Contents:
Old Age; ...You
and your License; ...Medical for CFI/safety
pilots; ...Condition of the Pilot;
...Eye; ...Proprioception...Vision; ...Hearing;
...Head Cold; ...Ear
Block; ...How to Reduce Ear Pressure
Pain;
...Age as a Factor in Flying; ...Fatigue; ...Fatigue
Misconceptions Corrected...What To Expect
from Fatigue;
...Vibration Fatigue; ...Subtle
Fatigue; ...Sleep; ...Medicine;
...Alcohol; ...Carbon
Monoxide; ...Cold Weather; ...Dehydration; ...Hyperventilation;
...Hypoxia; ...Smoking;
...What is the risk of smoking?; ...Coffee; ...Bends;
...Motion Sickness; ...Spatial
Disorientation; ...Stress; ...Alter-ego flight; ...Stress
under duress; ...Failing to Cope;
...Coping with Stress; ...Some
Safety Standards; ...Stress Reducing
Skills; ...Meniere's Disease; ...Nutrition; ...Death;
The first sign of old age is when your medical examiner, minister, instructor, and flight examiner are younger than you are. Memory is the second thing a pilot loses. Can't remember the first. Old age knowledge and deceit will defeat youth's skill and energy, every time. Over 60, senior rules apply. After age 26 we lose two grams of brain tissue every year. There is a decline in cognitive memory, perception, and learning ability.
The way you learn changes markedly with age. The young tend to think that they are more knowledgeable and capable than they really are. Above age 30 you begin to have some doubts and uncertainty as to just where the truth hides. By age 60 you begin to have and are feeling some physical inadequacies and your memory occasionally takes a vacation. Flying problems tend to bunch up at both ends of the flying spectrum. I learned to fly at age 42 and am past the 30 year mark now. As an instructor I am exempt from the making of mistakes. However, I am constantly doing things that check to see if the student and ATC are paying attention.
New things in flying I learn relatively quickly because I have
a foundation to build on. Changes in the FARs and Charts occur
just a bit at the time. The actual flying changes little unless
it is the amount of anticipation required in a higher performance
aircraft. Still, when checking out a retired Air Force Command
Pilot the other day I noticed that I was able to
interpret any slowness to perform as smoothness in performance.
The quickness of youth becomes smoothness with age.
An older student may have done more flying of different types than a younger person and may have accumulated a greater backlog of common misconceptions. Physical dexterity is not an essential in flying but some mental dexterity is required to perform the multiple sequences of required tasks. Much of any student's difficulty in learning a particular skill such as landing is more a factor of the instructor's ability to head off problems than a student learning disability.
The reinforcement of initially acquired learning is just as essential to the old as it is for the young. Considerable unlearning is required by both the young and old. There will be significant differences in what and to what extent the unlearning process requires instructional time and consideration. The older student is more ready to accept the necessity for additional time and practice prior to solo. The time and financial pressure is not likely to be so great on the older student.
If the FAA should wish to revoke your license they can send or deliver a voluntary surrender letter for your signature. You don't need to cooperate, sign nor surrender the license. In case you don't cooperate they can cause an emergency revocation letter to be written in a few hours. This is a demand for the seizure of your license. You do have the right to appeal and have a hearing about this or any FAA action. You will lose. Interestingly, anyone demanding immediate surrender of your license is going to be in trouble when the case goes under review.
You will never have a problem with the FAA until there is an incident or accident. In most any case the FAA can call upon the careless and reckless operation FAR. It is totally subjective and any defense is subject to an FAA second guess as to the sequence of events in terms of relative importance.
An airman with a history of a disability may be gives a discretionary medical certification through...special issuance provision that determine the pilot can fly without endangering the public. This is known as a waver. The pilot has to demonstrate a practical evaluation and a special medical evaluation that he is able to perform as a pilot.
If a condition is static and non-progressive a SODA or statement of demonstrated ability may be issued. SODAs never expire.
The FAA does not blindly approve of medicines. The individualized reactions possible makes it impossible. Drugs that generally have no apparent adverse effect are often not approved for pilots. Occasional bad side effects are enough to make the FAA withhold approval. Since there are no certain way to determine who and when bad effects the FAA takes the safe position.
The taking of any drug is always a judgment call. A decision by an aeromedical doctor is going to be more in line with FAA strictures than from any other doctor. Optional means of medical procedure always exist. Finding FAA approved ones may be difficult.
Most medical sources tend to emphasize the positive aspects
of drugs. Be cautious.
