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by maartenscholl 560 days ago
Do fighter pilots accumulate all that much exposure to G-forces in terms of duration? 2000 flight hours sounds like a lot, but aren't they flying steady most of the time?

Wouldn't professional bobsleigh pilots, alpine skiers, formula 1 drivers and downhill mountain bikers accumulate many more hours of high G-force exposure over the period of say a year?

4 comments

The profile is different. Fighter pilots have sustained g-force in a vertical direction, draining blood from the brain. Formula 1 drivers have lateral and forward/backward acceleration, which will have different physiological effects. The other sports are probably different again. Not sure if anything has a similar profile to jets.
I'm not sure DH mountain bike hits the G-forces that one might encounter in a fighter jet. Maybe some instantaneous instances, but nothing sustained. I'm a mountain biker (nowhere near an elite DHer) and they don't require compression gear to keep from passing out.

Bobsled/luge might be closer, but I have no direct experience.

I'd second that. I am far far away from being a pro, but my gut feeling and memory tell me that I felt way bigger forces while doing big, steep dirt jumps than any form of downhill. Though, the pros are actually fast around the corners, unlike me. So maybe there might be some g-forces, but I doubt they are anywhere near an F1 car or something else
Alpine skiing doesn't result in particularly high G-forces.