Currently a student in Primary with a few flights under my belt. I get airsick on each flight, and I am so far behind the aircraft its not even funny. I get so nervous to fly that I'm nauseous as soon as I wake up in the morning. I chairfly, I study harder than my classmates, and I am putting more effort into flight training than anything I have ever done before. And I'm still behind all of my class in comprehension and flying proficiency. Can someone just give me the straight poop on what currently happens to wash-outs? Or DORs? I've heard so many stories, from different angles and different sides. Is there anyone who can just tell me if I washout: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS TO ME? At this point, I just want to stay in the Navy. I don't know what I would do in the civilian world. Is it possible to transition to a different warfare rating at all anymore? Anyone who has done this within the last few months who still posts and can answer me here? I feel like a flipping failure already, so please no flames about not being able to hack it. I'm just trying to see what will happen to me if I wash, because climbing out of a plane drenched in sweat and vomit everyday is taking a toll on me. And even my airsick companions get out of the plane with a smile on their face... I have yet to experience ANYTHING fun in the air. And I'm starting to think flying is not for me.
Breathe.. Here is an interesting post awhile back.. Pretty good responses. No one said primary was easy or fun. Everyone has had rough flights. I am not sure what is happening to folks now who are washing out, but I suggest you let "them" decide you are not going to fly anymore.
Relax. Early Fams arent fun nor are tehy meant to be. IF you know your stuff they will work with you, you might not be as jacked up as you think you are. Try to relax and not go into it thinking you will screw up and be behind, when they start throwing thngs at you take a breath . loosen your grip, think for a second then act/talk. You will think it took an eternity but it wont have. Good luck and dont quit
Don't think about alternate employment before they tell you that's where you're going. Mentally, you'll get used to the idea of attriting, and you won't fight as hard to avoid it. BTW, I've heard the Navy's been sending some of it's non-rate JOs to individual augment billets in Iraq--take that for what you will. Flight school is probably more fun. You need to take it easy. You sound as if you're virtually in the middle of having panic-anxiety disorder. If you really do have that, that the military in general might not be your game. On the other hand, a lot of people have never done a truly challenging, high stakes event like flight training. It takes getting used to. You need to take a step back and relax. I went a step beyond chair flying--we actually spray-painted the airfield to scale on our lawn. Yes, now I'm the crazy guy, but it worked like a champ in fams actually walking through the pattern. If briefs are killing you, STUDY IN A GROUP. A serious group, not the ones that break to go to the titty bars after an hour. A lot of time you can read the material 1000 times and think you're solid, but explaining it to someone else is the real test. Embarrassing yourself to your bud is better that showing your ass to an IP. Above all, once you've done everything you can possibly do, there's a point where you just freaking DO IT, and what happens happens. Just say "What the hell...what's the worst that can happen? I'll die? Oh yeah, I'm in an airplane, that COULD actually happen." Seriously, though, just prepare, give it an honest try, and take the cards you're dealt. Quitting and failing generally end you up in the same place. Don't give the man the satisfaction, unless you're sure in your heart that aviation isn't your gig.
Dude, try not to sweat it as much. I give the guys who get airsick and keep going a lot of credit, because that sucks. I know a bunch of people who got airsick. They worked with them as long as they could. In a lot of cases they got them good enough where they finished the program and moved onto advance. There were a few cases where they weren't sucessful and those people were NPQ'd. This happened back when they were letting people go. Recently (ie within the last couple months), I know attrites and DORs that got redesignated SWO- they claimed things had changed and the Navy was no longer letting anyone out.
To go along w/ what Zippy is saying... Know that you're not the first one to be going through this, especially the airsickness. As a class advisor, I go through students jackets (as we all do) and there was one student where I would just watch the air sickness card get longer and longer. The student stuck with it and got through it. More often than not, you will get acclimated. Know that there is more than one IP that took a while to get used to it when coming back, as well. What everyone else said, too. Good stuff above.
Also, if you haven't already, go see the flight docs about it. There's a program for airsick prone folks and they can give you meds for it on a short term basis. Talk to your IPs and get the help that's available to you at medical. Brett
I concur with the above. It sounds like you are making matters worse on yourself with the stress. I know its hard for people to do, but you need to force yourself to relax. All that stress will make you sick on its own, much less when you throw in flights in a T-34. If you cant cope with the stress on your own, talk to your advisor/onwing. Seek out the Fleet and Family Service center. They have programs specifically designed to help you cope with stress. They actually forced a friend of mine to take time off, see the flight doc and the FFSC to learn how to deal with stress and help him study. Also, the best way to learn something is to try and teach it to someone else. Get your friends together and give each other briefs on the briefing items. Or just get a whiteboard and pretend you are briefing an instructor. That is the best way to learn things, and get used to the stress of briefing.
