Does anybody have first hand experience of hard G-pulling?

I was wondering how it feels to pull 7+ G's, the most i felt was 4G's?

A graph of the tolerance to G acceleration:

7.5 G here. And it hurts!

Ive done 7+. Your eyes get sucked into the back of your head and your feet gain about 5 sized but you get used to it. A G suit really makes things hurt alot less.

When i was stationed in the Falklands as a soldier i got talking to a couple of pilots over a drink one night. I was invited to go up in a tornado (GR7 i think) so bout 3 days later me and a buddy of mine turned up at other end of the base and told to put these suits on and we had a briefing. (We were now the envy of every other soldier in our unit) we were both taken up in a pair of tornados for a 2 hour flight over the south atlantic which included some very low level flying over the mountain ranges. I dont know how many Gs we pulled that day but i can tell you i thought my feet were made of lead and i felt about 5 tonne in weight on some manouvres. I left the aircraft that day feeling somewhat shaken and very stirred that much that it had a effect on me for the rest of the day. Bloody excellent adreniline rush though

[edit on 2-12-2006 by thesaint]

I don't know what G's I've been subject to maximum, but I've had plenty, mainly on racetrack.

I also had the honor to win a backseat ride in an F-16 for about 30 minutes a couple years ago and there the pilot pulled all the tricks out to try and get me to either vomit or pass out and neither happend. I was in the back just admiring the view from up there.

The F-16 probably gave the most G's, especialy fast switches between negative and positive G's, but when it comes to extended periods of time in alternating G's, would be on a racetrack for up to 10 hours in a single day.

When I first got to Nellis and Indian Springs (now Creech AFB) a couple of years ago I was invited to ride in an Air Force Thunderbird. A friend of mine, Sr Airman Danicka Jensen was crew chief on Maj. Randy Redell's F-16 and thats the one I rode in.

I had to check out with the flight surgeon, his name was Dr. Dave Steinhiser and he was very thorough in telling me how to breathe and what to expect, etc. The pressure suit was like putting on one of those old fashioned girdles complete with lace up and everything.

Maj Redell took off and stayed on the deck until the end of the runway and then pointed the nose straight up for the next 20 something thousand feet. Maj Redell took me through a 5g split S as sort of a warm up for a 9g turn, he asked if I was ready and I told him to hold on and let me recuperate from the split S.

I finally got the courage up to tell him I was ready and he did a 9g turn. I recall tunnelvision, everything got real dark in my peripheral vision and I had to remember to breath like the flight surgeon told me.

I didn't get sick but when we landed they gave me my 9g pin and I ran for the head. 9g's in a pressure suit puts a lot of weight on your abdomen and if you gotta go, you're gonna go. I also recall that when you breathe the way they tell you it really dries your mouth out.

I remember all their names because I got their autographs on the Thunderbirds commemorative first in flight poster they gave me afterward.





[edit on 12-2-2006 by intelgurl]

I don't know the number of G's I've had pulled, but when I went to Russia I did the Su-27 ride. All I can say is: Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to tell the pilot to "bring it on". I didn't do anything embarassing, but it sure wasn't comfortable.

Originally posted by thesaint
I was invited to go up in a tornado (GR7 i think) [edit on 2-12-2006 by thesaint]

My best quess it was a F3 intercepter version

Originally posted by Shadowraven

Originally posted by thesaint
I was invited to go up in a tornado (GR7 i think) [edit on 2-12-2006 by thesaint]

My best quess it was a F3 intercepter version

Possibly, Me being just a plain old soldier didnt have a clue what type it was to be honest. I took quite a lot of photos and a friend of mine said it was a tornado so i stuck with that for the last 9 years. I enjoyed the flying experience so much that when i left the forces i got myself a pilots licence for light aircraft. Not the same i know but it still gives me that bit of freedom in the air. Cant pull many Gs in a piper tomahawk!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel quite envious of you guys! The most G's I've had were 4.7 and that was on a rollercoaster

Even though my Uncle is a Wing Commander in the RAF, the only ride he has ever got me was in a Hercy Bird. Hardly renound for their ability to do tight manoeuvres!!

Originally posted by thesaint
When i was stationed in the Falklands as a soldier i got talking to a couple of pilots over a drink one night. I was invited to go up in a tornado (GR7 i think) so bout 3 days later me and a buddy of mine turned up at other end of the base and told to put these suits on and we had a briefing. (We were now the envy of every other soldier in our unit) we were both taken up in a pair of tornados for a 2 hour flight over the south atlantic which included some very low level flying over the mountain ranges. I dont know how many Gs we pulled that day but i can tell you i thought my feet were made of lead and i felt about 5 tonne in weight on some manouvres. I left the aircraft that day feeling somewhat shaken and very stirred that much that it had a effect on me for the rest of the day. Bloody excellent adreniline rush though

[edit on 2-12-2006 by thesaint]

Hmm, the GR.7 is a Harrier. Sure it wasn'ta GR.4?

How many G's can you pull on a Glider?!

Originally posted by Daedalus3
How many G's can you pull on a Glider?!

O/T: 100G+ when you let go of the handlebars and forgot to strap in :p (who thinks you can't pull 100G+ during freefall without a parachute, guess what happens when you go from terminal to 0 when you land :p)

Also, if you ever were in a carcrash or other kind of crash.

A 30mph car driving into a wall will generate around 30G's too.

So if any of you ever had a car accident, you probably were submitted to high G's too.

The survival statistics for car crash G's are:

75 g's for a "50th percentile male"
65 g's for a "50th percentile female"
50 g's for a "50th percentile child"

High speed crashes can generate well in excess of 100 G's.

[edit on 3/12/06 by thematrix]

Figher master fin : It was F3's they used not Gr4's

As said before i said "I think" being a young soldier at the time i was unaware of the type of aircraft heck i was only 21 i was like a little kid just waiting to jump in and go. Ill have to pull some of those photos out and post a pic it would be nice to know what i actually flew in. The guys on duty flying those things down there got very bored waiting for something to happen so they could get up in the air for a bit. What they used to tell us before we went out on 100 mile foot patrols was to radio in in a couple of days and say we could see a suspicious vessel off the coast or something. That way they had an excuse to do some flying. In return some of us now and now again would get the chance to go on a flight with them. Its amazing that i got it for nothing and now i see people paying thousands to do this

Originally posted by thematrix

Originally posted by Daedalus3
How many G's can you pull on a Glider?!

O/T: 100G+ when you let go of the handlebars and forgot to strap in :p (who thinks you can't pull 100G+ during freefall without a parachute, guess what happens when you go from terminal to 0 when you land :p)

[edit on 3/12/06 by thematrix]

If you are falling at terminal speed you are practically falling in a straight vertical line (please correct me if i'm wrong) in science we learnt that if a object falls straight vertical the gravitational pull is + or - 10g's if you hit the ground your gravitational pull is still 10g's but your accelaration will have decreased very very fast.

Acceleration and deceleration are what translates into G forces.

The earths gravitational pull is a constant downward acceleration of 10m/s².

Terminal velocity of a skydiver is around 200kph.

The deceleration of someone at terminal velocity is somewhere around 3025m/s² if you assume that the time to go from 200kph to 0 is 1 second, this callculates to 302G's on impact when 1G is 10m/s².

This isn't completely accurate because in reality the time it takes for you to go from 200 to 0 is nearly instant so the actual G's are much higher.

[edit on 3/12/06 by thematrix]

[edit on 3/12/06 by thematrix]

Here's a cool vid that shows the effects of a ordinary person experiencing G-force

www.electronicaviation.com...

Damn it's pretty funny, it looks like he is possessed