Resources:
Physician's Desk Reference
Physician's Desk reference for Non-prescription Drubs
Handbook of Nonprescription Drugs
The Essential Guide to Prescription Drugs
Complete Guide to Prescription and Nonprescription Drugs
FAR 61.3(c) requires current appropriate certificate when you at as PIC or as required crewmember. As a CFI or safety pilot without a medical you must confirm that the PIC has a current and appropriate medical, flight review, required takeoffs and landings, and instrument currency.
The CFI without a medical must not allow the PIC to practice any hood work. While acting as 'safety pilot' the CFI must have a current medical. A CFI without a medical may give inflight instruction and flight reviews so long as the PIC is fully qualified for the flight involved. A rated pilot who is taking instrument instruction may log PIC time as sole manipulator of the controls.
The physical condition of the pilot will affect the way decisions
are made. As accident findings show, it is the pilot who needs
the most preventive instruction. The pilot is often trained to
know more about other things related to flying than about himself.
The physiology and humanness of the pilot make him subject to
many failings.
Your inner ear
--Determines balance, orientation and equilibrium
--About pencil eraser size
--A 3 axis gyro with each canal at right angles to the others.
Canals are filled with fluid the flow of which affects bunches
of sensory hairs (cilia) that are capable of sensing only rate
changes in fluid acceleration. A steady change will cease to be
sensed. Any gentle smooth turn or change below the threshold of
inner ear perception will not be detected. If visual reference
is obscured then disorientation can/will occur.
Eye
Of all our senses, vision is our most reliable sense. However,
in conjunction with our other senses it does disrupt and affect
the way we interpret what we think we are seeing. The eye's sense
of up, down, left, right and level can come in conflict with these
senses and cause vertigo.
Your one inch eyeball is more capable than any camera to make lens changes that focus and re-focus light arriving through the cornea, pupil and lens on the rear interior of the eyeball called the retina. All these adjustments are muscular. The functions of the eye are various; you have a central vision, a peripheral vision, coordination and balance information, and the sleep clock.
The convex lens inverts the image on the retina which consists of multiple layers (10) of sensors that make the conversion from light to electrical stimuli applied to both cones and rods. The cones electrically respond to both light and color input. The brighter the light the better the cone response. Cones exist mostly in the central fovea area and around the outer region. Rods are only light sensitive but are able to react to very little light but with no color. Rods are not at the fovea and are most numerous in an arc 20 degrees from it. Looking directly at an object at night in poor light will not allow you see it. The eyes see a 160° spherical arc with only a 5° cone of focus. The cone of 10° cannot see better than 20/100. We can only see three colors, red, green and blue. The brain mixes these to 'see' all other colors.
The eye has two lenses, one fixed and one variable. The outer part of the eye 'window' called the cornea is the fixed lens. Muscles that change its shape by making it thinner or thicker adjust the interior lens To focus as needed. There is not surgical correction for the effect age has on the ability of the eyes to focus.
Light adaptation occurs 90% in the first half-hour but will continue for an hour with the rods. Rods can detect low light levels down to that of a full moon. You cannot see using the center 5 degrees of focus. This adaptation can be destroyed in an instant by a bright light. Ability to keep one eye closed when using a light in the cockpit is a handy skill.
You have motion sensors in the ears and neck that stabilize the eyes to see in one place when you move your head sideways. These stabilizers do not work up and down. You cannot see while moving your eyes. All you will get is a gray blur.
There is a type of nearsighted deficiency that is common at night. Detection of this requires a special test that is worthwhile if continuous night flying is a project. Night vision depends on rhodopsin, commonly called visual purple. The production of rhodopsin in your body is strictly an individual matter dependent on genetics, health, diet, and age. Know your limitations.
Oxygen and the lack of it dramatically affect night vision.
Altitude causes lose of retina efficiency from 5% to 40% from
4000' up to 16,000'. Smoking can add 7000' to these altitudes.
Night vision is also subject to dramatic illusions. Bright lights
and reflections will not only destroy your night adaptation but
will give false impressions of proximity, speed, attitude, and
changes.
Proprioception
Proprioception is what we feel in our muscles. The most sensitive
areas are in the neck and knees. Our muscle senses tell us the
position of the body.
The vestibular sense is related to our hearing. The vestibular organ gives us balance. It has three semicircular canals which at 90deg; each with the others. Additionally, there are two otoliths, nearby. Otoliths are linear accelerometers or motion detectors. We sense gravity through our otoliths. These senses have threshold levels below which they are not able to detect any sensations. Of the two, the otoliths are the more sensitive.
Our senses can be dangerously fooled but the vestibular sense is the one most susceptible. Even in VFR conditions we can get the 'leans' when the fluids of the semicircular canals fail to warn us of a slow turn or if a turn continues long enough the hairs in the fluid stabilize and give no sensory indications.
