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When Your Body Quits: Understanding Weight & Balance in Flight Mishaps

Explore a pilot's unfortunate incident of losing consciousness while solo flying, diving into the physiological, environmental, and emotional stressors that can affect flight safety. Dive into the importance of trust, balance, and awareness in aviation.

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When Your Body Quits: Understanding Weight & Balance in Flight Mishaps

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  1. When Your Body Quits Gravity Wins!!

  2. Weight & Balance - A Universal Problem

  3. SGS 2-22 ACCIDENT • PIC was 16 years-old with nearly 9 hours of flight time. • Pilot’s second solo sortie of the day. • While practicing steep turns, the pilot lost consciousness. • Regained consciousness while approaching power lines, flew under power lines and landed in a field. During rollout the wing struck a pipe and spun the glider around. • Wing substantially damaged - no injury.

  4. PHYSICIAN’S REPORT • Dehydrated and the victim of Vasovagal Syncope. • Vasovagal Syncope. • Fainting occurring as a physiological response to stress. (Physical, Emotional, or both) • Reported hyperventilation played a role.

  5. PILOT COMMENTS • The pilot stated “The winds were not bad enough to where I could not solo.” • The tow was “fairly rough.” • Stated he was “being frustrated” by the turbulence and “having trouble controlling the plane.” • He began to get “frustrated and nervous.” • He was “breathing really hard because (he) was scared.” • He began to “feel strange” and his face and hands “felt numb”, he saw “a lot of little dots” and “passed out.”

  6. QUESTIONS • Circumstances leading up to the accident. • Rested? Hydrated? • Winds “were not bad enough”, does this mean they were marginal? Pilot’s opinion.

  7. QUESTIONS • Was his anxiety noticeable prior to the flight? • Did the instructor notice? • Did fellow pilots notice?

  8. QUESTIONS • “Having trouble controlling the plane”, was proficiency where it should have been for the conditions?

  9. STRESSORS • Physical - environmental conditions - heat, humidity, noise, vibration, and lack of oxygen. • Physiological - fatigue, lack of sleep, physical fitness. • Psychological - mental workload, social, emotional.

  10. TRUST THE FORCE

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