G-Forces

[MiGCap]

On 8/15/2026 at 2:53 AM, Valis said:

In reality the G forces would be trying to bury me into the seat. I'd be lucky to see over the gunsight, never mind the nose of the aircraft.

If somebody wants to argue that's realistic then please do don't 😄

It's realistic.

In RL You are not "buried" in Your seat by the G-forces. They "only" draw the blood to Your lower extremities. You sit in Your seat with 1 G nearly the same way as with 9 G. But You have to fight the G forces to keep Your vision and Your consciousness, with M1 breathing maneuvre and G-suit or more modern helpers like AEA or Combat Edge. The Grey-out/black-out situation is very well simulated in the game.

Believe me, I experienced it often enough during my flying career with the German Air Force. Final 13 years in Eurofighters. All EF personnel has to undergo High-G training every four years in the centrifuge, proving to withstand 9 G for at least 15 seconds without problems.

@FuriousMeow You can't compare rocket launches with tight turns in jets: There You have Gz forces drawing Your blood and Your inner organs from the head to the toes, as You are sitting in Your ejection seat, but in a rocket the astronaut lies on its back and here You have Gx forces. The heart do not have to pump the blood all the way up to the head, as the body is in one level.

 

[Valis]

7 hours ago, MiGCap said:

It's realistic.

In RL You are not "buried" in Your seat by the G-forces. They "only" draw the blood to Your lower extremities. You sit in Your seat with 1 G nearly the same way as with 9 G. But You have to fight the G forces to keep Your vision and Your consciousness, with M1 breathing maneuvre and G-suit or more modern helpers like AEA or Combat Edge. The Grey-out/black-out situation is very well simulated in the game.

The point I'm arguing has nothing to do with the grey/blackout simulation - I'll take your word if you think it's accurate, but it's not what's being argued.

10 hours ago, FuriousMeow said:

Nah, sorry. If you think the pilot can't find leverage to get a higher viewpoint, they wouldn't be able to hold onto the stick. This is a inch or two, not the "2 feet", or "standing up" exaggeration you use for some reason. 

Then tell me how a pilot during a 6G turn can magically grow in height - because he's not getting out of the seat.

I can re-do the video and show the exact same thing at 7G, at 8G, at 9G....etc

At what point do you say 'No, a pilot probably couldn't do that' - 10G? 11G? Where is your limit?

Because in-game right now there is no limit.

[Whittle]

On 8/16/2026 at 3:22 PM, MiGCap said:

It's realistic.

In RL You are not "buried" in Your seat by the G-forces. They "only" draw the blood to Your lower extremities. You sit in Your seat with 1 G nearly the same way as with 9 G. But You have to fight the G forces to keep Your vision and Your consciousness, with M1 breathing maneuvre and G-suit or more modern helpers like AEA or Combat Edge. The Grey-out/black-out situation is very well simulated in the game.

Believe me, I experienced it often enough during my flying career with the German Air Force. Final 13 years in Eurofighters. All EF personnel has to undergo High-G training every four years in the centrifuge, proving to withstand 9 G for at least 15 seconds without problems.

I'd be interested to know - have you ever fully blacked out at 4G? 5G? What about GLOC at 4 or 5G?

I'm aware of g-suit, breathing technique, and seating geometry differences between now and WW2/Korea, but I'd like to know anyway.

[Dash,Polder]

Oh, he's done more than that, he warmed up at 4.  Try doing G on your feet standing up, cause we did it in the back of Starlifters holding on to static line cables with chutes on our backs.  You severely underestimate human endurance and what a determined and experienced man is truly capable of.  

[MiGCap]

20 hours ago, Whittle said:

I'd be interested to know - have you ever fully blacked out at 4G? 5G? What about GLOC at 4 or 5G?

I'm aware of g-suit, breathing technique, and seating geometry differences between now and WW2/Korea, but I'd like to know anyway.

Never in 40 years of flying.

