The next symptom was brain hypoxia – a complete loss of consciousness due to a lack of blood supply and therefore oxygen to the brain. That’s why one of the first signs that Gloc is about to occur was loss of colour vision ( greyout) before complete loss of vision (blackout). The retinal cells at the back of your eye are particularly sensitive to low blood pressure. I lost consciousness after about 15 seconds at 4G (or four times normal gravity pushing down on me) when this extra force overcame my blood pressure’s ability to move blood from my heart up to my brain.įormally known as gravitational-induced loss of consciousness, pilots refer to this as “ Gloc”, pronounced “gee-lock”. It adds to the force of gravity acting on you. When you rapidly change direction (think about riding a roller coaster or cornering a car), you can feel centrifugal force (which acts on an object moving in circles) pushing you outwards. This force can be quantified as one unit of gravity (1G). We are held to the surface of the Earth by gravity. I failed this test in a way that would have crashed and killed everyone onboard if I had been flying a jet. I was strapped onto the outside of this, being tested as part of a study into the effect of high-gravitational loading (high G) on the human body. Think of a merry-go-round spinning around, but much, much faster, and then expand it out so it’s the size of a bus, and you have a human centrifuge. I was in a ground-based training faculty for military pilots as a research guinea pig. For information and tickets, visit their website.Thankfully, this wasn’t while in control of a multi-million pound high performance fighter jet and trying to outwit my opponent in a high-speed duel. 3-4 at the New Century AirCenter in Johnson County, Kansas. “My wife knows all the fighter pilots by their call sign, not their real name.” “Everybody has a call sign based on their last name, based on something they did, or an embarrassing moment,” Amey said. He goes by “Anchor,” a nickname the Air Force Reserves gave him once he left the Navy. Although, Amey said other aspects of the film are more farfetched.Īmey gave creators credit for relying on call signs throughout the film. Cruise and other actors faced true G-forces during filming. He said parts of the movie were great representations of what it’s like to be a fighter pilot. “We had to go see it in IMAX,” Amey admitted. The TOPGUN program was thrust back into the spotlight this summer with the release of the film “Top Gun: Maverick,” starring Tom Cruise. He also plays the role of "ally" in which he helps ground-based military members learn how to communicate with pilots to coordinate attacks or protection. I get tickled every time I get to do it.” “We’ll put out as many little aircraft as we can and they’ll take us out one by one,” Amey said. In training exercises, Amey often flies a jet as the “enemy” so pilots at TOPGUN and Nellis Air Force Base can practice air-to-air combat or dog fighting. In 2019, he picked up a part-time job working for Draken, a contractor which helps train the military. Since his retirement from the military, Amey now flies passenger planes for United Airlines. “It’s a roller coaster, but you get to control the roller coaster,” he said. Most people wouldn't know the experience of flying a fighter jet, but here’s how Amey best described it: In 2000, he joined the Air Force Reserves, flying the A-10 aircraft out of Whiteman Air Force Base. It’s just a lot of fun,” Amey said.Īmey launched his military pilot career in 1989 with the Navy. “We’re doing it for the love of aviation, and we enjoy each other, the camaraderie and going out there and performing. The group of volunteer pilots flies in formations over events and at air shows. He’s now a member of the KC Flight Formation Team. Paul Amey went through the elite pilot program, whose official title is the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, in the mid-1990s. Navy’s TOPGUN program will be part of a team performing at this year’s KC Air Show over Labor Day weekend. A retired military pilot in Kansas City, Missouri, who graduated from the U.S.
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