MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Whenever I get Mexican on an O&I, 500' AGL max. 50' if situation permits.
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Pulling Gs: Is it good to be short and fat?
- Thread starter Bernie Kosar
- Start date
Strapped into ejection seat with digestive tract gurgling and making funny noises = even more so.
Just keep your mask on.... 
Or .... landing @ the BOAT. They told me I wasn't going to the ship the night before ...
LIARS !!! 
my experience this summer on 1/c aviation cruise (which was my first experience w/ any real G-forces) may validify the original statement. I'm 5'10" (and around 165 lbs) so I was shorter than about 70-80% of the other mids who were flying. None of us had any prior experience and therefore had no developed G-tolerance. I heard a lot of stories from mids who experienced tunnel-vision and even a couple of instances of grey-out at loads above 6 G. For the most part these were extended pulls (which I would define as more than 1-2 seconds). I noticed that out of all of us, the 4 guys who had these symptoms were also the tallest guys in our group (with the exception of one guy who was about average height comparatively). My personal experience was that I never once felt any sort of greying out. Even on 7+ G pulls (including one 7.4G extended pull-out), I felt pain and struggled to move, but still never got tunnel vision or anything like that. It could be that I was just too pre-occupied to notice that I was greying out, but I think the most likely explantion could be that being shorter helps.
The other question I have is about diet and exercise. Before I went flying I always made sure to hydrate and eat a good meal (mostly so that I wouldn't get sick). Also, I was doing pretty serious push-up and sit-up sets each morning and night and lifting on my off-days (working up for the fall PRT). Could these factors also have helped me w/ G-forces in the jet?
The other question I have is about diet and exercise. Before I went flying I always made sure to hydrate and eat a good meal (mostly so that I wouldn't get sick). Also, I was doing pretty serious push-up and sit-up sets each morning and night and lifting on my off-days (working up for the fall PRT). Could these factors also have helped me w/ G-forces in the jet?
Yup, hydration is huge. A good meal in your stomach (because of the relative location wrt the lungs and diaphragm) will help keep your lungs from distending as the G loading increases. Pushups and situps will not do much for your G tolerance. A good lower body lifting program will do better.
Nothing is more fun than trying to breathe, while turned around like an owl, doing a defensive break turn. Did I say fun? Yeah, defensive sucks.
Now, offensive on the other hand... mmmm
Myth, maybe. But if you are a true believer, it can trick the mind. But personally never having believed, it never worked for me either...(although I admit I tried...many times.)
And G's, schmeez…. I could always pull more sustained G's than my machine, and I was not always in the best of shape. I just wanted the kill and pulled enough G's for as long as needed to get it.
G's? We never thought about it, talked about it, trained to it, or worried about it back in the day... we just f'n did it. Kinda like necessary breathing during other forms of "exertion". Have times, aircraft, and pilots changed that much?
I did the centerfuge up in Lemoore after a ragingly good time with some bros in the rhino RAG, and it sucked! Never listen to friends that fly super hornets, that just plain hurt. I think Nittany and Fedoc have it down, it's not the body type, more in how you treat it. Sure the fat slob might have a higher resting tolerance, but that goes down (drastically) with exhaustion. And trust me, on your second BFM hop on an out and in, in the 3rd or 4th merge with an F15 who's determined to punish you on your 3rd set, sitting on the G limiter going downhill with him, sucking wind, trying to break your neck to keep sight, is not the place to find out your out of shape. It's going to hurt, you're going to be tired, and you're going to have to force yourself to strain. The fat guy, he ain't going to make it, he'll grape the pull and get waxed, or he'll give up and take a nap. Either way, he's in a bad sit. If you're in shape, piece of cake, and you'll kick that AF turd right in the running lights. Thanks for letting me gun your flying monstrosity, jackass!
It's all a balance on how your body does, some guys can pull G naturally, and some have to work a bit. The best thing is a good mix of cardio and weighlifting. The 30 mile a week gouge is a baseline, I know plenty of marathoners and triatheletes who are G monsters. The basis is to stay in shape, and if you find your graying out early, change your workout, don't become a fat slob.
The last thing is that your tolerance will change. You can be King Kong on Friday, by Sunday on a cross country to Key West, you will turn into a G-wuss. Being in shape helps, but your tolerance is going to change daily, and thats life. Tailor your flying accordingly. The more in shape you are, the easier it is to sustain your tolerance, and you'll probably have more luck on that Key West cross country than they dude that looks like Buddha, he'll probably be so wiped he won't make it out of the Fly Navy.
It's all a balance on how your body does, some guys can pull G naturally, and some have to work a bit. The best thing is a good mix of cardio and weighlifting. The 30 mile a week gouge is a baseline, I know plenty of marathoners and triatheletes who are G monsters. The basis is to stay in shape, and if you find your graying out early, change your workout, don't become a fat slob.
The last thing is that your tolerance will change. You can be King Kong on Friday, by Sunday on a cross country to Key West, you will turn into a G-wuss. Being in shape helps, but your tolerance is going to change daily, and thats life. Tailor your flying accordingly. The more in shape you are, the easier it is to sustain your tolerance, and you'll probably have more luck on that Key West cross country than they dude that looks like Buddha, he'll probably be so wiped he won't make it out of the Fly Navy.
Ditto ... it's amazing how "real" myths can become when you're sitting in the chocks putting the O2 mask all over your face & helmet-less head to "restore" yourself for ..... *ahem* .... flying.
Remember ... if YOU believe it --- it's as "real" as it's ever gonna get ....
The gouge we got from the NOMI physiology folks during API was that the biggest factors were heart to brain distance and lower body/ab strength. The shorter the distance between heart and brain means less blood pressure loss by the time it hits your brain. Additionally, having a stronger lower body helps with your AGSM. They made it a point to mention that higher blood pressure doesn't correlate to better resting G tolerance as well.
That's for damn sure ....
OH !!! You meant "G" tolerance .. ???
I also found out that the more you "experienced it", the higher your "G" tolerance became, all other things you mentioned being equal. I.e., the more I flew ACM with hard yankin' and bankin' ... the higher my "G" tolerance became ...
But then ... sometimes, you just have to keep pullin' tighter across the circle in a total grey fog until the light comes on again ... as long as you know you're not spiraling DOWN in the circle.
