Thanks to the Starrship team for arranging this! I'm also over on their channel, flying with the Blades:    • Tom Scott explains GForce with The B...   • At the Royal Air Force training centrifuge in Farnborough, pilots learn how to avoid GLOC: ginduced loss of consciousness. Let's talk about gforce, about jerk, and about how to keep circulation flowing to your brain.

FAQs:

* Isn't 3.6g a really low gtolerance? *
Yep. Turns out I would not qualify to be a fighter pilot. The average range for gtolerance is 46; noone was expecting me to pass out. The centrifuge team do not deliberately try to GLOC people! To be fair, though, I'd done a few earlier runs with only minor effects.

* What g was the RAF person at the start pulling? *
That's Marcus, from the Starrship team, and he was successfully pulling 6.5g with the help of gtrousers: they plug into a compressed air source in the plane (and in the centrifuge) and act as a lowerbody tourniquet to keep the blood up top. They are very effective.

* Why did you shake and shudder when regaining consciousness? *
Those are called "myoclonic convulsions", which is a fancy medical term for "muscle jerks", and they're a common side effect of recovering from GLOC.

* What did it feel like? *
I'll answer this in more detail in a video over on the Matt and Tom channel soon, but in short: I don't remember it. I was doing the breathing maneuver, then everything was wobbly, then we were stopped!

* Is this a sponsored video? *
No: the RAF and Starrship had no editorial control over this, and no money changed hands. Obviously, though, they gave me a spin in the centrifuge, and I'm collaborating with them over on their channel too!


THANKS TO:
The RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, the Starrship team, and the folks at Qinetiq.

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