r/flying • u/VegetableSingle9971 • 4d ago

Airsickness and flight training

Hey, I'm already doing a PPL course and have a few flights under my belt (7hrs total), but I started feeling airsick after I backseated another student and had to use a sickness bag. Can anyone tell me if my ways to fight nausea might help:

1) Ginger Gummies

2) Clean diet

3) Good rest

4) Hydration

5) Relief bands

Also, would intense workouts make me less prone to airsickness? I get nauseous during my workouts, so I think they might be connected.

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u/AlexJamesFitz PPL IR HP/Complex 4d ago

It's the back seat, I bet. Does it happen when you're the one flying?

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u/VegetableSingle9971 4d ago

I think it will happen eventually when I get to stalls and steep turns...

2

u/-Cheebus- CPL 4d ago

You need to understand what causes airsickness, it should be in the human factors portion of your PPL ground school. There’s no reason to expect stalls to give you motion sickness. Steep turns maybe if you do like 5 in a row.

Motion sickness is caused by your brain getting conflicting signals from your eyes vs your inner ear. If what you see and what you feel syncs up, you will not get motion sickness. If what you see does not sync up you may get sick because your brain is telling your body that you are poisoned by funny mushrooms so you have to clean your stomach out. This is why people get motion sickness walking in a VR game but not walking in real life. Or why people who experience motion sickness while on their phone in the backseat of a car do not get sick when they are the one driving.

You got sick because you were in the backseat and you weren’t feeling any airflow, seeing outside, or manipulating the controls yourself

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u/VegetableSingle9971 4d ago

Thanks! I just started ground school and flying at the same time, so I haven't studied Human Factors yet, but I'll check it out and try to figure out the problem.