Need Advice or opinions

SSDriver

Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
36
Location
NE FL
I have wanted to fly for decades, ever since I was in the USAF. I know my wife gets motion sick. She has gotten sick in cars, my semi, on a cruise ship, on an airliner.
But since I always wanted it, I decided to get my license, so off to school I went and got my Sport Pilot license.
Well, I rented the school plane and took her up.
Thank god there was a garbage bag in the plane, LOL.
She was fine on take off and climb out, and we flew around for 10 minutes or so, but when we flew over our house I told her to take a picture of it from the air.
She got 1 picture, LOL, and then it was fairly regular from that point on.
Now for the question and advice.
Do gyros fly smoother that fixed wing light sports?
I have read where gyros are not as susceptible to the choppiness and gusts as fixed wing.
Is that true?
Is there a possibility that she might not get motion sick in a gyro?
Or is it more likely she would still get sick.
I have been looking at the AR1 from silverlight, and I only live about 2 hours from them but she says she does not think she wants to sit tandem. I assume she wants a side by side.
Should I try to find someone in Florida that would be willing to take her up, knowing that she most likely would get sick, or just give up on my dreams of flying and owning my own plane or gyro?
That is the advice and opinions I am looking for.
Thanks for your input.
 
Hello Driver, I have found the more you think about nausea the worse it gets. That leads me to believe motion sickness is mostly psychological and can be treated quickly with hypnosis. The benefit of gyrocopters might be they are not boring like cruse ships and road trips in cars. Gyros are exciting air motorcycles. You are so busy flying and having fun, you don't have time to worry about your problems on the ground (or feeling sick).

Just my 2 cents friend
 
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I would try to find someone to take her up and see how that goes. Would try straight and level for a few hours
 
Maybe the question you should be asking is why do you insist on making your wife do things that make her sick? If the poor woman has been sick in every moving vehicle she's ever been in, as you suggest, why would anyone expect a gyro to be any different?
 
If she willing to go; do not go up on an empty stomach. Do not greasy food prior to flight. A small bag of peanuts can help settle the stomach prior to flying.

Do not have her looking straight down. Point out items of interest in the distance,

Keep initial flights short and early morning or late evening.

Avoid the heat of the day.
 
When I was 9, traveling with my family in a passenger liner crossing the Atlantic, with rough weather, I happened to learn how not to get seasick: one should not oppose strongly and periodically to the forces generated by the short-termed accelerations of the irregular motion of the rolling and pitching ship, but just relax and let the body move with them. You may have a restraint; then let it hold you, not trying to help with your muscles...

I have never got seasick again since the day a sailor taught me that trick. I'm not sure if this might work with a gyro, but probably will...
 
I'm not making her go up, she wants to do this.
I guess we are one of the few couples that actually enjoy being around each other.
We like doing things together, so she wants to try to get over her motion sickness.
She knows this is something that I want to do and that I want us to do together.
She said she enjoyed the flight up until the point she got sick, she said it was pretty cool, I was just wondering if the looking down part is what set it off.
Are gyroplanes smoother flying and less susceptible to buffeting than fixed-wing aircraft?
 

These have worked well for me on boats.
I have loaned them to other people with good sucess.

smiles,
Charles
 
Hi SSDriver - IMO gyros are no different than other aircraft when it comes to motion sickness. There is nothing worse to make someone lose interest in flying than having them get sick. You can still enjoy the sport, but maybe find something she enjoys to do while you are flying?
 
Hi Driver
The NASA crews have a time honored trick to stop motion sickness, a cherry cough drop held under the tongue, even works on the vomit comet !
 
For me, I can get motion sickness when I am " just along for the ride " but I don't if I am " Driving "

I would encourage her to grab the stick and " help " you to fly. Perhaps when your done taking off and climbing out and its more or less just straight and level flying, have her to do that part for you. Even just having her to hold the stick while your doing the take off and climb out, just so she can feel your motions and for her to learn what your doing may help.
 
Well...to answer your direct question.....since gyroplanes have a higher wing loading than most smaller fixed wings.....they can “ smooth out” the bumps a little better. In a gusty day where a fixed wing will be bouncing around.....a gyro or a helio will be somewhat smoother.....but.....you are still in a 3D environment.

my wife gets motion sick every time we go up in a fixed wing....sometimes worse than others......let’s say she can tolerate the gyroplane better than the fixed wings. I bought her and my daughters the motion sickness watch they sell in the Sportys catalog.....sends an electric pulse to their wrist area....they all claim it works. They all fly with me when the opportunity arises. They would all rather fly in the gyro if given the choice.
 
