Flight above FL100
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 395
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From: London
I see what you mean I0540...I was up at Fl130 with my brother without oxygen and I had to reach into the back seats to get something and I could really feel that I was more out of breath than usual and I would probably exercise slightly more than average...
Anyone flying up high should do so only with the proper equipment.
Anyone flying up high should do so only with the proper equipment.
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 13,787
Likes: 0
From: EuroGA.org
Or to remain above a band of icing.
But very true. I've picked up ice a number of times. Regardless of flight rules, getting VMC on top is a major planning issue, and I think the hardest one because anything resembling reliable tops data just isn't available.
Summer tops in N Europe are typically FL150; winter ones a bit less. O2 is a must.
Another observation is with a lady passenger I fly with on most of my long trips. She gets a headache at FL100 which disappears immediately with O2, even with a small amount. No funny comments please
I think the FAA rules are very good. They ought to be, since the FAA oversees at least 90% of world's aviation.... It's bizzare to see the CAA trying to gold-plate the FAA rules, as usual. I'd just love to see the evidence they are basing this on.
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 1,064
Likes: 0
From: Hants, UK
Not STRICTLY on topic, but:
A fellow charter pilot friend told of a time when he had a charter to carry a load of young piglets in the back of a Navajo (in crates, not in the seats!). As is their wont, they were squealing their protest at being so confined from the moment they were boarded until approx FL60, whereupon it went quiet and they went to sleep. They stayed quiet all the way in the cruise at FL100, and started squealing at about FL50 on the way down again. I always wondered whether hypoxia was the cause..
Certainly a tip I was given when starting out on charter work was that if the pax had had a few bevvies before flying, a sure-fire way of getting them quiet was to cruise at FL100, where a combination of the alcohol and reduced oxygen would send most of them to sleep!
A fellow charter pilot friend told of a time when he had a charter to carry a load of young piglets in the back of a Navajo (in crates, not in the seats!). As is their wont, they were squealing their protest at being so confined from the moment they were boarded until approx FL60, whereupon it went quiet and they went to sleep. They stayed quiet all the way in the cruise at FL100, and started squealing at about FL50 on the way down again. I always wondered whether hypoxia was the cause..
Certainly a tip I was given when starting out on charter work was that if the pax had had a few bevvies before flying, a sure-fire way of getting them quiet was to cruise at FL100, where a combination of the alcohol and reduced oxygen would send most of them to sleep!
