What a brilliant pilot and have to say writer too.
I used to fly a businessman in a Seneca Five ( The easy one to fly which any pilot with half a brain can fly)) regularly to western Ireland from the UK.
Normally we cruised at 10 to 12 K and on occasion, usually weather climbed higher.
The Seneca five had built in oxygen for pilots and PAX with the pickup points for the oxygen masks in the ceiling. So all very easy.
The owner sometimes came in the front with me and sometimes sat alone in the back.
He was a heavy smoker and on this occasion was in the back. The sun was fast disappearing below the horizon as I elected to climb on top of some frontal weather which I suspected held ice.
I turned around and asked him to Don his oxygen mask and put my own on.
We were now level at FL170 and I was met by the smell of cigarette smoke.
Turning around he was happily sitting there with NO oxygen mask smoking a cigarette. He was perfectly lucid and cheerful and refused to Don the mask
One thing that always puzzles me is that climbers can climb and exert themselves without oxygen at 20,000 feet while us pilots sitting still and non smokers are on the verge of passing out at 20,000 feet without oxygen
Pace
Last edited by Pace; 24th Feb 2016 at 10:02.