Behind The Scenes of Tom Passing Out In A Centrifuge

[Music] hi Emma and I'm Tom and this is department and I passed out on a centrifuge why why were you even there I figured we should you could we should cut the intro on this one um yeah so I am still working with the RF starship project which is best M outreach project which again I'm going to thoroughly plug that was not a sponsored video nor money changed hands or anything like that but they gave me a ride in a centrifuge and yes so I'm still working with them they are still trying to get people and specifically folks who have a younger audience to go watch their stuff and I'm one of the people I picked along with along with folks from Greg's bake-off a couple other folks as well oh don't self I know I got in a reference that we lost on the majority of people watching I get to be the John Nokes yes before my phone yeah before my time as well um okay because he had the reputation for going and doing the stuff that looked risky or dangerous or involved passing out anything okay and apparently that's what I do now it's something I didn't want to turn down yeah because it like it's not the nicest thing I've ever done but that fart that founder centrifuge I've seen it I've seen it in TV stuff growing up it's been there since 1955 it's getting replaced soon I'm not surprised it looks like it's been there a while yeah so they look fifties sixties we got there I think got a couple of shots at the outside it's on a road called centrifuge wait a hum such a few but the entire base around it is gone it is sitting in the middle of a brand new housing estate it's really yeah but they haven't built when you sit on an old airbase that they don't need anymore but it's nice to have way too many yeah some might say we used have enough for the time so that's still there but it's getting deke and the new one is being built as a simulator so it's a full three axis simulator on the end of a centrifuge arm that can go 0 to 8 G's in half a second oh so it's not built as a simulators but with a simulator in it with the stimuli get on the end of ending at the arm because then you could be in a cockpit and things yeah but nevertheless this is my favorite thing about it by the way is that it's designed to look like a cockpit from the olden time yes with like the big windows yes the lead-lined windows we get on all the hairs yeah a new one has none of that the new one is a simulator but this was built in the 50s so there was no closed-circuit TV back then the reason that there is a medical officer sat in the middle watching you spin around is because that's how they kept an eye on the person to see if they passed us we did the first few weeks on that job they must get a bit dizzy I I don't know he certainly didn't seem to be but he's had a lot of experience doing that so uh and I was the first in it so you are the first thing you see in the video is Marcus who is RAF engineer pulling six and a half G and he is wearing he's wearing a G suit I'm sad as for they're basically inflatable trousers yeah so plug them into a compressed air generator in the centrifuge when it goes over 3G or so my god full lower body torniquet hits because even though the centrifuge is spinning around like that and you're facing into it it tilts so then the g-force goes down towards your feet yes it's fight this is fighter jet g-force not rocket launch g-force so that it's pushing all of your blood down becomes towards your feet even though you're facing the wrong way yes and that means all the Bloods rushing towards your feet and then the blow up trousers to stop that happening so you've still got some left in your heart yes and like I'm brain and brain the other caps you love the centrifuge on the other side there's one of the few that has two capsules between medical offices if they don't do that anymore but they could train to people as time the other one is configured for the other type of g-force I Canton what axis is but that II the line down rocket launch everything I've ended isin g-force that's it so yeah Marcus as I don't need to pull six and a half before in a centrifuge he was he was it was interesting watching him after I'd come out because you could see every time the the medical officer was like alright that was that was for do you want to go to two six I didn't clearly see the hesitation brief bit of hesitation like this is going to be really unpleasant but I am an aria there are many people watching me we are going for this he did not pass out he'd been trained on the the breathing maneuver a lot better and I had but that was after I got we filmed pretty much all my stuff that in not involved hunting in the centrifuge first yeah because just in case yeah I need to strafe either Willie well yes so I need to stress the RF and the medical team there do not deliberately try to G lock anyone is loss of consciousness LOC they deliberately try not to do that because even though it is low risk and it is not a big deal it's still losing consciousness don't deliberately trying it so I think everyone with the possible exception the medical officer who was paying attention to me I'm just going you know what maybe let's not push to four point five right now I think with the exception of him everyone myself included was surprised when I went now yeah oh you had told me that you were going there yes or at least possibly going there yeah all came through and the next thing I knew was on the day I just get a snapchat appear and