Looking for A-14 (or similar) pressure breathing diluter demand regulator

Fuzzy memory says the pickup was in BC (Hope?), ultimately destined for
Oklahoma...

Bob W.

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Your fuzzy memory is correct about Hope. You picked up the Vancouver Soaring Associations L-13 C-GZEU. Dearly loved and much missed by me - and many others in the club. It was the first glider I ever flew in, I did my first solo and also made my first flight as a licensed pilot in that ship too. She was essentially timed out though as Transport Canada enforced the factory life limits and getting an extension of 250 hours would have been financially prohibitive. I remember coming out to the airport so you could pick her up. Sorry to hear about the re-entry difficulty and I certainly wish the wing AD hadn't grounded the L-13 a few years later.

On Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at 3:32:17 PM UTC-6, Keith Schwab wrote:
Hi Everyone!
I'm looking for an A-14 regulator, or something similar, to prepare for higher altitude wave flights in the Sierra. Curious if anyone has an one laying around they might be willing to part with or lend for a season.
Thanks!
Keith



My club's (Soaring Society of Boulder) 1-34 got totaled last summer, and it has an old and lately unused A14 regulator in it. Contact the ship's manager, Phil, at .

I would like to correct a couple of statements made here with respect Bob Harris’s altitude record flight. My apologies for being slow to respond.
1) Bob Harris did not limit his climb “because he couldn't keep his mask on�. He terminated the climb because he believed one of his two oxygen systems had malfunctioned.
2) However, the statement that he was “forced down when his oxygen system started to fail� is also incorrect. His subsequent investigation showed that both oxygen systems were operating within specification. The problem was they were not operating identically. As Bob pointed out in his presentation to the World Gliding Championship at Benalla, Australia the following year, differences in the regulators’ pressure settings, stiction between the components, the lack of vibration in the sailplane to address that stiction and the fact that the regulators were at or near their operating limit, resulted in a substantial difference in the pressure he felt in his mask when he switched between the two systems. He interpreted this difference as an indication that one of the two had failed, but later determined it had not.
3) He did not suffer from any medical condition as a result of his record flight.
Mike Koerner

Thx for the clarification. Proof that second hand information often gets corrupted in the re-telling! Guilty of passing on the "mask coming off scenario" that was not verified. Is there a written account somewhere of this flight? Also curious with how he dealt with his exhalation moisture. Heard he vented his mask to the outside of the AC. Maintaining visibility can be a lot of work at these fridgid temperatures.

Jim
VVII

Bob Harris’s altitude record flight is described in an article by Pat Valdata in the October '88 issue of Soaring Magazine. The article is available to SSA members in the on-line magazine archive. However, that article does not go into detail about the oxygen system issue.
I don’t know what else is available on-line, but I have a pdf of his Benalla presentation which includes both a discussion of the flight and his oxygen regulators’ performance. I would be happy to forward it to anyone who wants it. Email me (first initial last name at cox.net).
Mike Koerner

Did anyone flew with the more compact and modern CRU-79 regulator?
Are they available as NS (New Surplus) ?

On Wednesday, December 26, 2018 at 9:21:34 AM UTC-8, wrote:
Did anyone flew with the more compact and modern CRU-79 regulator?
Are they available as NS (New Surplus) ?

This unit is used by parachutists for high altitude jumps but I haven't heard of any glider pilots using it. Good to 50k' and very compact so I don't know why not. I spoke to someone who knew about the skydiving application and he said they used an A14 in the jump plane to pre-breath on their way up and then used the more compact CRU-79 when they jumped. No idea what they cost. I decided to stick to what has been used in gliding but as a backup system this might be very attractive.

Jim
VVII

Prior RAS Discussion RE post high-altitude flight medical issues:

"Harris seriously challenged the limits of the A14-A oxygen system
during his flight, which he terminated after the first of two parallel
A14-A installations failed. He alluded to some memory loss after the
flight during an interview with a television news crew. Harris was
subsequently disinclined to talk much about the flight in
consideration of an FAA certificate action and the threat of civil
penalties.

Sabrina Jackintell (the feminine single-place absolute altitude
holder)experienced failure of her A14-A oxygen system at altitude,
lost consciousness and many thousands of feet before recovering at a
lower altitude. She told me that she'd "lost a lot of brain cells"
during the record flight, had experienced memory loss and periods of
disorientation, and that she was never "quite as sharp" as before the
flight.

James Munn (now deceased, but still the holder of the Colorado State
absolute altitude record) and Hod Taylor, contemporaries of Syb at
Black Forest Gliderport, agreed with her assessment. Jim and Hod both
exceeded 40,000 feet on A14-A oxygen systems that worked perfectly,
and both were of the opinion, too, that their health and mental
function had been diminished by the experience.

None of this is meant to condemn the A14-A system. It was the best
thing available at the time, but it just wasn't meant for those
altitudes. I've been to 36,000 feet on an A14-A system myself. I'm
not as sharp as I used to be, either, but I expect that has more to do
with age and Stolichnaya vodka than any amount of high altitude
flying."

"Sabrina's case is a powerful argument for a Pulse Oximeter. All of these
people had endured pressure chamber rides in the hope that this would
provide a means of recognizing their hypoxia symptoms. I presume that they
did not continue their flights despite recognized hypoxia symptoms. This
calls into question the presumption that hypoxia symptoms can be recognized
in time to avoid trouble.

The A-14's were designed in the piston fighter era when sustained,
unpressurized flights above 35,000 feet were rare. Modern pressure demand
regulators such as the MD-2 are simpler, lighter, more reliable and easier
to install. Some are for 50 - 2000 PSI and others for LOX 50 - 500 PSI
oxygen supplies. They are available on the surplus market and would be a
far more suitable regulator than the A-14 for wave flights."

"I have had both Bob and Sabrina visit us
within the past year. I knew both of them prior to
their respective record flights.
Bob was blessed to have no debilitating long term
effects. Sabrina had much more difficulty following
her flights, but now enjoys normal daily life.

Travels above FL 350 should never been taken lightly.
They should never be taken without chamber training.
They should never be taken without dual systems, and
backup emergency options.
They would be the first to say the same things.... Given that we train in wave checkouts to
include emergency descents (full spoilers and just under
maneuvering speeds) and benign spirals.... such an
expedited descent from FL 250 in the AS-K puts you
below 13,000 msl in about 3 minutes."

RE Bickle: "But because [Paul Bikle] loosened the oxygen mask earlier in anticipation of landing while descending to 2,500 feet altitude, Bikle soon found during the sudden and non-stop ascent that he had to hold the oxygen mask to his face with his left hand while steering the sailplane with his right. Before long, the moisture produced by his body and exhaled air caused the inside of the aircraft's canopy to ice over completely, and Bikle had absolutely no outside vision. He could fly only on his instruments and rely on his extraordinary fount of experience to keep him in the ascending wave of air."

On Wednesday, December 26, 2018 at 9:21:34 AM UTC-8, wrote:
Did anyone flew with the more compact and modern CRU-79 regulator?
Are they available as NS (New Surplus) ?

I've been looking for one of these for a while now, but they do not seem to be widely available outside the military supply chain. I now have a nice MD2 that will hold me for a while.

--Bob K.

Anyone know the type of O2 mask/regulator combo used by Eric Moser in the "Running on Empty" video?