#Fighter pilot requirements upgrade

The bodyвЂ™s primary source of stored energy is from fats. Nutrition is a complex topic that merits a full, separate post. This will give you a rough idea of the minimum daily calories you require if you were to engage in NO physical activity. Use the below tool to calculate your BMR within a 5% accuracy. You would never take a jet that did not accurately report its fuel stores, yet you probably are not always clear of your own energy balance at time of takeoff. The vibration and noise of the jet, the increased G-forces and necessary AGSM, not to mention the high degree of focused attention, markedly add to the typical fighter pilotвЂ™s daily energy requirements. Flying a single-seat jet aircraft is both a cognitively and physically demanding experience. The sum of your BMR and energy required to perform additional activity (to include sitting at a computer doing queep) is your total energy expenditure (TEE) for a 24-hour period. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy that you require to simply exist. If energy expenditure is greater than the sum of energy inputs and reserves, the body tires more quickly and recovery will be delayed. Much like aircraft energy management is a building block of Basic Fighter Maneuvering (BFM), energy conservation is fundamental to optimal performance by the human machine. You can be certain that your performance WILL be affected when fatigued.Д¬OMBATING FATIGUE вЂ“ PREVENTION STRATEGIES The first step is to understand the causes and factors that will place you at higher risk. But effective strategies to minimize the effects of fatigue do exist.

#Fighter pilot requirements upgrade

A new baby at home or a stressful upgrade may degrade your sleep duration and quality. A sudden shift in schedule or a poorly planned TDY can provoke circadian rhythm disturbance. Why go to the merge if you can defeat your adversary before entering their threat range? Of course, there will always be times when the merge is unavoidable. There are a number of helpful strategies that any pilot can employ to combat fatigue. Good news for вЂOld BallzвЂ™ though вЂ“ one large study showed that older groups of pilots exhibited generally superior performance when fatigued. Most studies of fatigueвЂ™s effects in aviators do not demonstrate differences in performance among sub-groups: male and female aviatorsвЂ™ performance are equally affected by fatigue. However, similar to your experience when hypoxic, each individual displays their own constellation of symptoms to fatigue. In the USAF, aircrew do not acquire nearly the hands-on training for fatigue as other human factors, like the altitude chamber for hypoxia or overcoming G-forces in a centrifuge.

NOBODY IS IMMUNE TO FATIGUEвЂ™S DEADLY EFFECTSвЂ¦NOT EVEN RON BURGANDY: Lastly, any decrease in sleep begins to be banked as a sleep debt, which can create a cycle of fatigue, insufficient sleep, and diminished performance which only worsensВ over time. In the theater of combat, however, all bets are off and the expectation to fly long-duration sorties during times when your body is convinced it should be asleep remains a frequent occurrence. Fortunately, this is one cause of fatigue in aircrew that affects the long-haul heavy pilot community much more than the average fighter pilot in a training environment. In addition to long duty hours, circadian rhythm disturbance remains a threat to sufficient amounts of good-quality sleep. Long hours away from home translate into family stressors, which diminish quality and duration of sleep. Convenient,В butВ unhealthy, snacks become the next best option to a skipped meal due to an extended debrief. For example, there will likely be an influence on a pilotвЂ™s daily sleep habits and diet. Long duty shifts alone are directly associated with fatigue, but these long days have many second-order effects as well. One famous study cleverly compared progressing levels of sleep deprivation to performance degradation equivalent to increasing blood alcohol content (BAC).ДЇlight duties andВ abundant queep equate into very long duty days. Finally, motor skills begin to falter with fine motor skills affected prior to large purposeful movements as daytime sleepiness builds. Next, oneвЂ™s ability to reason and reliably evaluate deteriorates. And as fatigue worsens, performance degrades in a progressive and predictable pattern. Even minor levels of underlying fatigue will manifest at this critical level of human performance. Sleep Deprivation & Blood Alcohol ContentДЄs a modern fighter pilot, your nation requires you to perform flawlessly at the limit of human information processing in a physically demanding environment.