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The psychology of barf bags

Like many pilots, I always carry “barf bags” when flying with inexperienced pax. I’ve heard various views on how to talk to them about it.

One school of thought holds that you should not mention them unless needed, as mention will start people thinking of the possibility of airsickness which will increase the risk that they actually become ill.

Another view is that you should tell them before the flight in order to put them at ease. Also this makes it less likely that airsick pax (particularly children) will just hold out until it is too late.

I’m with the second school of thought, but I’ll of course change my mind if presented with good arguments.

What’s your take on this?

Last Edited by Airborne_Again at 29 May 18:45
ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

I usually try to remember to tell them about the sick bags. First reason, that allows me to check that there are sick bags in the plane! The other reason is that this way, if a passenger get sick, they know where to find it. Otherwise, if you are busy with something else (like, for example, flying the aircraft) and don’t realize they need it, they might end up redecorating the interior!

ENVA, Norway

From UPRT instructing I explain: what causes the brain to want to evacuate the stomach, that focusing on the horizon will calm the brain, having some food before flight (I subscribe to the ginger biscuit theory for travel sickness and understand it works with dogs), and that I will regularly check on how they feel on a scale of 1 to 10. If a 5 or 6, time to plan for some gentle straight and level, return to base and improved ventilation.

To OP question I have a sick bag under my seat and only produce it if the student is looking a bit greenish. So arguably am in the first school of thought, but hadn’t thought about the sick bag being a psychological catalyst (don’t think it is). Have only had a couple of students need the sick bag.

More tricky is a back seat student in IMC not used to flying in IMC in a small aircraft. Here the technique of focusing on the horizon can’t be used, as there is no horizon to see. A bag then comes in handy, and in this scenario knowing there is a good supply of bags is a psychological help/comfort for the passenger.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

I can say with absolute certainty that if you dont mention barf-bags, then they will be needed and you wont have time to point out where they are… And even if you do underline to pax “if you feel ill, tell me, we will head back, and you should immediately get the bag just in case” that around half the time they wont say a word until its too late…

…Tell me how I know…

In my RV8 I’ve so far taken ten passengers for an aerobatic ride this year and nobody has felt sick. I’d say over half were nervous, concerned about being sick. The pocket in front of their face has barf bags in, is clearly labelled and the label includes a vomiting emoji. This made every single person laugh and nobody has opened the pocket yet!

I explain every single move, what will happen, and where they should look. As we fly, say a loop, I dictate where to look as we fly it. “Look at the wing tip”, “now put your head back and look for the horizon”. It really works and everyone enjoyed it more than they thought they would.

I do this because for a decade I “didn’t like” aeros. The three passenger rides I did all made me feel sick. each pilot showed off with some unexpected moves and loved pulling as many G as they could stomach themselves. Not enjoyable for pax.

EGKL, United Kingdom

RobertL18C wrote:

I will regularly check on how they feel on a scale of 1 to 10. If a 5 or 6, time to plan for some gentle straight and level, return to base and improved ventilation.

I mainly tour, so this isn’t a topic I know a huge amount about, but I did watch a YouTube video the other day which had what I thought was interesting advice. (Sorry – can’t remember which video).

The video was about an aerobatics sortie with a passenger. The pilot was a pro- or semi-pro aerobatics instructor. Like Robert, after every set of manoeuvres the pilot asked the passenger to rate how they were feeling on a scale of 1 to 10. However, as soon as the passenger reported a 9, the pilot would break off and do some gentler manoeuvres or sight-seeing looking out of the plane.

His reasoning was that:

  • People put on a brave face and under-report if they’re starting to feel bad. So by the time they report a 9, they’re actually more like a 6 or 7.
  • Once people even begin to go downhill, if you carry on what you’re doing, it’s a one-way street.
  • The second section of the slope is much steeper than the first. Going from 7 down to 1 is much quicker than 10 to 7.

As I say, I’m not particularly knowlegeable about this topic, but I thought it was interesting advice from someone who was.

Last Edited by M20J at 31 May 11:32
KHPN White Plains

Just yesterday I made a short flight to Texel with four pax and used three bags along the way. I didn’t know I had that many and made sure to stock up after! Unfortunately had to go around twice due to traffic failing to vacate in a timely fashion, which made things worse.

EHRD, Netherlands
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