Disposable Oxygen kits - any use?
 

I'm currently working as a light aircraft delivery pilot. On my last flight, as I was preparing for the descent and approach after six hours at F0120, I realised that I was suffering from mild hypoxia.

As an antidote on future flights, I was considering buying a few of those small disposable oxygen kits you sometimes see in pilot shops. The bottles are small and I would guess only contain enough oxygen for a few minutes, and certainly not enough for the whole flight. But do they contain enough to buzz up just before the workload starts on arrival?

Without trying to sound too negative here - would it not be better to remain below levels where hypoxia is a factor, than to get hypoxia then "perk up" using Oxygen? Something about flying knowing that you are at high risk of hypoxia sends shivers down my spine...

If this reduces your range or similar then tough. I'm sure your employers would prefer you to arrive with the aircraft intact than for you to get hypoxic and prang it into the ground 20nm before the destination...

Unfortunately not possible to find efficient airways routes that are lower due to the various mountain ranges in Europe. Anyway, the regulatory limit for non JAR/OPS flying with my French licence is F0125, so not really justifiable to my employer to take excessively long routes to remain in lower airways.

If it isn't feasible to fly lower - then how about getting a portable (refillable) oxygen tank with sufficient capacity to last at your cruising levels? Then there would be no hypoxia, no increased risk of an accident, and everyone would go home happy.

Flying at 500 feet below the legal limit without oxygen for long periods of time doesn't seem to be the greatest idea in the world...

The problem with the full oxygen kits is that I almost certainly wouldn't be able to take them on the airlines with me when I fly back home after the delivery. They are an expensive bit of kit to have to abandon. I have enough problems trying to get the airlines to let me take home my lifejacket (even though it is just like the one under the seat), and sometimes my portable airband VHF and EPIRB. The disposable kits are interesting because I could just bin them after use and not have to worry about having them confiscated.

Check with the airlines, some allow personal O2 bottles for medical reasons, some don't and supply you with a bottle of their own, I have plenty of time in C-210T's with a portable supplemental systems and they work great.

Mountain high in the US sell really good EDS "electronic delivery systems", a small elec box attached to a bottle of your choice [one of mine is quite small made from kevlar wrapped around aluminium] and used with nasal cannular.
Works great and no problem on airlines as long as bottle emptied.[so OK on the way home from ferry] can be filled anywhere that does aviation oxy.
Used often by gliders and mountain climbers. The disposables are expensive in the medium to long term.
I just bought one for my wife for less than half what mine cost in 2000 due $US!!:}

How about making up a fly away pack and ship it back by road "DHL, TNT" when you arrive at the other end!