fumble with I'm not good at snapped I fumble with it to open it up and the first thing I do when I press my phone is see it just video of my friend passing out and looking half-dead right that was context yeah a horrific think you might have done is skip the amount of times I try and look at someone's nap John he's just not there anymore I probably skipped anything you sent before but that was a little heroin I think I watched it on the tube as well yeah anywhere out though suppose people scroll past step first and not on Facebook these days yeah so the first the first run actually the centrifuge did an emergency stop so I I got in was strapped in five-point harness everything line I'm nervous more nervous I think that I was for a couple the aerial things because I know this is designed to be sustained it's not designed to be pleasant hmm I know there's an emergency stop button that they can hit and I can just say the words stop or down down down or anything like that he'll hit me and be stop button it'll be over so emergency stop means stopping the G rather than stopping the spinning yes it drops you it goes down to the safe speed so it just feels like it's that's another thing spinning rather than being pushed yes his emergency stop that is a fast thing to stop oh yeah but I think II stopped his brakes on as hard as they go that's what they hit when I went on car because then then you'll pull full G if it stopped when you hit unconscious it was still spinning yes so that's not stopped when I went unconscious person the middle will have hit the emergency stop button yeah and it will slow the centrifuge as fast as possible slow the centrifuge in as little time as possible okay there we go was trying to work out as if an emergency stop button hand you would have pulled more G's because you were slamming into a brick wall ah no but in a different axis hahaha no okay no ICI stop means you pull about minus one one and a half G's per second of jerk okay and you go three point six to one point five one okay but the first one the centrifuge pulled that on me I did that on its own so I set off why don't we get I'm doing a bit too camera oh oh okay I'll keep doing my script keep doing suit art oh wow safety mechanisms right so we just sit there for ten minutes just kind of chatting with the medical officer it was very good at putting my my nerves are these and then we just do a 2g run the control system is entirely analog there are no micro electronics in there at all because the system was built in 50s it's still all on very manual automated controls that are a bit like a vinyl player runs I think the the team have so again all the behind-the-scenes footage you're seeing was shot by the RAF and starship team and a thumb clue there so I haven't bumped grade it or anything like that if it looks if it looks dark a bit uncolored us unprocessed yes um we start going and we just pull to geez for as long as it takes me to get my script out and that is not unpleasant it's it's not a big deal to G but no yeah to to G is like the strongest acceleration you've ever had in a car okay like you've been in the sports cart and someone's put the foot down but all but instead if oh it's oh it's down oh not Baku yes because the car you go East shrink that way and yes in the do you're experiencing a shrink that way from a from my perspective it's difficult to tell the difference it just feels like I'm a lot heavier than I was yeah but yeah the blood is going this way yeah but that's fine I'm still I'm still okay with that and then we start to pull a couple of three point six G runs which some of the speed ups and slowdowns you see in the in the smaller bit and that's when I start to realize that maybe I'm not cut out for this because the very first one it's like getting you know that thing when you get out of bed too quickly and all the blood hasn't quite got up to your head yes you have you go so oh and then you back well talking about bed but I've run up the stairs and then bent down picked me up and come back up again yeah it's that kind of head rush of all befallen there but I know I I got one of those it wasn't a complete pass out running like that was clear oh no my aisle is just what I think I thought I was having readout well I would say that on the video which surprised me no I said gray out gray out is when you start getting a bit of tunnel vision yeah and I definitely got that at one point I thought I was getting read out which doesn't make sense but I looked and I'm just struggling uh looking at the footage what's happening is I just don't realize how heavy my eyelids are unless you're I'm going my eyes are open Wow oh I don't why can't I see my oh no my eyelids are just so heavy but I'm not putting enough effort into keeping my eyes open yeah okay at which point I think the medical officer has realised that I should not go above four G um and we do that a couple of time and raise my arms up and each time that my response is getting a little bit slower and then we try and do it with the full strain maneuver so there are three things I need to do I need to push against the rudder pedals that are in front of my feet so pressure down I need to tense everything from here downwards and I need to do I think I'm not sure if it is but it's certainly a variant on the valsalva maneuver which is you close your throat you breathe in close your throat and put pressure as much as you can here to squeeze everything keep your heart go and keep the blood coming