Today was the first leg of our Texas to Truckee trip. Our first fuel/comfort stop was Ruidosa, NM, everything was fine to that point. But from there to Williams AZ was moderate turbulence from the surface to 14,000. And I tried every altitude from the surface to 13,000 and found no relief. My poor wife got airsick over and over and over and over. Used up every airsick bag in the plane. I was informed tonight that after this trip she doesn't want to fly anymore. A Mac three blade and turbo normalizing would surely help, at least we could get to 17,000 quickly. But I fear it would be to late.

Today really sucked!

That does suck!
One of my biggest fears is turning my wife off aviation and from what I hear turbulence can certainly do it.
I have 150 hours and have only taken her once....that's how cautious I am.
That said, I just bought a 206 so she is about to get baptized! With oxygen can you get above it this time of year...I mean is 17k high enough for this time of year in our neck of the woods?
I'm flying from ID to TX around the tenth of August , albeit without my wife (thank God!), and am really curious to see how it goes as far as turbulence.
My wife thinks she wants a vacation home in Ruidoso so your report is a little dis-heartening. Hope the rest of it straightens out.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh. She ain't gonna like northwest Nevada for the next day or so. It was ugly up here this afternoon.

http://www.wunderground.com/weather-for ... 03.4.99999

Summer months by all this big rock and wind, ya gotta be in the air by O' dark-thirty, and on the ground well before noon. If you don't your pax will hate you, and you're gonna spill your beer.

Gump

Real sorry to hear that, mate.
Hopefully once the memory of the airsickness goes and she has a chance to re-focus on the good things, she will come around. Probably best to avoid turbulence for a while...

I feel your pain.

My wife was so fed up with turbulence over Montana one year that she, for a moment, contemplated walking out of the plane.....at 11,000 feet.

Trooper but still talks to sick sacks from time to time.

Wife swears by those acupressure wrist bands for air sickness.

TD

throttle back and fly slower?
fly heavier?
put down and fly in the morning when the air is calm?
let her fly the plane?
dramamine?
magnets?
voodoo?
witchcraft?
put her in a kerosene burner to reno?

I wouldn't want to fly with you either if you kept soldiering on while your wife is vomiting. If all else fails - sit it out - is it really worth it to get there with a miserable pax? If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Of course you can now join the ranks with me - my wife will never get in a plane again. Sucks to burn bridges.

Battson wrote:Real sorry to hear that, mate.
Hopefully once the memory of the airsickness goes and she has a chance to re-focus on the good things, she will come around.....[

Turbulence really sucks, especially when you just seem to be getting a bunch of it lately. As bad as it is though, it makes the good days that much better....kind of a necessary evil to keep us from taking the smooth air for granted!

At my current home airport near the central coast of California, the wind blows 20-30 miles an hour EVERY.....SINGLE....AFTERNOON from March to November. It makes simple tasks like pulling the plane out of the hangar and taxiing a real pain. But, get past all that and the low level turb by about 1,500', and your in for some good evening flying weather!!

Hopefully your wifey comes around and changes her mind

This time of year the best soaring starts 10-11 thru late afternoon out west. A lot of convection, what goes up also comes down, that includes air. When you see those CUs start to develop it's going to get rough. I don't know why it doesn't bother my wife. She'll be playing on the ipad and we'll just be getting hammered in the middle of the day in the Great Basin hit a big bump and she looks over and says it sure is rough I'll be getting pissed and snap back if you'd get you ass outa bed early we wouldn't be getting pounded. She just goes back to the ipad. Guess I'm lucky.

I suggest you fly early this time of year. Hope you can get her confidence back.

I feel your pain. I'm my wife's private pilot and we go when she's ready. She's never experienced a daylight departure because she's not ready to go until it's hot. If you're going to travel with a woman, fly at night.

My wife is also a lifetime member of the "I hate turbulence club". To keep her as a flying companion I build in extra time for all trips we make together. We return to the ground and head for the nearest Marriott when it gets uncomfortable for her. It took twice as long as necessary to fly our plane from Seattle to Northern Virginia, but she saw the redwoods, visited wine country, saw whales migrating up the coast, and explored Santa Fe. As a result, she still travels with me if the destination will be fun. She won't go if I'm just flying for the sake of flying, or if she will be surrounded by pilots and aviation talk at the destination. So I work hard to plan trips that will be fun for her and ensure those trips get alternated with my aviation focused trips. I flew to Sun-N-Fun and camped on that field alone, but she was more than happy to fly to the Basin Harbor Club with me for a long weekend in a cabin on Lake Champlain. Making sure I plan some wife centric trips that pamper her ensures the cost of owning a plane doesn't become a bone of contention. She doesn't want to expand her role beyond that of passenger and as long as I deliver a great overall travel experience, she will continue flying with me to destinations that interest her.

I am sorry that your wife had such an unpleasant experience! Never a good thing to feel sick!

I am the wife and sometimes the private pilot for my husband Mike. Tomorrow morning (6/27), I will be flying the Rebel from our home at Mid Valley Air Park to Garden Valley.