A takeoff or climb can, if not countered by noting airspeed
and the AI, be felt as an extreme raising of the nose which if
countered by lowering the nose can result in an CFIT accident.
Reliance on your instruments is most important when you do not
have visual cues.
Vision
Seeing is a practiced art. The eye sees images that may or may
not be transmitted to the brain. The fovea of the retina is the
region of sharpest vision. This is only one degree of conical
field. By taping a quarter to a window and backing off slightly
more than four feet you have measured your fovea vision. Our eye
can move and see a vertical arc of 135 degrees, 60 above level
and 75 below. Your horizontal field is 160 degrees total with
100 of these to the side and 60 across the nose.
With the best vision in the one-degree fovea cone, at 10 degrees your ability to see is only 1/10 as good. In poor visibility your foveal focus fades in less than 90 seconds to a point just in front of the aircraft. To avoid this it is important that you constantly re-focus your fovea on the most distant object available.
The eye has some functional peculiarities that are of particular importance to the pilot. The eye can see only about a 15° arc of space at one time. The eye cannot see while moving. The cone sensors of the eye are centered in the back of the eye. Cones give us color and sharp detail focus in bright light conditions. The rods of the eye are what we use to see in poor light conditions. The rods are to the sides of the eye and to best utilize them we must look slightly to the side of where we actually wish to see. A single flash of white light can destroy the ability of rods to function for over half an hour. The older you are the more time required to adapt to darkness. Red light is still the best light to use if you wish to retain night sight even though it is lacking in color and detail. The preferred color of the Military is now blue.
Objects that are farther away look smaller since they use less of your visual field. We know this because the brain must convert the two-dimensional vision field into three dimensions. This is possible because we have two eyes, which give us stereoscopic views. This binocular ability is good only for about twenty feet. Beyond twenty feet we must make use of other abilities. We have acquired a concept of perspective. This makes objects viewed appear to be near or far according to the vanishing lines of perspective. Also, objects that are near or far appear to move in opposite directions as we move. This can be shown by selecting an object across the street and another on your side of the street. As you move your head the objects move in opposite directions. The next element of vision has to do with your knowledge of relative size. We know the size of people, cars, most buildings and many airplanes. Their size in relation to other known objects makes it possible to judge distance.
The eye and the way it reacts to flight conditions.
--The smoker will have reduced vision, specifically peripheral
vision. A smoker is more likely to miss seeing an aircraft approaching
the side
.
--The pilot who is under stress will tend to fixate on one thing.
This may be the runway or the altimeter. Cockpit myopia will destroy
the very importance of a variable scan and focus.
--Certain background conditions make it difficult to impossible
to separate an aircraft from the background clutter of clouds,
sun glare, or rooftops.
--Haze makes it very difficult to judge distance. This is especially
true at night. The military is presently experimenting with using
light to camouflage aircraft. Certain placements and intensities
of lights on an aircraft in daylight can make an airplane harder
to see.
--The eye can see only when it stops moving. Stopped the eye will
focus on a 10 degree arc. To make a focused scan move your eyes
in 10-degree jumps. To make a full scan move your head. Peripheral
vision detects movement. Use peripheral vision at night for things
you want to locate.
--Binocular vision is good for measuring distance up to about
20 feet. Beyond 20 feet we must depend on shadows, relative size
of similar objects, overlapping, or other clues. Clouds are particularly
difficult to judge for distance because there are no references.
--Empty field myopia is caused by haze or fog conditions that
give the eyes nothing to focus on at a distance. The eye defaults
to a distance of about 20 feet. To break this you must focus momentarily
inside the cockpit and then outside. This process must be repeated
frequently since there is no way of knowing when the default distance
has kicked in.
--Red is a poor warning color. Green and yellow are much better.
--Red light in the cockpit should be avoided since it reduces
the ability of the eyes to accommodate to reading. Military now
uses blue cockpit lighting.
Light color test
On failing a day test you may take a night test and even if
you pass your license will be restricted by a note. It is possible
to improve red/green discrimination by wearing ruby colored contact
lenses.
Hearing
Humans detect from 16 to 20,000 Hz but speak between 250 and 2,0000
Hz. The sounds of most G.A. aircraft exceed 90 dB (decibels).
Such sound energy is capable of actually breaking the hairs that
connect to the cells in the cochlea of the inner ear. These hairs
and cells are not replaceable.
Head cold
The head has eight sinuses paired across the face and extending
back to the spinal column. Each cavity is filled with air. They
all open to the nose. The air pressure of the cavities is constantly
being equalized with the outside atmosphere. Additionally, the
eardrum vibrates as sound moves the outside air. On the other
side of the membrane the air is equalized by way of the Eustachian
tube. For proper hearing the air on either side of the membrane
must be equalized. Never take a decongestant that contains antihistamines
at altitude.
