I read this in the Guardian, about a journalist who hated flying and went up in a plane doing acrobatics, on of the Red Bull racers to be specific. He wrote about exactly how much he hated the experience. The worst thing was the G-force, and the fact that he was not the one in control of what was happening.
Now this is something that has been on my mind too, because on a smaller scale I did something of the same thing, but not on a plane, but on a huge fairground ride that came to Geneva during the Fete de Geneve recently. Now, this machine was called the Maxximum, and you can see it in all its glory. Basically it is a long arm that throws the rider(s) around in a big circle, while rotating and turning them on the capsule axis. It says four G on the web, but it claimed six G on the ride sign.
It was... amazing. Not good. Not fun. Amazing. I found myself for the first time in my life thinking "OK, hang on, it will be fine, and all over soon."
The G force was so strong that my legs were actively sore with the blood rushing into them. And the sensation of passing UPSIDE DOWN two metres from the ground at 120 Km/h IS to be missed. No really. It sounds like it should be fun, but it is not.
It is actually rather more like getting a notice which says, "You might have imagined you would have liked to be a fighter pilot, and you might play IL2 Sturmovik on your PC; and shoot down imaginary Germans, Russians, Brits, Japanese, Finns, Romanians and Italians (very broad based game...), but actually, you would have been no good at it."
But the real problem was that because I was at the upper end of the height and weight limit, what with the G forces, I ended up putting about the equivalent of 500 Kgs on the base of my spine, and I basically sprained my butt. Quite badly. So, I have been hobbling around for the last two or so weeks thinking it was going to sort itself out, which it gradually has, but not without a few very uncomfortable aeroplane flights and car rides in the meantime.
The main issue is that I am not able to do the one thing I really need to be doing at the moment, and that is get on a bike. As a consequence, I think that my much vaunted participation on the Venthoux Bloggers ride is looking a bit iffy. We will see. Hopefully my backside will improve, but my fitness is slipping, and not at a good moment...
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