Even though you are sitting in a comfortable armchair during a flight, you have certainly experienced that unpleasant sensation of your body and "stomach" feeling "crushed" or "dropping" during aircraft maneuvers.
While passenger planes are designed to fly using slow, fluid movements to maximize comfort, there are laws of physics that simply cannot be avoided. When an airplane leaves its straight-line motion to follow a curved trajectory—whether to change direction, begin a climb, or start a descent—or even when it simply changes speed, the entire structure and its occupants are subjected to a force called acceleration. This force acts in a direction that depends on the specific maneuver the plane is performing.
We are all familiar with the feeling of being "pressed" into the back of a seat or, conversely, being pulled forward, because it is the same sensation we feel when accelerating or braking in a car. However, because a plane moves in three dimensions, we also experience forces that "squash" us into our seats, making us feel "heavy," or forces that try to lift us up, giving us that "stomach-in-your-throat" feeling.
The former is felt at the start of a climb or during a turn; the latter happens when the plane levels off or begins a descent.
This is all perfectly normal. You are experiencing "G-forces" ("G" is actually a unit of acceleration, but let’s keep it simple). Specifically, we talk about "positive Gs" (those that "squash" you) and "negative Gs" (those that "lift" you).
- 1 G corresponds to the force with which we are all pressed toward the Earth by gravity.
- 0 G is where we would float weightlessly.
In contrast, on a modern military fighter jet during combat, pilots spend several consecutive seconds at more than 9 Gs, while 4-5 Gs are "routine." At 9 Gs, an 80 kg individual suddenly feels like they weigh over 700 kg! Yet, a fighter pilot completes their mission, lands, and goes back to their normal life.
So rest assured: your occasional 1.5 Gs cannot hurt you in any way!
DontWorryFlyHappy!