Went to the Wings Over Suwannee fly-in Saturday. Took someone for their first flight. Never been to a fly-in. He was looking forward to it. While doing the preflight and explaining to him what I was doing, he revealed that he has gotten seasick on occasion. I told him that flying motion isn't like boat motion and since he is a commercial driver I figured that he should be alright. Takeoff was fine and I looked for a good hole so we could climb above the clouds; usually much smoother there. All went well. 4,500 feet with spotty clouds below. Smooth air. He was overjoyed with his first flight. 45 minute flight since we had a good tailwind. I explained things to him and showed him things to see. He was happily taking pictures and listening to the radio. I cued him about what was being said on the radio. We were flying a pair with another friend of mine in his aircraft with one of his friends. Single runway at Suwannee with strong full-on crosswind. Lots of aircraft around field with no tower. Right pattern for 25 which threw some pilots who had not checked. So it was a bit different. But he really enjoyed the day and thought all the activity was neat.

Leaving, the spotty clouds were now getting more closed in. Took off, found a bowling alley to climb above them. They had built up and I had to go to 7,500. Couldn't see the ground often and I could feel him tensing up. About halfway back I either had to climb higher or go under. Seeing him tense about height and not seeing the ground, under it is. Didn't want to have a new person on board while I searched for a hole or divert if I got trapped above.

Now this is where it starts to go bad. As pilots know, under the clouds is always more bumpy. So as we flew along at 2,700, we were getting light to moderate bumps. What had been tailwinds on the way up were now strong headwinds. Going to take a good bit longer. This was going to be a problem. He stopped talking. I could see he was ... uncomfortable. I reached behind his seat and got an airsickness bag, handed it to him and said just in case. He took it opened it, and got the plastic bag out. In another 5 minutes I could see the inevitable. And then I had a puker on board. Oh great. Fortunately he kept it all in the bag. This was the first time anyone has puked in my plane; and I've had people in some pretty bumpy conditions. After landing he was very embarrassed, but I told him not to worry: it happens. After we landed and put the plane away, my other buddy taxied up and I had his hangar open for him. My passenger was very sheepish talking about things. But despite it, he said he had a great day and was up to do it again to see if the airsickness was a one time thing.

Not in my plane puker.

I am sure he feels awful. The few times I have been fortunate enough to have someone take me for a flight in their plane, I always worried about getting sick. He should realize that he shouldn't ask to go up in your plane again, though. If he wants to run another vomit test, he needs to use a different laboratory. I can't imagine trying to land a plane if someone just "blew chunks" all over your instrument panel.

Even if all the chunks stay in the bag the smell doesn't, and that's enough to make nearly anyone puke.

Outsch. Glad to hear nothing more serious happened, though.

Oh God, there isn't a worse smell anywhere!! Especially in the tight confines of an airplane.
When I was taking airbatic instructions, we went up in a Citabria that someone had puked in. They had cleaned up the airplane but the smell was still there. We went up and all the way out to the practice area I smelled it and could start to feel sick, myself. Finally I couldn't take it.
"Are you okay?" the instructor asked me.
"No, I think we need to land." We put down at a little field and I got out fast. We left the doors open for a while and when I started to feel better, headed back. But the plane still stank! I held together all the way back to home field but my flying day was over.
It was awful.

You are now duty bound to get a little trophy with that on it and present it to him.

I imagine you'll take the "seasick" warning/admission a bit more seriously in the future...

I'm glad to read he kept it in the bag, though.

puking happens, i used to ask people to eat a banana before the flight. at least if you're gonna puke it'll taste just as good coming back up

My dad used to fly. He told me about a friend of his that, on long cross-countries, would urinate into a plastic ziplock bag and drop it out the window of his 182. That is...until one bag didn't 'ziplock' and the contents blew back in all over he and his wife...

Thankful he kept it all in the bag. Not aircraft related but on the job. get a call that someone puked in one of my elevators,run over and open it up and my God.
it was about inch deep all over the carpet inside. And the Smell when the door opened. Like OMG, what am I going to clean this up with. Ran and filled a mop
and bucket and started wet mopping it up. Took 5 bucket loads until it was ready for the wet vac. Can`t remember what solution I used, some commercial grade
antibacterial that I used. Was amazed the next morning when I went to check it out it still smelled fresh. No puke Oder at all. And when I opened that door the
first time it about made me wretch myself the smell alone was so bad. Needless to say we had the carpet replaced a week later.