out okay so you're tensing your muscle seeds and your muscles to squeeze your blood vessels yeah everything keeps the blood up to the head stay conscious aha so it's the first time you've tried it though and you probably big phony don't have too long to to be shown it anyway you know Dave filming so you see you see how should approach again you see me take four breaths then the lights go off they stop the centrifuge and I come back up with some convulsions and then the lights come back on I'm never gonna see that again just with appropriate music dubbed over it [Music] still not nice to speak you know that position in no lighters but I'm glad I don't remember it um no you you passed out yeah but I passed out way earlier than it looks I have no memory from the first breath I remember going and then everything was wobbly and then the centrifuges stopped and it's a continuous track in my head huh it's absolutely continuous I would not have thought I've passed out having looked other people doing G log no one knows the concept it's continuous is it ah someone was a bit strange there yeah um so no memory that was the first to go I take a few breaths I pass out coming back up I have what is called myoclonic convulsions which is a really fancy medical term few muscles lack of it it's basically a minor epileptic fit apparently about 70 plenty people of Geelong get that textbook so absolutely textbook and then so let's take a minute to come back on I just sit there confused from any wondering what's happening why was stopped everything was going fine why have we stopped well how does everything modeling and then Nick Nick medical officer comes on he says he says so this was fighter pilot training wouldn't be going well I'll say if this was fighter pilot selection it wouldn't be going wrong ah yeah okay because because even if that was like maybe that was a bad day maybe if I went in today I could have pulled 4.5 but a bad day if you're a fighter pilot you still have to either play I wasn't ill so if it was a bad day because I know I had that much of breakfast or anything like that but doesn't matter if you if in any circumstance you pass after three point six you are not fighter pilot and you are not astronaut material and that is a harsh thing to something like I know in theory like my eyesight's not good enough restaurant selection I probably don't have the the backgrounds requirement but to actually get an F on the test he's still brimful is one of those things that it's still a tiny dream it's now you know it is an impossible dream but it's still a dream yeah now you have heard up no yeah someone has said no to your dreams there's a line in I think it's yeah it's no Crash by Neal Stephenson this says something like until a man is like mid-30s he believes that he could still be the baddest most ballast person in the world hi I have just got the tick box like the theories like oh yeah if my if my family was killed by ninjas if I had to go and avenge a death of a wild like I could train I could go after I could be the person going off the monastry and become Batman no no at some point that dream gets killed mat dream was killed in a centrifuge in Farnborough for me but on the other side of the scale you're the kind of lucky bastard that gets to have a go on the kind of things that crushes your dreams but also is very fun yeah but the oh you you're in other people's dreams having yours crushed and it was fun like it despite everything despite passing out that was still a good experience yeah and from a video perspective like either I needed to be really badass and pulling like the maximum they give me without a full likely medical was 4.5 so either I need to be 4.5 and still doing my jam script to camera yeah or I need to pass out either one is a good punch line and I got nothing to it but while if it hasn't got a punch line yeah it's fine we probably wouldn't be here telling you that's it yeah I'm only put buttered the person from rolls-royce in she pulled 4.5 without much of a problem people then they put the RAF guy in and he pulled six and a half G with G suit on without passing out and yeah I am NOT built for this it turns out which is yeah you say your yo G elements was low yeah can you like do workouts so make it better as I've seen that's innate per person because humans aren't really meant for it anyway yeah according to to Nick who we interviewed it's basically an eight you can do certain things I could build up cardio and make my heart pump better I've made that pull me up a couple of G points I could train the maneuvers and maybe that would pull me up a whole G or something like that if I really knew how to strain and do it but ultimately yeah there's not much you can do about how that's it's it's a disqualifying thing for fighter pilots on the same thing as height is yeah your your system just isn't built for that good that's about it it's marinate so would be back when we're back as we said in the previous video we are not doing this on a regular schedule yes because it is too much we've got something coming up soon though oh yeah you

Channel: Matt and Tom

Views: 351,045

Keywords: raf, starrship, royal air force, matt gray, tom scott, mattg, mattgray, unnamedculprit, tomscott, tomscottgo, matt and tom, park bench, centrifuge, astronaut, fighter pilot, g-force

Id: V7D25mjdt4I

Length: 17min 52sec (1072 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 22 2018

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