“Like ‘seriously, you couldn’t have just gone before we took off?’ It was so easy for them.”Īt least one Air Force pilot agreed with that sentiment. “I’d make fun of my wizzo for peeing an hour into the flight,” she said. Meanwhile, her male colleagues had it much easier. “We had such a supportive squadron to come up with this solution, so we made it work and nobody around me had to tactically dehydrate,” Dietrich said. That routine worked for her, but she said it worked only because her squadron’s aircrew survival equipment gear shop went out of their way to replace the zipper in hers and other female aviators’ flight suits with velcro, and because they made an extra effort to get non-standard issue female versions of the piddle pack. When Dietrich flew the Super Hornet in the early and mid-2000s, she would give her back-seat weapons systems officer (also called a ‘wizzo’) a heads-up, set her aircraft’s speed and altitude on autopilot, shimmy forward in her seat, undo a velcro strap in her flight suit, use a piddle pack, seal it off, then secure it in a saddle bag. ![]() ![]() John Hughel, 142nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs) Jeff Yeates, assigned to the 123rd Fighter Squadron, 142nd Fighter Wing, take a moment to hydrate prior to an afternoon flight in an F-15 Eagle at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., while supporting the Weapons Instructor Course, June 8, 2017. “Just like sleep and nutrition, you’ve got to stay hydrated.” Oregon Air National Guard Maj. “It affects everything from reaction time to vision, which of course you want both of those when you’re landing on the ship at night,” Alex Dietrich, who flew F/A-18F Super Hornets in the Navy, told Task & Purpose. “During flights, dehydration negatively impacts pilots by lowering their G-tolerance by up to 50%,” and leading to possible headaches, altered vision, and “reduced physical and cognitive performance.” “any female aircrew resort to “tactical dehydration” to avoid the difficulties and potential dangers of having to relieve themselves inflight,” the Air Force wrote in a 2020 solicitation for better piddle packs. Because it’s such a hassle, some women just don’t drink water beforehand to avoid having to pee mid-flight. The system was especially awkward for female pilots, some of whom had to shimmy forward onto their seat or r aise themselves up to pee into the bag and avoid spillage. The pump could be an improvement over previous systems, where pilots unzipped their flight suits and peed directly into a plastic bag called a piddle pack. The battery-operated pump pulls the urine through the tube to a collection bag, where the pee is stored until the end of the mission. When it’s time to go, the pilot connects the cup or pad with a tube leading to a pump outside the flight suit. Pilots put on the cup or pad beneath a special pair of underwear. But a new “in-flight bladder relief” device being tested by the Air Force might make things easier, especially for female pilots.ĭeveloped by Omni Defense Technologies, “ Skydrate” involves a pad for women and a cup for men. Historically, that’s been a tricky piece of work in a cramped fighter jet cockpit, where a parachute harness, full-body flight suit and survival vest make it tough to access the necessary body parts and take a leak without making a mess. But every so often he also feels the need to pee. SHAREĪ wise fighter pilot once said that he feels the need, the need for speed. Michael Blahut, an F-22 Raptor pilot assigned to the 525th Fighter Squadron, gives a thumbs-up to his crew chief before a sortie on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Thursday, Oct.
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