HYPOXIA

On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 8:55:45 PM UTC-5, AS wrote:
On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 4:23:10 PM UTC-8, Waveguru wrote:
This is in response to the paraglider missing thread. Many pilots all over the world underestimate the effects of hypoxia and think that they are the exception to the rules. This ferry pilot certainly did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt2T...1bj9GlVqnzogHl

You really have no idea how effected you are. That is one of the reasons it is so dangerous.

Boggs
Before I started wave-flying over the Appalachians in PA and VW, I took a high altitude chamber ride at the Wright-Patterson AFB in OH. It was a true eye-opener. After a few minutes off O2 at 25,000ft, they had us work on a task sheet with all kinds of stupid stuff on it: 81-3, -3, -3 etc. dEciPherAtextTHatWaswrITTenLiKEThis, find your way out of a maze; simple stuff, piece of cake! The supervisor on the outside called me on my head-set and asked me, how many thumbs I had: 10, of course - and why are these jack-a$$es behind that big window laughing at me?
Let me tell you, my work sheet would have been worth framing! The column of 81-3s was correct for the first few calculations, then my numbers got bigger again and even started to grow decimals! The text I deciphered was in some language - none of which I was familiar with - and I know a few of them! My way out of the maze was a straight line from the center to the exit - screw those walls! All this was done with full recollection and being convinced, that the round peg would go into that square hole, if they just had made that square a wee-bit larger!
We all got a good laugh out of looking at each other's work sheets after we were back 'on the ground'. The others in the chamber didn't fare much better than I did but the big take-away is this: if you think you are immune to hypoxia, you are full of it! Hypoxia is a silent killer; it creeps up on you and lets you make one bad decision after the other, all the while you are convinced that you got it under control - well, you don't!
O2 is cheap insurance and the MH-systems have reached an unprecedented level of accuracy and reliability.
If you have a chance to take a high altitude chamber ride, do it. I think the one at Wright Pat is no longer in operation, so if anyone knows where one is that is accessible to civilians, chime in.

Uli
'AS'
Uli, I remeber being there with you. One thing that sticks with me was the change in vision when the O2 was restored. COLORS came back.
For the low price of oximeters these days, we should all carry one an monitor our personal response to altitude.
FWIW