Describe how flight anxiety can be prevented.

Flight anxiety must be dealt with as early on as possible

Avoid fatigue, sleep problems, alcohol, drugs , overload etc

Recognise the signs of flight anxiety in passengers.

• Physical discomfort – sweating, breathing difficulties
• Inappropriate behaviour – laughing , singing, impulsivity
• Unreliable – avoidance , not showing up
• Mood changes
• Unreasonable behaviour
• Fatigue
• Fixation on trivia (incorrect thought processes) 

Explain the causes of flight anxiety.

Flight anxiety is the build up of stress over a prolonged period

Dealing with it prior to flying is a must

Describe how motion sickness can be treated.

Use of all the preventers 

Use of medicines / anti nausea patch on skin

Desensitisation / Psychological treatment

Describe how motion sickness can be prevented.

– Apply a medical skin patch several hours prior to the flight
– Gain further flight experience as soon as possible
– Reduce anxiety and build confidence

– Keep fit
– Avoid over-tiredness
– Eat sensibly and avoid alcohol prior to the flight

– Keep the horizon in sight at all times
– Try to relax whilst flying
– Avoid rough weather conditions

Explain the causes of motion sickness.

Motion sickness occurs when there is prolonged and continued body motion which upsets the orientation system

There is a mismatch of information coming from the eyes and balance organs that reaches the brain

Explain the causes and symptoms of black-out and red-out.

Black-Out
– Positive G situation where too much blood is drained from the brain and eyes – blackout is loss of vision but not loss of consciousness

Red-Out
– Negative G causes blood to pool under pressure in the brain and eyes – resulting in vision turning red

Explain the effects of positive and negative accelerations on the following

The circulatory system

Positive G
Too much blood is drained from the brain towards the abdomen and legs
Leads to:
– loss of consciousness

Negative G
There can be blood congestion problems
Blood has difficulty flowing back to the heart
Leads to:
– Red out (Blood pools in the eyes under pressure) 

Vision

Positive G
Too much blood is drained from the brain towards the abdomen and legs
Leads to:
– loss of colour vision (greying out)
– blurred vision 

Negative G
There can be blood congestion problems
Blood has difficulty flowing back to the heart
Leads to:
– Red out (Blood pools in the eyes under pressure) 

Consciousness 

Positive G

Ongoing increasing G-force can result in too much blood being drained from the brain into the abdomen and legs, resulting in loss of consciousness (GiLOC).

Describe and explain the effects of the following spatial illusions ...

‘Leans’ and sub threshold stimulations  

The ‘leans’ is a strong sensation felt by the pilot, of being in one attitude when the instruments are indicating the aircraft is in a different attitude.

Somatogravic / somatogyral illusion

During a prolonged turning manoeuvre at a constant angular speed’ the middle ear semi-circular canals can only detect the start and the end of the angular motion.

They do not detect the steady state in between.

On recovery from the angular movement, the fluid in the canals is accelerated as the canals themselves stop with respect to the fluid.

The action is then perceived as the start of a rotation in the opposite direction.

This has the effect of the pilot pushing forward to try to ‘level’ the aircraft, which results in a descent into the ground. 

Somato-gyral illusion

Another form of disorientation that can lead to accidents.

The pilot has the ‘leans’ and is not aware of it, and the aircraft has meanwhile entered a spiral dive.

As speed builds the pilot believes he is in a wings level dive and tries to pull out of the dive. There is considerable bank applied and no amount of applied force will pull it up.

The result is the pilot enters into a spiral dive which gets worse by trying to ‘pull the nose level’ and is sometimes referred to as a “graveyard spiral”. 

The illusion has to be recognised, the wings levelled and then the aircraft pulled out of the dive.

Cross-coupled turning (Coriolis effect)

This effect occurs if you simultaneously induce motion in two of the semicircular canals such as moving head in pitch, when aircraft is rolling.

This is a violent form of vertigo with associated muscle spasms and nausea.

Pressure vertigo

Can be triggered by expanding trapped air in the Eustachian tubes. Nausea and vertigo can result.

The oculo-gyral reflex – the connection between the eyes and the balance organs

When there are problems with this reflex such as an ear infection in the middle ear, this can cause dizziness / loss of balance.

The same can occur when there is a pressure change which causes a popping in the ears and disturbance of the nearby semicircular canals. 

Explain the body's limitations in maintaining spatial orientation when vision is adversely affected. 

Vision makes up 80% of our spatial orientation. In conditions of ‘white out’ or with no reference to outside, the human brain can become confused and produce false information, affecting the spatial orientation.