Plugged Ears

Hey Folks...

Had an experience yesterday that I have never had. Took off in a 172 for a
local flight here in the Puget Sound area. Field elevation 500 ft. I
climbed to 4000 ft, and flew for about 15 minutes before climbing to 8000 ft
to get a great view of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Rainier. After
flying for about 45 minutes, I started the descending back toward the
airfield. I descended at 400 fpm and took it down to 5000 ft, and then
500fpm to 2000 ft, and finally down to TPA of 1500 ft. During the descent
from 5000 to 1500, both myself and my passenger experienced alot of pressure
in the ears, and both our ears plugged. I could see it was very
uncomfortable for my passenger, and I wasn't too thrilled either.

After landing, it took a good 2 hours for my ears to be back to normal, and
probably about that for my passenger as well. Just curious about this, as I
have never experienced that before. I have only 70 hours, but have flown as
high as 11500 in a 172, and never had a problem with my ears.

I did just purchase a new headset that seals much better than the old set I
had, and this was my first flight with them, and the passenger was wearing a
set from the FBO that seals pretty well too. Could headsets have been a
factor, or is it more likely it was just a fluke situation.

Also, would it have been better to level off when we first started feeling
the pressure, and see if things would have equalized?


Fred