Its just one of those things. The two things I do to help is;
1) suck boiled sweets during climbing and descent
2) hold my nose and try to blow so my ears pop.

Ozzy

it can happen in pretty much anything
i personally dont have that happen to often, infact of some 20 flights its only happend once.
follow ozzys recommendation and you should have no problems,
also chew gum or hold your nose and swallow

Quote:

It's happened to me in a car before now. It's caused by the relatively rapid change of barometric pressure at different altitudes. The vehicle you're in makes no difference. Going up decreases the outside pressure so equalise it by swallowing or sucking a sweet. Descending has the opposite effect so hold your nose & blow. Make sure you don't do it the wrong way round or it will make things worse.

In theory - yawning should work in both cases.

Whenever you notice your hears becoming a little "tight", swallow. Suck on a sweet or chew gum during climb or descent, that'll cause you to swallow frequently and you'll hardly notice the pressure change. If you can easily and frequently induce yourself to yawn -- that'll work too.

It is NOT a good idea to hold your nose and "pop" your eardrums -- this can cause permanent damage (see below).

And......you should AVOID flying in unpressurized aircraft if you have a cold or flu or any other condition that causes swollen nasal passages. You won't notice it much during climb but when you start descending, it will likely prove VERY painful.

Cal

But wouldn't your ears stay 'normal' in a pressurized aircraft since the pressure stays the same???

ok done some research on this. the cabin is set at an equvilent 8000 feet pressure level
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/mirabilevisu/cpcs.htm
pretty good site explaining it.

Craig's link does an excellent job explaining the basics, but here's a few more. In older aircraft that don't have the computer controlled cabin, you have to manually manipulate the cabin conditions. There are five basic elements to an older system(and even the newer computer controlled systems have these I'm sure): Cabin pressure indicator, differential pressure indicator, cabin rate indicator, cabin rate  adjustment, and manual controller "cherry picker".  The job of the cabin pressure indicator should be obvious. As Craig stated, at altitude, the cabin pressure is EQUIVALENT to what the pressure would be around 8,000', and this gauge would show this. The differential is the difference between outside and inside pressure. At around 37,000' it will be about 7-10psi  depending on the type and AGE of the aircraft. Just as a sidenote, when you watch the movies and the badguy shoots a hole in the side of the airplane, or shoots a window out, everyone will NOT be "sucked out". The reason I can say this with such confidence, is the fact that , in addition to the outflow valve, most aircraft have calibrated orifices. Essentially, they are BUILT with holes in them, so one more won't make a difference!    When we pressurize an A/C on the ground for maintenance, the 7-10psi coming out of these holes is equivalent to something in the neighborhood of a bicycle pump!    The cabin RATE gauge works just like a VSI on your instrument panel. It tells you how fast the cabin(Equivalent pressure) is climbing or descending, in 100's FPM. If the rate is too fast or slow, you adjust the rate knob accordingly. If all of this fails to work as advertised, you would, then, use the  manual controller, to "pick" the cabin up, or down.
On some flights, we have to maintain a "sea level cabin" due to passenger requirements. ie: medical flights(brain hemorrhage, diving accident, lung failure). We have to maintain a lower altitude to do this(around 25,000'), but some aircraft can maintain a "sea level cabin" up to the high 30's!