[TowerTalk] Breaking all the tower climbing rules atanamazingheight...

Thu Dec 2 00:39:01 PST 2010

On 12/1/2010 11:21 PM, Neil Sheldon wrote:
> There was a saying when I was growing up that "... 'something or other' ...
> will happen so fast, it will make your head swim!" When I first moved West,
> we were driving thru the mountains, and we would come around a curve, and
> the view would open up to a huge vista where you were a couple thousand feet
> in the air and could see for like 25 or 30 miles, and it felt like my brain
> was spinning around in my head.  It's Vertigo.
You should try flying an airplane in a storm so thick you can't see the 
prop, while the turbulence is crushing you down into the seat one second 
and your harness is pulling you down the next all the while with a case 
of vertigo so bad you have to put your finger on each instrument for 
your scan. The turbulence makes you miss the instrument and your mind is 
so messed up you can't remember which instrument you were after and this 
is while you are so sick you think you are gonna die...then you are 
afraid you won't.  That was my first experience in a storm as an 
instrument student in a high performance, complex, retract.  The 
instructor just sat there and once in a while he'd reach up and tap the 
yoke if I wasn't holding course within a couple of degrees and altitude 
within a 100 feet.
> I got an ear infection a long
> time ago, and the balancing mechanisms in my inner ear decided to take a
> sick leave. I got Vertigo so bad that I literally couldn't stand, and I
> could hardly lay still with my eyes closed. They had to carry me to the car
> and into the hospital. At it's worst, even the slightest movements caused
> vomiting. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me. It was then that
> I realized what that old 'saying' was really talking about.  Fortunately,
> although it seemed like 'forever' when I was going thru the experience, I
> got over that relatively quickly. However, some people, uninitiated to
> heights,
It's not being initiated although like an ice skater spinning, you get 
used to the motion. What you had was really vertigo, but the "spacial 
disorientation is what happens when the sense of balance and what the 
eye see disagree. That is often mistakenly called vertigo and can make 
the recipient just as miserable/sick.

Physically some people are far more  prone to both spacial 
disorientation and vertigo. Ice skaters still get dizzy from spinning, 
but they learn to tolerate it.  I used to watch new skaters learning to 
spin, go out and spin until they were  about ready to hurl. Then go set 
in the bleachers until they felt better and then go back out for another 
round. Some of them would keep repeating this for close to an hour.

However no one is immune to vertigo. The FAA has what is called the 
"vertigo chair". They blind fold you, strap you in the chair and slowly 
spin it up while you point in the direction your are spinning, once the 
chair reaches a steady state most will indicate it has stopped, then 
they start slowing it down. At that point the rider points in the 
opposite direction.   Then they abruptly stop the chair. If it wasn't 
for being restrained...or caught the rider would come right out of the 
chair in the direction opposite to the spin.
>   experience something similar when watching videos like this.
The only video that has given me a sense of motion was IMAX and the 
flight down the canyon on the Death Star in Star Wars. Even then it was 
not overwhelming.

OH! very relevant to tower climbing is the old adage of "don't look 
down".  That may bother those who are bothered by heights, but if you 
really want to grip the tower, look up to watch the clouds moving 
overhead.  You'll darn near leave fingerprints in the tower legs. <:-)) 
THAT does make me feel like the tower is going over, although it doesn't 
make me nauseous. If sensitive to motion, "Don't look up!"

73

Roger
>   (Most
> likely, it's probably a less intense version than my experience, but
> mentally upsetting [which quickly transfers to the physical] none-the-less;
> and it can inspire real fear for your life.) I got a slight feeling of
> 'revisiting' old times when I watched this video for the first time.
>
> Neil,
> K7WK
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Roger (K8RI)
> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 6:20 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Breaking all the tower climbing rules at
> anamazingheight...
>
> This made the rounds on here a couple months back. Couple weeks ago it
> even showed up on "The Weather Channel" videos.  They must not screen
> them and no way to tell them what it was.
>
> I still don't understand the psychology behind people getting ill, or
> unable to watch.
>
> 73
>
> Roger (K8RI)
>
>
> On 12/1/2010 5:12 PM, Joe Giacobello, K2XX wrote:
>>     Seems to be a commercial operation.  I guess the OSHA inspector
>> couldn't (wouldn't) make an on-site inspection.  Also, note the
>> porcupine dissipators on the way up.
>>
>>
> http://www.liveleak.com/mp53/player.swf?config=http://www.liveleak.com/mp53/
> player_config.php?token=f2d_1284588370%26embed=1
>> 73, Joe
>> K2XX
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