{"id":110798,"date":"2017-11-30T13:44:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T13:44:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-01-08T11:04:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T11:04:07","slug":"at-least-they-didn-puke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/30\/at-least-they-didn-puke\/","title":{"rendered":"At Least They Didn't Puke"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Navy’s Blue Angels occasionally put a local reporter in the backseat of one of their F\/A-18s and take them up for a spin.  They’re called “media rides” and they usually generate very favorable coverage and publicity for the military. <\/p>\n

Recently, the Navy flight demonstration team was in the Quad Cities area, and reporter Christie Nicks<\/a> of WTVO\/WQRF went along for the ride.  Apparently, she forgot that part of the pre-flight briefing about keeping your body against the seat\/headrest, and doing a “strain” maneuver when G-forces start to increase.  The result?  One unconscious reporter in the back seat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If it’s any consolation to Ms. Nicks, she’s not the only journalist to black out during a media ride.  Fox and Friends meteorologist Maria Molina passed out during her Blue Angels flight in March of 2014<\/a> and Steve Beatty of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution lost consciousness three times<\/a> during a backseat ride with the Blues. <\/p>\n

During my military career, I was lucky enough to get back-seat rides in both the F-15 and F-16; if you’re not used to pulling Gs, lose situational awareness and forget about your strain maneuver<\/a>, you will pass out, even with a minimal G-load.  I remember sitting in the rear seat of an F-15D, conducting BFM against AT-38s<\/a>.  Sweating buckets and doing my best strain, I was doing my best to fight off a gray-out.  Meanwhile, the IP up front was leaning forward and looking around, no problem at all as he maintained visual on one of the AT-38s.  The G meter was somewhere between 5 and 6.  Experience, practice and conditioning make a big difference.    <\/p>\n

In fairness, I was wearing a G-suit during my flights, which certainly helps you maintain consciousness. Navy and Marine Corps pilots who fly with the Blues do not wear a G-suit, and I’m not sure if their passengers wear one, either.  If you’re a civilian and not used to the effects of gravitational forces, it would be very tough to climb into an F\/A-18 and remain conscious if you’re not wearing a G-suit. <\/p>\n

At least they didn’t puke–as far as I can tell.  Orientation flight etiquette says if you leave your lunch in the back seat, you’ve got to clean it up.  I somehow managed to avoid that embarrassment as well.     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Navy’s Blue Angels occasionally put a local reporter in the backseat of one of their F\/A-18s and take them up for a spin.  They’re called “media rides” and they usually generate very favorable coverage and publicity for the military. Recently, the Navy flight demonstration team was in the Quad Cities area, and reporter Christie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}