My wife gets motion sickness, too. When flying in my fixed-wing, I always carry a plastic bag for her (no, she is not 'forced' to fly with me).
When I discovered gyroplanes, she quickly got a ride and found it to be smoother and she did not get nauseous ! Probably has a lot to do with the open air and 'wind in her hair' (she likes that).
Her big quote is "this is the ONLY way to fly, if you don't have to get anywhere fast".
Get her a ride and see.
Brian
 
My wife get motion sick in an enclosed aircraft; and claustrophobic.
I go her a ride with Joe Swanton in his SxS Dominator and she absolutely loved it.
The open air experience did not frighten her and she really enjoyed the ride.
 
My wife also suffers from motion sickness. Its an inner ear sensory signal conflict to resolve different signals of movements coming into the brain from different sensory inputs. You should never read or focus on a camera or anything like that if you suffer from this and are in a moving vehicle. Gyroplanes are definitely better than say trikes and airplanes. My wife developed it after pregnancy. Never used to have it before.
Chewing gum, ginger gum seems to help and there are patches available that one needs to put on a few hours before that help treat it. She should look outside so eyes get the same signals that body senses so there is less conflicting signals to resolve in the brain. Take her to a doctor. There are treatments that can help. Also, if she suffers from this you may want to do more things with her that do not cause her discomfort and do the flying, boating etc. on your own with your friends.
 
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I'm a Coast Guard-licensed boat captain (and former gyro instructor). I teach sailing on multi-day voyages, including ones on the open ocean and in shallow bays, where the motion can be pretty barfy. On some trips, we sail day and night.

Motion sickness is not just nerves, wimpiness, too much or too little food, though all of those can make it more likely. One current, plausible theory is that the human body is pre-programmed to recognize and deal with evidence of stomach poisoning, by vomiting out the presumed toxic material. The brain interprets the disconnect between what is seen and what is felt via the inner ear as a symptom of such poisoning -- so "heave ho" is the programmed response when you feel your immediate surroundings -- plane or boat -- jumping around. We are land critters who expect the land on which we sit/stand to be immobile.

10-15% of people do not have this innate response and don't know what the rest of us who do are talking about.

I'm prone to motion sickness. I can't risk becoming incapacitated by illness when skippering a boat full of students. It's not safe. So I take full-dose Bonine (2 tabs at a time) during trips. It's so effective that I can sit down below and correct exams, or even work on the engine, head down with a snootful of diesel fumes, and not get sick. So cheap, off-the-shelf Bonine (generic equivalent Meclizine) is my solution.

I've tried Scopalamine (a prescription skin patch) and it works, too. Both of them dull your sense of balance a bit and are dehydrating. Drink extra water. Most sodas, coffee, tea and fruit juices are diuretics, so they aren't that helpful in hydrating -- drink them if they make you happy, but do the water, too.

Bonine makes you sleepy and, especially, a little hung over when first arising. I consume extra caffeine (mostly tea at sea) to counter the "medicine head."

Scopalamine can be extracted from a South American plant. It's sometimes nicknamed the "zombie drug." In large doses it's used as a "Mickey Finn" by criminals to incapacitate tourists, in order to rob them -- so don't use more than one patch at a time.

It's possible to overcome light motion sickness by doing things that reduce the conflict between what you see and what your inner ear feels. Looking at the horizon, and taking the controls if you can, help in this regard. And you do get acclimated to specific motions after awhile -- but a different motion can throw you, so beware of over-confidence.

Gyros don't bounce around as much as light planes and ultralights, because their rotor blades are moving much faster than fixed wings, making gusts a lower percentage of the blades' total airspeed. Moreover, most gyros have relatively little structure around the crew. This reduces the unsettling sensation that your "world" is tilting when the aircraft banks. The worst place to be on a bouncing boat is down in an enclosed cabin. There you see nothing but "local" structure, which your land-critter instinct tells you should be immobile, but your inner ear tells you is moving violently. Quick! The bucket!
 
Thank you all for the advice.
She tried the sea-band, in fact she was wearing it when we went flying. She said she could not feel a difference.
@bugflyer @ultracruiser41 Thanks for the info on the electronic bands, I ordered one today for her to try.
Thanks @GeneralPatton for that idea too. She said she had never heard of using a cough drop before, but that she would try that also, maybe with the bands it will work.
@fara Thank you for the information. Does your wife fly with you? My wife WANTS to fly with me, she wants to go have a $500 hamburger with me, LOL. And she wants to find something, anything that will allow her to do that. And since you are in the gyro business, can you recommend anyone that might be available for hire or offers introductory flights and willing to take her and myself up in a gyro?
Flying a gyro was my first choice when I started getting in to this, but there are no schools around me that teach gyro, so i went with fixed wing and figure the transition to gyro would be faster and easier.

Again, Thanks all for the advice and suggestions. There have been some good ones!!!!
 
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