Can you imagine how nurses feel? Puke is an everyday thing for them. Plus other nasty things.

Yep, nurses sacrifice a lot for others. Takes a special kind of person to take care of the sick and hurting and to do so with dignity. Don't they make a ginger gum to help with air sickness? Maybe it could also be helpful to have some Vicks vapor rub or a cotton ball lightly dampened with peppermint oil to stick in your nose for when the cockpit gets fowled up with sour puke stench.

I remember being on a ferry boat from Seattle to Vancouver. That was a very unpleasant ride. I'm usually okay on a big enough vessel as long as there is space to move around. Unfortunately its mandatory to be seated until the captain says so and on that day it was very choppy on the water. You have all this humanity crammed into seats that are tighter than a roller coaster ride with everyone sharing body heat. I'm a big guy smooshed between my Dad who's a bigger guy and also another big stranger. If it weren't so uncomfortable it would have been humourous because just like clock work, as though someone just pressed a magic button, every single person virtually on that ferry began getting sea sick at the same time. I don't believe it would have been so bad had folks been allowed to move around during launch and as long as they pumped some AC through. I barely kept it together until the crew said it was okay to move. As soon as we could I went topside to get some AIR! I was able to avoid puking but just barely and salvation came through being able to get away from bodies and out in the air. Topside I recall seemed to be carpeted or AstroTurf and there was puke all over the floor.

<summons oldgrognard voice> All this talk about puking makes me think I should ... </>

I tried that before the prom...

Nixer, you make me laugh! Thanks bud

A little puke won't kill ya OG.:-) At times, I've had little kid puke all over me (x6) and usually in public at a store...

Even the wife - first date, waling down Pompano Beach under a moon lit sky. Puked all over the place.... Did that stop me? Nope. Married for 36yrs.

Flew commercial once from Detroit to Los Angles for work. We had a layover in Phoenix. At the Phoenix airport my boss (and his boss) suggested we split a giant nacho platter and have a few beers while we waited for our flight. It was one of those straight up, straight down flights. And of course, we has rough weather. And as luck would have it, on our approach to LAX, I "Ralphed" into an airsickness bag. In fact, filled up two. Not something you want your boss's to see. Fortunately, they thought it was funny. Unfortunately, the story was told company wide soon after.

My worst experience with a Puker, Was 18 and took a girlfriend to sweet 16 party held by her aunts. They got her drunk by time to take her home
was going great driving down the highway till she looked at me funny and let loose all across my face down to my crouch. Just unloaded at 55 mph.
Was amazed I did not loose control. was soaked in puke and she was laying in my lap out of it in her own puke. Drop her off and her father is the
Coon Rapids police Chief. He comes out and gets her and pulls her inside. His sisters called him and told I was bringing her home. He comes over and
grabs my hand after says you have initiated. Sorry. I knew his other son and was friends with. But once getting home. OMG. I did not drink anything
but talk about a mess to clean up. My Dad helped laughing to hoe time, after making sure I took a good shower first.

Gotta love a puke story!

I've got kids. Puke was almost a way of life for a while but thankfully it's all in the distant past now.

Further back in the past as an ATC cadet I got a flight in a University Air Squadron Chipmunk. Someone had thrown up in the back of it (then got the privilege of cleaning up) and the smell came out to greet me as the canopy was slid back. The guy helping me strap in made several comments about the stink but luckily I'm not sensitive. I don't recall anything else about the flight though.

I was almost one of those puker's back in my early teens. My dad knows a pilot that flew for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife, mostly over BLM\Public land to count herds of animals; so he invited us along. I had only flown once in a passenger jet several years before that, so this was my first in a 4-seat, single engine plane.

I was alright until we started getting closer to the mountains in the choppy air. At first I could deal with it; but then we saw a herd of elk, and he made a loop, banking hard-right to get an idea of the size...and I almost lost it. It took just about everything to not projectile vomit all over this guys back seat.