I'm not an SNA, but whiteboards are a fantastic tool to help you visualize what you're doing. Don't give up!
I am not trying to be a jerk, or a downer here, but if you have yet to experience ANYTHING fun in the air, you may be right that flying is not for you. Early FAMs, or Primary in general, is not made to be fun, but I think that if you aren't having fun you are doing something wrong. I'm wrapping up the C42XX block getting ready to check and I'm still having a blast on each and every torturous flight. I have never experienced a hint of air sickness, so I can't imagine how ****ty that must make things, but it doesn't sound like it's just the air sickness here. Take at least one time every flight to look around and see how lucky you are for the opportunity you are being given. Work Area 1 and check out the view of the water. Enjoy a sunset once you are safely on the rules on the ride home. Go ahead and "turn like you mean it" a few times when you are out manuevering around instead of just pulling a lazy 45 AOB. Heck, just enjoy the cool factor of hearing yourself work the radios or take a peak up in your rearview and see YOU visor down learning to be a military aviator. I agree with most of the posts above, and wish you the best of luck. Fight for what you want, and let the IPs determine when your time is up. Everyone, including the IPs, are here to help you earn a set of wings. In the end, the Big Man will make sure you end up where you need to be. Rev
Sounds like you were reading my ATJ, Gatordev. I had tremendous problems with puking (never happened before until the T-34). I even puked while on the no-puke drugs. The best feeling is completing an early Fam flight without puking. It puts that thought in the back of your mind that you can do it again. Also, it helps you relax in the plane. My suggestion to help you get over it, go to the spin chair. It's there to help you, not hurt you or your flight career. It helped me big time, only puked once after the chair (PA 1, enough said). Anyway, the chair will help you get over your airsickness, it will help you relax and have fun in the air. Talk it over with your onwing/class advisor. Let them know it might be better for you if you tried the chair. Don't give up, no matter what. PM me if you want more info. Snacks
I have to say that these are the types of exchanges that make Air Warriors, and its members, really special, a real asset, a resource to be exploited. You young studs are lucky to have it. Good Luck unsure. Heed the sage advice of the AW mentors.
Which totally proves my point. There's lots of you out there that experience the "unpleasantness." Sometimes it's not always up to the student or even higher up than that to "decide" if it's time to go to the chair. Not to disparage its usefulness. I'm glad it worked for you. Just wanted to put that out there that it's not always an allowed option (and I"m talking over the span of years, not specifically at this time).
DaRevrend: Agreed, nice post, buddy. I have never puked in a plane, or even been close fro more than about 15 seconds. Granted, that will probably change someday, but my point is I don't know how awful that must be. I have a friend who I believe is doing pretty well in jets now who said he was constantly airsick through the primary syllabus. I also have a friend who just hated flying and was like a little ball of stress every time I talked to him. He is out of the Navy. I also have friends who I think didn’t study enough or take flight school seriously enough (who am I to judge that, but for the sake of this post I’ll go ahead and make the above statement). Some are still flying, some aren’t. But more are than aren’t. I guess all I have in the info that what will happen is case-by-case. Good luck!
How many flights is a "few flights"? On Fam 1 a was so horribly sick I actually thought I might die. My airsickness got better as time went on, but it wasn't until late stage Fams that I was comfortable, and I still battled airsickness into forms. I had to redo my last PA check ride because I got sick. I actually got sicker than I ever have on my first flight in the TC-12 in intermediate as well. If a "few flights" is only Fam 3 or 4, then I'd say just stick it out until you fail something because of your airsickness. The thing that'll help the most is flying more, and every day if possible. You'll probably get over it, just give it some time.
I don't know about the airsickness or the actual flying proficiency parts, but I do know a way to help you learn technical data. The study group idea is excellant, but if you can't find one, get a video camera and give breifings to the camera as if you were trying to teach a class on the subject. Then watch your breifings and critique yourself.
I'll comment on the airsickness thing. Keep yourself busy, but don't over load. If you give yourself something to do, it does 2 things: 1. It keeps you ahead of the plane and 2. It keeps your mind off of the fact that your stomach is going stupid. Do things like set up the next navaid or review an approach you're going to shoot... something productive to the conduct of the flight. Try it. May not work, but its one more tool you can have in your pocket to make the flights go smoother.
It's a chair that's mounted (STS) on top of an electric motor that spins you around. As you spin, you'll move your head up, down, left, right, and look side to side. You'll spin in one direction for about 10 minutes, then another 10 minutes in the other direction. The first couple of times you won't feel so well afterwards...
That thing... don't forget about the moving lines that try to confuse you even more... that thing was actually kinda fun. (If we're talking about the thing you do in API. Cheers, Bubba