In the Alpha Jets we operated in the Luftwaffe until the beginning of the 1990s we even didn‘t wear anti-G-suits usually, in spite of the limits of this aircraft (6.5G with tanks and 7.33G empty).

I know some F-4F pilots who wore their anti-G-suits (as it was prescribed) but never plugged them in, because without them they „had a better feeling“ for the aircraft as they told. And the F-4F was used as a fighter.

On the other hand I knew pilots who were assigned to recce Phantoms because their G-tolerance was so low.

It depends on how Your body is built. I am lucky: long legs, short torso, so my heart has to pump the blood to my brain over a relatively short distance. My G-tolerance is very high.

For a magazine article (I flew as public affairs reserve officer, aircrew, not a pilot, and as an aviation journalist in civil life) they put me to 10G in the centrifuge with the anti-G-suit deactivated and I didn‘t had a G-LOC, but blue feet afterwards as the blood vessels cracked.

But that was the older centrifuge. Our recent one has a much higher onset from 1 to 9G. 

Actually, I found it easier to withstand the prescribed 9G/15sec for Eurofighter personnel with the vest and trousers of the AEA (Aircrew Equipment Assembly) than the 7G/15sec with the old standard anti-g-suit prescribed for Tornado crews.

As a rule of thumb: In my opinion a fighter pilot should endure more than 6G over a short time frame without grey-out, especially with anti-G-suit.

7 hours ago, Dash,Polder said:

Oh, he's done more than that, he warmed up at 4.  Try doing G on your feet standing up, cause we did it in the back of Starlifters holding on to static line cables with chutes on our backs.  You severely underestimate human endurance and what a determined and experienced man is truly capable of.  

Our G warm-ups in the Eurofighter we do at around 5 to 6G, first turning in one direction, than the other.

I never understood why one has to „warm-up“ for Gs … 😄 And not every pilot I flew with did it.

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:50 PM by MiGCap
Typo

[Whittle]

Thanks!

[Aapje]

@MiGCap

I wonder if g-training has gotten better over time. Did you have old colleagues (retired pilots that became desk jockeys or such) that commented on that sort of thing?

BTW, apparently, actress Chloë Grace Moretz would be a great pilot. Barely any torso:

 

 

Edited Friday at 01:58 PM by Aapje

[MiGCap]

53 minutes ago, Aapje said:

@MiGCap

I wonder if g-training has gotten better over time. Did you have old colleagues (retired pilots that became desk jockeys or such) that commented on that sort of thing?

All the older retired pilots, who are still in active service and fly desks now, are younger than me … 🤣🤣🤣

I had my first jet ride in the Luftwaffe on 2 August 1984 in an Alpha Jet and my Last Flight (Eurofighter Typhoon) and Final Barbecue in the squadron on 30 July 2024. I turned 65 five days earlier and with the month one turns 65 the reserve military career has to end in Germany. Had my last centrifuge run 9G/15sec and chamber flight in December 2023 and the certificate ist still valid until the end of 2027.

When I started in 1984, the old centrifuge of the Luftwaffe wasn‘t functional. With the German unification in 1990 the modern centrifuge of the former East German Air Force became available and was used.

But that wasn‘t training in the sense of the word, You have to pass Your exam to speak in IL-2:Korea terms.

The only thing You can actively do against G-forces is the M-1 maneuvre: Tense Your muscles in the legs and the abdomen as much as You can to make it more difficult for the blood to sink down in Your body in combination with intermittent press breathing. That‘s what You hear in the game when You pull Gs. You learn that easily, not so much training required. All the other things which can help You to withstand high G-forces are technical assets.

@LukeFF We are far away from the Yak-9P theme here, perhaps You could transfer the posts to a new thread „G-forces“? I am sure we have more real life military jet crews here who can contribute.

[LukeFF]

3 hours ago, MiGCap said:

We are far away from the Yak-9P theme here, perhaps You could transfer the posts to a new thread „G-forces“? I am sure we have more real life military jet crews here who can contribute.

Done 🙂