I don't get sick in turbulence, but I don't like it at all! The solution for us as some have mentioned is to depart as early in the morning as practicable. What we do (and are doing for our departure to Garden Valley for tomorrow morning) is:

- The day before, pack the airplane with everything but the cooler, purse, pack, etc. I finished packing my clothes and the food for camping yesterday so Mike can load the Rebel today. He has the airplane fueled as well so this will not delay our takeoff in the morning.
- The night before, get weather, file flight plan, make lunch, and have everything left to go in the airplane laid out and ready to go. Set your alarm to allow you to lift off as early as possible (I am targeting 5 am as lift-off for the morning - that means 3:30 to 4 am alarm). Hey - sleep is not as important to me as avoiding turbulence!
- Get a good night's sleep.
- Get moving when the alarm goes off - get last minute weather, get the stuff you laid out the night before into the airplane and hopefully you will make your estimated lift off time.

The "getting stuff ready" the night before, getting a good night's sleep, and setting the alarm for early has worked well for us in our 40+ years of flying together. It does help that I am a pilot, but like I said I do not like turbulence and do quite a bit of complaining when we get into it so it serves both Mike and I well if we get off early.

Some have also said that she might want to take the stick or the wheel to help - I think this might be a good idea too. It gives her something to focus on - keeping the wings level, tracking a course, maybe even using the radio. Doesn't hurt - pinch hitter courses might be helpful!

Some mentioned flying higher and that works sometimes, but if possible, avoid rough and/or mountainous terrain. Of course this may not work if you have to fly over them or through valleys to get to your destination.

As a woman pilot, I would like to see more women enjoying the flying as either pilots or passengers and hope my tips help.

Jan

Today we see the Grand Canyon, from the ground! And boy am I glad cause at sunrise it's already moderate turbulence from the surface to 16,000 feet the entire way from Williams to Truckee. No way we'd go. Tomorrow is when we are supposed to continue the trip. I have to assume it will be the same and I'm not putting my wife through six hours of that again. We need to get there as this is a family reunion for my Mom who has Altzheimers and Dementia and this is likely to be the last thing she enjoys with any understanding of it.

So, need to plan on heading to the nearest airport that can get us a kerosene burner to Reno. Hate the idea of flying into Phoenix Intl. Anyone got suggestions for an alternative where we can pick up a flight?

Thanks for all your thoughts/comments.

This is a very common problem. Flyhound's were very good suggestions. Also consider if your wife/husband is schedule conscious. My wife took afternoon thermalling fine, but she quit flying with me after two days in Walsenburg, Colorado in upslope fog.

Barnstormer wrote: Anyone got suggestions for an alternative where we can pick up a flight?

If you are in Williams, might want to get up early, fly 150 NM to Henderson NV. Lots of flights to RNO from LAS.

YB

Its been pretty nice flying early am here in PHX, but I have been low at 3000'. Fly early, sun comes up early.

As for getting a commercial flight - Flagstaff has connector flights. Vegas is not that far from you either.

YB, just what I'm looking for, thanks.

Wife reminded me that we are carrying lots of stuff for this trip that won't go on an airline, but I can put her on and fly the wagon on myself.

St. George UT is an option as well, had forgotten about it.

Didn't know about Flagstaff, thanks.

PRC (prescott) also. There are also shuttles from flagstaff and prescott to PHX..

If airsickness is the only problem (and it may or may not be--for some it's a symptom of fear, and that is harder to both diagnose and solve), then I'd suggest the ReliefBand from Aeromedix, Sporty's, and Aircraft Spruce. It sends a small jolt of electricity through the medial nerve, which for reasons which are beyond my understanding, stop most nausea. It was originally developed for pregnant mommies suffering from morning sickness and for cancer patients reacting to chemo-therapy.

My SO won't fly any more, because of fear which I can't seem to get her beyond. But initially the issues seemed to be mostly nausea. We tried the Davis pressure wrist bands, which didn't do anything noticeable. So I decided to try the ReliefBand after an exchange of emails with Dr. Brent Blue, who owns Aeromedix. That totally solved the nausea problem, but not the fear problem.

The other benefit from our perspective, though, is that she likes boating--but that made her sick, too. With the ReliefBand, however, she's fine--no nausea whatsoever. The first time we rented a yacht in the Northwest, one day we found ourselves in some pretty rough water in the San Juans, and although it didn't bother me, I was concerned when I noticed that she turned up the ReliefBand (it has several function levels). I asked her how she was doing, and instead of the wan "I'm OK" I would expect when she's really not OK, she said, "Great! This is fun!"

On the issue whether a turbo'd airplane can get above the rough stuff, don't count on it. When I see echo tops reported via various weather services at over 40,000', I know it can't. Storms anywhere which are building can quickly (and I mean REALLY quickly) build to well past any height you can fly any light airplane, anywhere in the country. Right this minute:

There is a storm over Hutchinson, KS, with echo tops at 43,000'.
There are storms along the Gulf near Corpus Christi, Galveston, etc. with echo tops over 40,000'.
There's a storm near Haleville, AL with echo tops over 34,000'.

And echo tops aren't the actual tops, which are a lot higher.

I envy those who can get their spouses and SOs to fly with them--we'd go a lot of places by air if mine would. But at least she doesn't object to my flying!

Cary

Sorry to hear that, Phil. Your wife is such a nice lady, I hate to see anyone go through that. You may have to use the golfing trip carrot now.

Cary, I think you are right about fear, but there is also the fear of getting sick or uncomfortable. My wife suffers from migraines and dreads that feeling more than anything. The same can be said of turbulence, even though you might know that you're not in real danger.