What essentials do you always have on board?

Steven Barnes writes:

That's what the pause button is for...

A real-life aircraft has no pause button ... which is one of the
advantages of simulation over real life.

--
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In article ,
"Roger (K8RI)" wrote:

A bottle of Gatorade or something similar (wide-mouth prefered).

Much easier than having to land every time I have to pee.

Good Lord! How many hours do you fly at a time. I limit the legs to
around five hours so that's never been a problem...and don't drink a
lot of what ever before starting out.

I was using 4 hours as a leg limit 15 years ago!

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

In article ,
"Roger (K8RI)" wrote:

Good Lord! How many hours do you fly at a time. I limit the legs to
around five hours so that's never been a problem...and don't drink a
lot of what ever before starting out.

Which leads to serious dehydration and potential mental impairment.

john smith writes:

Which leads to serious dehydration and potential mental impairment.

No, it does not.

You can be minimally hydrated and produce only the minimum of urine
required to remove waste products, and this can allow you to go for
many hours without urinating. It's a fine line to tread, but it's not
unhealthy or dangerous. Personal experience can teach you how much
you should or shouldn't drink in the hours preceding a trip in order
to find a good balance between necessary urine production and
overproduction that might make a stop necessary (or worse).

Dehydration occurs from losing water, which can be prevented by
bringing suitable beverages along in the cockpit. If you feel
thirsty, sip something to drink (make sure it's not diuretic, which
rules out Coke, tea, coffee, etc.). Unless the cockpit is very warm
and you are losing a great deal through perspiration, you'll be fine,
at least for the duration of any GA trip you might take. By the time
you'd have to worry about fluid balance, you'll be out of fuel,
anyway, so there isn't any danger.

If you will be flying in conditions of heat (effective or real),
consider installing air conditioning. Apart from preventing excessive
dehydration, it will make you more comfortable and better able to
concentrate on your flying.

Having a full bladder is a strong distraction and can be potentially
dangerous. Taking an occasional sip of a drink if and when you feel
thirsty is much less distracting and more than adequate to ensure
proper hydration. Making provisions to urinate in flight is also very
potentially distracting.

--
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"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
If you will be flying in conditions of heat (effective or real),
consider installing air conditioning. Apart from preventing excessive
dehydration, it will make you more comfortable and better able to
concentrate on your flying.

Better yet, consider installing a swimming pool. In addition to keeping you
cool while you fly, it'll let you get some exercise.

Having a full bladder is a strong distraction and can be potentially
dangerous.

The swimming pool might also help in this regard.

Mxsmanic wrote:

Which leads to serious dehydration and potential mental impairment.

No, it does not.

oh boy... keep believing that if you want; after all you are
not likely to hurt yourself or others when flying a sim at home,
but you are seriously mistaken here.

The fact is that there is not enough emphasis on the effects of
dehydration when training (though I was glad to notice that it
is taken far more seriously by the CAP); not even mentioned in
the 'medical facts' chapter of the AIM.

--Sylvain

and kidney stones, which will ground you.



"john smith" wrote in message
...
| In article ,
| "Roger (K8RI)" wrote:
|
| Good Lord! How many hours do you fly at a time. I limit
the legs to
| around five hours so that's never been a problem...and
don't drink a
| lot of what ever before starting out.
|
| Which leads to serious dehydration and potential mental
impairment.
|

"Jim Macklin" writes:

and kidney stones, which will ground you.

Kidney stones are not a universal consequence of even chronic
dehydration. Individuals who develop them often seem to have a
predisposition to the condition, or other problems that encourage the
development of stones.

People who have a history of renal calculi should drink more water and
fluids, but those who have no such history need not take any
exceptional precautions.

And simply not drinking much before a flight is not the same as
technical dehydration, which some pilots use to avoid urinating
entirely for long periods. If you're normally hydrated and not
thirsty, you don't need to drink anything before a flight. It's more
important to have something to drink on board. If you're the type who
can't tolerate anything in your bladder, a couple of urine collection
devices on board could be useful as well.

--
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On Sat, 04 Nov 2006 13:58:29 GMT, john smith wrote:

In article ,
"Roger (K8RI)" wrote:

Good Lord! How many hours do you fly at a time. I limit the legs to
around five hours so that's never been a problem...and don't drink a
lot of what ever before starting out.

Which leads to serious dehydration and potential mental impairment.

That was before heading out. "Sipping" on a soft drink or plain water
while in the air works fine. Coffee and particularly tea are
diauretics and tend to cause your system to *flush* out requiring a
premature ..er... stop. OTOH anything with an artificial sweetner will
probably have me stopping at the next closest ariport ..right after
taking off and I'll probably be in there the rest of the day. That
stuff works bettern' Epson salts. Just remember the "milk shake" in
VanWilder! Don't cough or sneeze.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

"Roger (K8RI)" wrote in
:

Good Lord! How many hours do you fly at a time. I limit the legs to
around five hours so that's never been a problem...and don't drink a
lot of what ever before starting out.

I typically have a cup of coffee on my way to the airport. Then, all nicely
warmed up, I like to sip on Gatorade or Iced Tea or something similar as I am
flying.

It's important, however, not to use Lemon-Lime flavored drinks. They come in
a light yellow color that can create massive confusion in the cockpot.

That's a mistake that you make only once...