Question re. aerobatics, G-force and pacemaker

pushing limits

by Tracey_E - 2017-12-24 08:52:29

I think I'd like your mom :o)  I love that she isn't slowing down. Mentioning it was the right thing to do, tho I have to admit I would have done it and not said a word. I rode an Olympic bobsled last summer which was 4G. I also ride roller coasters and ziplines. I've had my pacer for a long time and am otherwise healthy, my doctor has always told me I have no restrictions. Not that I asked before I did the bobsled, lol, I knew that was pushing it. I tend to live with a better to beg forgiveness than ask permission attitude. Hasn't gotten me in trouble yet.

Note, when I got a new lead I behaved myself for the first year to give it plenty of time to settle in. Pushing it is only for after things are well healed. 

Often when places like amusement parks or other rides say no pacemakers, it's a blanket rule made by the lawyers and has little to do with what our doctors will say is safe for us. Doctors vary widely, too, some are a lot more conservative than others about protecting the leads. They do not agree on roller coasters, some say yes, some say no way. I go to a very large practice  with a lot of younger, active patients who have been paced for a long time and they tell me nothing I do will damage the leads. I don't hold back and have never had a problem. If I did, I'll admit it probably wouldn't change a thing, I consider the risk (imo very very minimal risk) to be well worth it to live my life how I want. The worst that could happen is need the lead replaced. 

I'm sorry that your mom is still upset. It's probably more with life and aging in general than you specifically. You did the right thing and were in a no win situation. It probably would have been ok if she'd gone but a smart pilot wouldn't take the chance. Is there something else you could do with her to show her you don't see her as fragile? Just a guess, that could be bothering her as much as not having the thrill ride. No one who's always been tough and independent wants to be seen as weak. 

Your Mom kmows a lot ...

by donr - 2017-12-28 04:22:28

...and doesn't kmow it!

Way back int the early 1960's - before most of you (Except for Ian, who is officially an "Old Coot," like Robo-Pop & a very few others.) the English speaking world was trying to develop a decent ejection seat for jet powered aircraft.  The world leader in that technology was an outfit named Martin-Baker, a Brit company.  Even the US Air Force bought M-B seats for its airctaft.  More than one US pilot lived to fly again, courtesy of M-B seats.  However, even more lived to NOT fly again because of the back injuries they suffered when the seat summarily through them violently through  the canopy of the plane.  Then there were the broken legs & arms they suffered. 

I still recall sitting in a USAF library reading a flight safety magazine of some sort when I stumbled across an extensive atricle on the famous M-B seat and many technical details on its design and functioning.  Said article awakened my young, recently graduated mind as an engineer and made me realize that mathematics did not end - especially Sir Isaac Newton's Calculus.  (No, he did NOT become famous for inventing a cookie filled with fine-seeded fruit.)  Now for all of you not initiiated into the agonies of a type of math called "Differential Calculus," I submit the following simplified description of it so that you may follow along with Granny & me in explorinmg the wonders of flip-flops & loops & rolls and barfing in your own oxygen mask.

Sir Isaac's math described moving objects that did not move in straight lines at a constant speed.(Like an airplane doing acrobatics.)  Or the planets in the outer-space sky.  He did it with a tool called a "differential."  - or two. He stuck a pair of these dfferentials into a mathematical expression & examined what they did to change it.  They were itty, bitty, teeny, weeny (yellow polka dot bikinis), so they didn't chsange it much.  BUT when Isaac let them shrivel away to zero they showed him wonderous properties of the dynamic, moving world!  This operation was called "Taking a limit." Or allowing something to "approach a limit" - usually zero.  The new expression was called a "Derivative."  It not only had a name, but it had a physical meaning in the world we live in. F'rinstance - in the physical world, everytthing has a location.  It can be described mathematically with respect to some origin - perhaps the location of our car with respect to its parking spot in front of our house. So what does the derivative of the expression describing location mean?  By golly, it is the SPEED of the car as it moves!  So what is the derivative of the expresion describing the speed of the car?  That just happens to describe the acceleration of the car - the change in speed of the car.  We have all heard these terms describing moving objects.  We speed down the highway.  We accelerate away from a traffic light.  But waitaminit!!!!  what if we thke the next derivative of that expression describing acceleration - does it have any physical meaning? Mathematically it does exist, as does an infinite number of other derivitives.  Martin Baker called the next one "JERK" or literally a change in acceleration.  We can all sense jerk  in a storm-tossed sea  or a stormy sky full of thunder storms.  Martin baker discovered that one of the worst characteristics of being ejected out of a speeding jet was the "Jerk" the body was subjected to when the explosive charge literally tossing the passenger out of the plane was ignited.  The original powder charge was a 20 mm cannon cartridge & without the projectile in it - that evolved into a small rocket motor - common today.  It can burn much longer, so the force needed to eject the human cargo is much smaller and has a lot longer to react to do its job.

Which brings us back to granny wanting to do acrobatics.  The G forces are nothing  compared to an ejection seat, which go up to probably 15 - 20 G's.  More importantly, the Jerk is child's play.  Tracey is correct - it's the lawyers (who probably flunked calculus) who caused all the problems.

Go get 'em, Granny.  I've got your back.  But you ca have the airplane ride.  I have to wash my hair the day you fly.

Donr