Securing portable oxygen

[dutch]

I have a new IFR rating and am considering some higher altitude flights now
that I can drop down through cloud decks. Question: for those of you who
carry oxygen, how do you secure the tank so that you can still reach and see
to adjust the flow valve? Vendors sell seatback packs, but those sound
difficult to use.

[O. Sami Saydjari]

I have a seat back pack and put it behind the passenger side. It seems
to work OK. Defintely not the easiest of possible arrangements, but it
is OK. -Sami

dutch wrote:

> I have a new IFR rating and am considering some higher altitude flights now
> that I can drop down through cloud decks. Question: for those of you who
> carry oxygen, how do you secure the tank so that you can still reach and see
> to adjust the flow valve? Vendors sell seatback packs, but those sound
> difficult to use.
>
>

[Snowbird]

"dutch" > wrote in message . net>...
> I have a new IFR rating and am considering some higher altitude flights now
> that I can drop down through cloud decks. Question: for those of you who
> carry oxygen, how do you secure the tank so that you can still reach and see
> to adjust the flow valve? Vendors sell seatback packs, but those sound
> difficult to use.


Dutch,

The answer is that on most seatback packs I've seen (including the one
we use), there's nothing you need to see and adjust on the tank. The
main tank valve just gets opened. It can be opened just by reaching
back, no need to look or adjust anything.

The flow valve which needs to be seen and adjusted, is in the line
between the cannula (or mask) and the tank. So you just follow the
line from the cannula
down towards the tank until your hand hits it, then lift it up, glance
at it while adjusting, drop it, and breathe easier.

The easiest thing to do is to hook up all the lines and have everyone
put the cannulae around their necks before engine start. Turn on the
tank, make sure the regulator reads what you want it to read (full
or whatever), adjust everyone's flowmeter, then close the knob to the
main tank. Then in flight when you decide O2 would be a good thing,
just open the main tank valve and briefly check to be sure the
flowmeters
are still in the desired range.

HTH,
Sydney

[William Evans]

Hey Dutch, I use the backpack holder strapped to the right seat back and you
then have
easy short access from your left seat and great control over the flow
screws, gauge and main valve. Works great and is easy to get in and out for
refilling.

Bill Evans
N4597W
Commander 112 TC


----- Original Message -----
From: "dutch" >
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.ifr,rec.aviation.owning
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 12:09 PM
Subject: Securing portable oxygen


> I have a new IFR rating and am considering some higher altitude flights
now
> that I can drop down through cloud decks. Question: for those of you who
> carry oxygen, how do you secure the tank so that you can still reach and
see
> to adjust the flow valve? Vendors sell seatback packs, but those sound
> difficult to use.

[SeeAndAvoid]

The seatback packs arent hard to use, but your back passengers may not like
them cutting into their legroom. I dont know about all the systems, but my
Aerox has it's flow needle about halfway up the line so you can see it
pretty easy. But to actually turn up or down the amount going to an
individual line you have to be able to reach the 4place regulator. And to
see how much you have remaining in the tank you have to see the tank.
The alternative, unless you rent, is to retrofit it into your airplane.
Aerox makes kits to do this, I'm sure the other companies do too. The tank
is in the tailcone more than likely, and a block is put in the ceiling with
4 ports and gauge. Pretty slick, but not cheap. $1,500 for the hardware,
and a few hours of labor. This is for a fairly large tank, not the size of
the portables. Fill it from the tank, or a port in the tail.
Chris

"dutch" > wrote in message
link.net...
> I have a new IFR rating and am considering some higher altitude flights
now
> that I can drop down through cloud decks. Question: for those of you who
> carry oxygen, how do you secure the tank so that you can still reach and
see
> to adjust the flow valve? Vendors sell seatback packs, but those sound
> difficult to use.
>
>