Air Races

[Steve Wilkins]

Still, 12 Gs is a lot of G. I've been to 9 repeatedly in F-16s and it hurt!

I ran into a Hornet pilot on Thursday while I was doing my physical. I mentioned AW and he said he never heard of it. Anyway, turns out he flew F-16's out in Fallon during his last tour. We got into talking about UAV's and what they can do compared to the physiological contraints placed on the pilot because....well, all pilots are human. He said he flew 9 G's enough to know that's about the limit for human pilots. UAV's on the other hand don't have to worry about a pilot blacking out. They just have to be built so they withstand that force if necessary.

 

[JIMMY]

hey also, i just remembered, if you jump from approx 3 ft with you knees locked... the impact is supposed to be around 8 G's. If anyone has a spare accelerometer handy they can validate that. keep in mind its 8G's for about a split sec however

 

[HeyJoe]

hey also, i just remembered, if you jump from approx 3 ft with you knees locked... the impact is supposed to be around 8 G's. If anyone has a spare accelerometer handy they can validate that. keep in mind its 8G's for about a split sec however

Cripes...I hope nobody even thinks of trying this especially before commissioning or even getting your wings. You'll be pulling G soon enough. This would be a sure way to mess up your knees and potentially end your dream. If you really have to experience it, get a ride in a high end acro aircraft or get yourself to Lemoore and check out the centrifuge.

 

[BigRed389]

Cripes...I hope nobody even thinks of trying this especially before commissioning or even getting your wings. You'll be pulling G soon enough. This would be a sure way to mess up your knees and potentially end your dream. If you really have to experience it, get a ride in a high end acro aircraft or get yourself to Lemoore and check out the centrifuge.

Aww, he's just trying to weed out the dumb ones from the competition before the next board. Less apps for the board to look over means more attention for each app right?

 

[HeyJoe]

Aww, he's just trying to weed out the dumb ones from the competition before the next board. Less apps for the board to look over means more attention for each app right?

Now, that's witty!!

 

[JIMMY]

:icon_wink :icon_wink :icon_wink

 

[xmid]

The majority of the pilots are retired or current airline Captains and all make shznit cans of money, that's how....plus sponsors. As for G's, Patty Wagstaff hangs upside down for hours so her body can get used to negative G's and she can pull some insane amount of negative. I've seen like -2.9, that's all I ever care to see, and civilians like Shawn Tucker, they pull like +10-11 in their routines(something close to that) essentially they can tolerate G's extremely well, probably better than the typical military pilot. Why? Maybe because they fly 1000 hours per year of aerobatics, whereas we fly 200, who knows.

I saw a thing on TV a few years ago whre Sean Tucker got a ride with The Blues. Afterwards he was talking about the G-loads being very hard on him because he is not used to sustaining them. He said he pulls 13-14 but never for more than 3-4 seconds, where as he was pulling 6-7 for sustained periods with The Blues.He said that he had a lot of respect for Navy pilots. I would think that a second or two of double digit G's would almost be like a mild car wreck. When race car drivers hit a wall they can pull 50 G's for a fraction of a second.

 

[JIMMY]

ya, im not sure about the amount of time, but i think i remember reading that the body can endure 40G's but only for about 5 sec, after that u die apparently

 

[MasterBates]

Body position has a lot to do with G tolerance.

Astronauts launch on their backs because they are sustaining massive g-loads for MINUTES. Still want to go on that ride.

 

[feddoc]

keep in mind, civilian aerobatics (air show/air race/ competition, whatever) is a lot different than say dog fighting. He may have pulled 13 G's but it wasn't sustained. It was probably a quick 3-4 sec pull. Same for tucker, most of his stuff is around only 5-6+, with various portions of heavy stuff, but again very short time frame (although he does have some pretty heavy negative stuff in there.) It's still a lot of G, but its not the same as in a dogfight where ur sustaining the G for a LOT longer period of time.


-jP

Yea, what he said. The human body can take about 20-80Gs in a chest/back direction, about 20 in a head/foot but only 8 or so side/side (*that transected aorta is tough to recover from).

BTW, the first GLOC happened in the mid 1900s...some flight surgeon tethered an airplane to a stick in the ground and did his thing. THe basic design of the anti G suit hasn't changed much in 60 or so years.

 

[MasterBates]

Doc, is that 8 lateral g's sustained to transect your aorta, or impact?

Did not realize it was so light in that direction.

 

[nittany03]

I saw a thing on TV a few years ago whre Sean Tucker got a ride with The Blues. Afterwards he was talking about the G-loads being very hard on him because he is not used to sustaining them. He said he pulls 13-14 but never for more than 3-4 seconds, where as he was pulling 6-7 for sustained periods with The Blues.He said that he had a lot of respect for Navy pilots. I would think that a second or two of double digit G's would almost be like a mild car wreck. When race car drivers hit a wall they can pull 50 G's for a fraction of a second.

The other thing to remember is that your body acclimates itself to G-loads if you pull them on a regular basis, and your tolerance then goes up. If you haven't pulled Gs in a while, the first time sucks. Then you get used to it.