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November 2, 2007

Airmen explain Barany Chair used to help orient pilots

By Tippi Rasp Staff Writer

Adams Elementary School students learned Friday they may not always know which direction they’re headed.

Four Vance Air Force Base airmen explained spatial disorientation and airsickness to students using their training tool — the Barany Chair.

The airmen were invited to Adams by Karen Ostrowski, a teacher at Ad-ams and wife of one of the airmen.

“We love getting out in the community doing fun things like this,” said Capt. Kris Os-trowski.

Students in grades 2-6 spent about 20 minutes each with the airmen, and several students in each group got to sit in the chair and see what its like to be disoriented.

Airman Stephen McCallister picked volunteers from a group of fourth-graders in Vicki Perkins’ and Donna Gay’s classes Friday, then had them buckle into the chair and test their orientation.

“You will feel exactly what we’re doing here,” on a jet, McCallister told the students.

The airmen with the aerospace physiology unit at Vance showed students a diagram of the inner ear and then placed a container of water with a troll doll inside it in the seat of the Barany chair.

The synthetic hair on the troll illustrated the perception of motion, even after the chair stopped spinning.

McCallister had the students sit in the chair and close their eyes. He then asked them to point which direction they felt they were moving, then stopped the chair and asked again. Students learned how disoriented they can become.

Students became even more disoriented when they pointed one ear toward the sky, then closed their eyes and took a spin in the chair.

“We go over each scenario,” Ostrowski said.

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