Luckily, I held it together and passed out in the back seat for the rest of the flight (sleeping always helped me with motion sickness). Good thing too, since I didn't notice any puke bags, and the plane he used was usually for work\backup, so he normally didn't have passengers in it. I would have never lived that down haha

I loved giving incentive rides. I never tried to make anyone uncomfortable. I wanted to give the best impression of pilots to the enlisted folks I got to fly with (the most fun was in the F-16 at Kunsan). 30 some odd years ago I was giving an "incentive ride" to a pretty macho crew chief. I planned to take him on a short low level (500' and 480 KIAS), pop up into a MOA for some acro, RTB to Initial, pitch out and land, and taxi back to a hero's welcome by his buds. That was the plan. During the briefing my passenger was relaxed, bored, not terribly interested. When we arrived at the jet he had envious AMU (aircraft maintenance unit) buds grinning and joking at his good fortune. They were telling him how much fun was going to have. Typically incentive riders were not flight line folks.

Start, taxi and takeoff were standard for the Phantom on a hot August afternoon. The engine noise, smell of JP-4 and thick waves of heat washed over you from the exhaust of other jets turning out of their parking spots onto the taxi lanes. It was AWESOME! I told him if he wanted to look really cool as we taxied out of parking to select "cold mic" (opposite of hot microphone), lower his dark visor, drop his mask (disconnect his oxygen mask on one side), and prop his elbows up on the canopy rails. He did.

We took off and made a beeline for the low level start point, about 7 minutes away at 300 KIAS. I set the air conditioning for max cold. I gave him my best tour guide spiel of Austin TX and the hill country. I looked in my mirrors (at the reflections of his helmet on the inside of the canopy) to see if he's looking around. Nope. I turned and descended toward 500 feet, about that time I heard the intercom click as he selected "cold mic." In my left mirror I saw the top of his helmet. He merely shook his head (without looking up) when I asked if he was okay. Okay, I told him we'd skip the low level and try to pop into the MOA early. We climbed up above 10K' dodging popcorn cumulus to clear smooth air. He finally hooked up his mask and switched to hot mic. Yep, he'd blown chow, he knew the rule about cleaning the cockpit so everything was safely collected in his barf bag. He wasn't sure what to do with the bag. I told him to hide it in an interior pocket of his helmet bag, and WE would keep this to ourselves (not tell his buds).

We got into the MOA and all we did was fly very shallow turns in very long racetrack patterns. He didn't want to fly the airplane. He just wanted to go home. Except his buds would know something was up, so I put the speedbrakes out and went to Full AB. We reached Bingo and headed back to Bergstrom. Instead of flying the overhead pattern we landed out of a straight-in. We got back to the chocks in less than an hour. His supervisor and buds met us with "thumbs up" and big smiles. I'm smiling and returning their "thumbs up." But I noticed that the guys on the ramp stopped smiling and look disappointed.

His supervisor put the boarding ladder on the canopy rail and climbed up. He asked me why we were early, I pointed to the fuel gauge "ahh we were in burner most of the time," (continuing my part of the bargain to uphold my rider's status). I asked if something was wrong. The supervisor said my rider told his buds, "it wasn't great" (shaking his head with a curled lip of somebody that was served sushi at a Texas BBQ joint). After we climbed down my rider was still acting like it was just another day on the flight line, no smile, just indifference (and no mention he'd set the unofficial world's record for quickest puker in the Phantom). His buds were shaking their heads, glancing at me like I had been the cause of their disappointment. My rider finally said something like the whole thing was a waste of his time. His misfortune was letting me, a 28 year old pilot hear that. With that he had forfeited my silence regarding the actual events. I looked at his supervisor, "there's a reason it was a waste of time," then nodded to my rider's helmet bag. "We didn't do anything...just flew around burning off gas, straight and level. He didn't even touch the stick. Get him to show you the used barf bag." As young guys are wont to do, his buds hammered him mercilessly for throwing up. Stuff happens.

This was the only guy that ever puked in my jet. Although I had a German student that was so incredibly rough on the controls that he made me puke while flying around the radar pattern, and there was that time when he tried to kill us during a formation takeoff.