks the haze layer, the air becomes smoother.

For short trips I give the passenger a chewable pepto bismol. They think it helps, so maybe it does.
Click to expand...

I believe he means fly above the cumulus tops:

38avoidturb.gif
 
On a partly cloudy day such as yesterday, the clouds were at about 8,000 feet. The glider traffic warnings were "maneuvering at 6,800....no, he's climbing". Today, 8000 was where the orographic heading lift ended. The gliders cannot get above that line, unless the fire up their Rotax self launch powerplant. Above that layer of scattered, is/was smooth air (capped inversion on the back side of a cold front).

On a VFR day the purpose of the turbocharger is to get you there quickly. But you don't really need in the Midwest.

On an IFR day, sometimes lots of O2 and the turbocharger cannot get you up beyond the waist of what's happening in the atmosphere, but usually in the winter, most of the Midwest non-Cu weather ends at 16,000 feet. :)

SkewT Example: tops maybe at 6,500, clear stable layer at 8,000.
 

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Try giving them some things to do that they think are really important to help you, to take their mind off it.
 
My daughter has flown with me in some pretty rough turbulence. Sometimes, even with the belts cinched down tight, i know i've seen daylight between her butt and the seat. That kind of stuff doesn't seem to bother her. It's any slow, steady, rocking that gets to her - the stuff you can barely feel, adds up over time with her.
 
A week ago my wife was bothered by the light turb we were flying through. First time she's said anything. Of course, she waited until we were on the ground at the home drome. If I had known I could have at least pointed out the sick sacks. Fortunately, she didn't need them. But, she said it was close.

I'll second the motion on Dramamine. I wouldn't go near the pilot's seat if I took that. It's been over 25 years since I last took that and it really made me drowsy. Bad juju if you're the one doing the flying.
 
I got the cheapo band at Walgreens and it worked great. As a student, I got sick on almost every flight as soon as the turbulence started. Those fixed me up. Its just a rubber band with a button on it that presses against your wrist. I think they were $1.99 or something.
 
Dr. Bruce can confirm but I believe Scopolamine is impairing.

I had some pretty serious issues with nausea during the first 8 or so hours of my primary training. Maneuvers in bumpy winter air caused me to cut several lessons short while I puked into the bag and my CFI flew home. Persistence paid off. Eventually it seems my brain was trained out of the disconnect between G-force and the sight picture and one day the nausea just stopped like a switch turned off. If you think about it the confluence of gravity "straight down" through the airplane and the tilted horizon is a pretty strong visual cue that you are drunk or poisoned and my stomach went right into "eject mode". My wife who NEVER gets motion sick found that after I demonstrated some steep turns even she needed some straight and level to recover (she didn't puke though).

Sucking on ginger candies ("Gin gins", also quite tasty IMHO), no coffee on an empty stomach, and eating something like a sandwich first were also big helps. I will still preemptively suck the ginger candies if turbulence is expected but these days the wild bumps are fun, not nauseating.
 
Yeah, impairing => grounding. In fact, I'm pretty sure there are no non-grounding motion sickness remedies (other than the wrist bands and ginger). Oh, Reed's Ginger Beer is tasty and helps too. But personally I think ginger is delicious :)
 
Getting up where the air is smooth and cool is the best thing for green pax. Can't always do it VFR, but one should if one can.
 
I just went flying today after a little over a year off. The instructor was demonstrating dutch rolls and i started to feel a little queezy. A good coincidence i ran across this post. After doing some research I found having something in your stomach helps. (All I had was coffee) I like the ginger beer idea. I'll get some of that tonight. Any other ideas would be helpful.

Pat
 
Yup it helps to have something in your stomach. As the old story goes I always recommend a banana. It tastes the same coming up as it does going down.

My boss's wife was riding with me in a Luscombe just out of restoration a number of years ago. She hurled down the front of her bib overall shorts and didn't lose a drop. My boss drove up as I was helping her to rinse off on the pad. It was kinda hard to do with my eyes closed but I managed somehow. To this day he doesn't believe me.
 
I got my son some of those ginger pills (take 30+ minutes before flight) and those cheap seasickness bands from the drug store. He hasn't been sick since I started doing that. No idea if it actually works or just makes him feel better, but the net effect is positive.
 
Marazene worked well for me as a mate on a charter boat when I was a teenager. It never made me sleepy but it worked very well. My wife now uses it when we fly and it does well for her with no drowsiness. I am not sure what the medication actually is in this but it does work. I would not however use this as PIC..
 
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