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

Fred Choate wrote:

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.

I don't see how headsets could have caused these symptoms. If anything, the
increasing pressure would simply have clamped the headsets a bit more and you
would have had fewer ear problems.

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

Perhaps. A better idea is to hold your nose, close your mouth, and exhale
slightly, forcing air through the eustachian tubes and equalizing the pressure.
A less drastic approach is to open your mouth like you're yawning and wiggle
your jaw back and forth -- that opens the tubes wider.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

Right.....we both did that, and it certainly helped. I guess I just never
experienced such a bad case of ear plug-itis before, and it surprised me.
Thanks George.

Fred

"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:ibO6f.4162$tl5.632@trnddc02...
Fred Choate wrote:

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.

I don't see how headsets could have caused these symptoms. If anything,
the increasing pressure would simply have clamped the headsets a bit more
and you would have had fewer ear problems.

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

Perhaps. A better idea is to hold your nose, close your mouth, and exhale
slightly, forcing air through the eustachian tubes and equalizing the
pressure. A less drastic approach is to open your mouth like you're
yawning and wiggle your jaw back and forth -- that opens the tubes wider.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your
neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

Fred,
I had never experienced plugged ears while flying but occasionaly had
problems in scuba diving. Plugged ears resulted from both the rate of
pressure change and your physical condition (onset of a cold etc.).
I'd suggest leveling off the next time that your ears felt
uncomfortable. Continue to descent may damage your eardrums. If any
discomfort lingers after a flight (or a dive), antihistamine pills
provide great relief. We always pack Benadryl for our dive trips and
take it only at night, never during the day time, and at least 12 hours
before the next dive. However, for flying both Rick ad I draw the
limit of not taking Benadryl at least 24 hrs before acting as PIC.

Hai Longworth

Never thought of the Benadryl....thanks, I will try that if this happens
again.

Fred

"Longworth" wrote in message
oups.com...
Fred,
I had never experienced plugged ears while flying but occasionaly had
problems in scuba diving. Plugged ears resulted from both the rate of
pressure change and your physical condition (onset of a cold etc.).
I'd suggest leveling off the next time that your ears felt
uncomfortable. Continue to descent may damage your eardrums. If any
discomfort lingers after a flight (or a dive), antihistamine pills
provide great relief. We always pack Benadryl for our dive trips and
take it only at night, never during the day time, and at least 12 hours
before the next dive. However, for flying both Rick ad I draw the
limit of not taking Benadryl at least 24 hrs before acting as PIC.

Hai Longworth

Fred Choate wrote:
Never thought of the Benadryl....thanks, I will try that if this happens
again.

Fred

"Longworth" wrote in message
oups.com...

Fred,
I had never experienced plugged ears while flying but occasionaly had
problems in scuba diving. Plugged ears resulted from both the rate of
pressure change and your physical condition (onset of a cold etc.).
I'd suggest leveling off the next time that your ears felt
uncomfortable. Continue to descent may damage your eardrums. If any
discomfort lingers after a flight (or a dive), antihistamine pills
provide great relief. We always pack Benadryl for our dive trips and
take it only at night, never during the day time, and at least 12 hours
before the next dive. However, for flying both Rick ad I draw the
limit of not taking Benadryl at least 24 hrs before acting as PIC.

Hai Longworth

Please be careful. Some of the drugs mention in this thread can cause
drowsiness and/or aggrivate blood pressure. Your AME can provide useful
info.

Longworth wrote:

We always pack Benadryl for our dive trips and
take it only at night, never during the day time, and at least 12 hours
before the next dive. However, for flying both Rick ad I draw the
limit of not taking Benadryl at least 24 hrs before acting as PIC.

Pseudoephedrine hydrochloride works better for PIC. Take it about 1 hour before
the flight.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

George,
I forgot to mention that we also take Sudafed (Pseudoephedrine
hydrochloride) before each dive. It does help to clear the nasal
without any drowsy effect. Because of its drying effect, we try to
drink plenty of water before and right after each dive to reduce the
chance of decompression sickness. The antihistamines work to reduce
swelling in damaged eardrums and also help with sleeping especially on
a diveboat. For flying, Rick takes Sudafed every so often before a
flight but only when he is not the PIC. With two pilots in the family,
we want to play safe.

Hai Longworth

Hi Fred:

I'm in the same area as you.I'm based at Spanaway. During are last couple of
days of beautiful weather I noticed that I had a LOT of sinus congestion. I
wonder if you might have allergies you are unaware of. There was a lot of
smog down low and a lot of wood smoke in the air where I am at. You could
see a dirty brown layer topping out at around 1500 AGL. I never got above
2000, but I'll bet if I went high I would have noticed the pressure.

Flew Friday--Saturday says the Spouse "You were at the airport all day
yesterday, honey do day today" Sunday IFR

Cheers:

Paul
N1431A

You are right Paul.....it was a great weekend to fly. I flew Saturday
afternoon out of Thun Field. That smog layer you talk of was for sure
there. We took off and got great views of Rainier, and then went south over
Morton and at 6000 to 8000 we got great pictures of Adams and Helens as
well. We could even see Hood down to the south! But, looking back to the
north, you couldn't see much......you may be right about the allergy
thing....

Fred


"Tri-Pacer" wrote in message
. ..
Hi Fred:

I'm in the same area as you.I'm based at Spanaway. During are last couple
of days of beautiful weather I noticed that I had a LOT of sinus
congestion. I wonder if you might have allergies you are unaware of. There
was a lot of smog down low and a lot of wood smoke in the air where I am
at. You could see a dirty brown layer topping out at around 1500 AGL. I
never got above 2000, but I'll bet if I went high I would have noticed the
pressure.

Flew Friday--Saturday says the Spouse "You were at the airport all day
yesterday, honey do day today" Sunday IFR

Cheers:

Paul
N1431A