If everyone is affected exactly the same, how come the anaesthetist is always interested in one's alcohol consumption? If you don't want to wake up half way through the procedure, it is probably better for once to admit to your real intake, not the one you tell the CASA medico.
Arbitrary limits in law, and aviation in particular, are everywhere. Take the windscreen heat inoperative bird impact speed limitation below 8000 feet AMSL which appears in so many flight manuals. Not AGL, but AMSL. Go figure. Science has obviously determined that birds have altimeters calibrated to sea level, or get so dizzy at 8000 feet that they never venture higher. On that subject, oxygen limitations. Pilots who fly regularly in the Andes do not always bother with it - despite the requirement in the AFM - even though they may be sitting on the ground for an hour's turnaround at 12,000 feet. Not many Twin Otter pilots bother with it at similar levels in PNG either. Even the smokers seem to be quite tolerant at those altitudes, yet science tells us they should be seriously hypoxic. But if I tried it - even as a fairly fit non smoker - I KNOW I would be useless. On the other hand, at .050 BAC I am still quite functional, notwithstanding any science. Years of practice ...... or a 'functioning alcoholic'?......hmmm.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 30th Nov 2014 at 23:54.