During ascent the air easily leaves the Eustachian tube, it is during descent that a collapsed tube can cause excruciating pain due to the unequal pressures. It is necessary to use a small muscle in the back of the throat to hold the Eustachian tubes open. A 5000' difference in the air pressures can rupture the drum.
You can open your Eustachian tubes by using the Valsava maneuver.
Pinch your nostrils, close your mouth and try to exhale through
the nose. This should clear your nose. You could try the Frenzel
method. This requires you to move your jaw as far forward as you
can. Swallowing at the same time will improve your chances of
clearing the tube.
Ear Block
Earblock or sinus blockages can cause differential air pressures
to exist between cavities of the skull and the exterior. If it
is not possible to equalize these pressures by slowing or removing
the pressure changes severe pain results. Do not fly if you suspect
such a condition exists or above 8,000' within 24 hours of scuba
diving. Gum chewing and jaw movement are preventive. The Valsalva
maneuver consists of opening the mouth wide with the jaw wide,
as though yawning. Do this over and over because opening the mouth
helps open the Eustachian tubes. Next, pinch your nose closed,
shutting the mouth, and blow gently as through your nose.
Blow air into your nose while holding the nostrils closed. Pinch low on your nostrils and blow gently. Be sure that your nose balloons out over your fingers. (Otherwise, blowing lifts your palate, blocking the Eustachian tube that you're trying to de-congest.) If pressure persists in one ear, turn your head, putting that ear forward (this relaxes the throat muscles that may be constricting the Eustachian tube) and blow. Gum chewing and jaw movement are preventive. The Valsalva maneuver consists of opening the mouth wide with the jaw wide, as though yawning. Do this over and over because opening the mouth helps open the Eustachian tubes.
The average General Aviation pilot was 39 years of age in 1990.
Pilots over 60 have 2.1 times more accidents than pilots in their
50's.
Pilots over 60 are safer than pilots in their 20's and 30's. The
accident rate goes up after 60 perhaps due to subtle age-related
deterioration in cognitive function. The older you are the dumber
you get! My wife agrees.
Older pilots like to think that what has been lost in ability has been made up in experience. By the age of 60 pilots lose some mental and physical abilities. By the age of 50 everyone has some vision loss known as presbyopia. This is caused by hardening of the lens. As we age we become less efficient in getting and using oxygen and getting rid of carbon dioxide. Hearing by itself does not affect the ability to fly but it does make a difference in the communications area. Like vision, hearing the higher frequencies drops with age. Physically we become victims of some stiffness of the joints and extremities with age. Dehydration is going to have greater effect with age. We are all different in the way we age and the way our aging affects our flying.
Acute fatigue occurs when a long period passes with a lack of sleep. Chronic fatigue occurs when several acute fatigue periods occur without adequate recovery time between. While some fatigue is related to lack of sleep, not all is. Fatigue can result from inadequate nutrition and over exertion. More information needs to be obtained on fatigue distinguished from sleep as a factor in accidents.
Some factors of physical condition are controllable and some are not. Acute fatigue occurs when a long period passes with a lack of sleep. Chronic fatigue occurs when several acute fatigue periods occur without adequate recovery time between. Stress is the result of events causing preoccupation, reducing external awareness, and making activities subject to distraction. Stress causes the taking of risks that would otherwise be unacceptable. The mental/physical condition resulting from fatigue and stress may cause the pilot to make unwise decisions.
There are many causes of fatigue: lack of sleep, hypoxia, noise, time zone factors, temperature extremes, dehydration, stress and more. When you are fatigued you are more irritable and easily annoyed, you will suffer for lapses in short term memory, your attention will fixate to the exclusion of all else, your performance skills will decrease and you will be unaware of any impairment.
The causes of fatigue are primarily lack of recent sleep or a chronic sleep deficiency. Additional fatigue arises from our physiological reaction to noise and vibration, illness, hunger, caffeine "down time", unresolved stress, hypoxia, dehydration, errors in judgment and extended mental and physical demands.
We are far more likely to recognize the impairment of fatigue in others than in ourselves. There is no test for fatigue, but the start of fatigue is the gateway to all the "causes" of accidents. The usual reaction time that a pilot has under normal conditions may be tripled. One-second becomes three, three-seconds becomes nine. This extension of time has nothing to do with training and everything to do with sleep. Degraded performance can kill.
The body responds to lack of sleep and disturbance of the circadian rhythm by showing fatigue. Symptoms of fatigue are sleepiness, irritability, depression, apathy, and emotional isolation. Loss of appetite, slurred speech, visual fixation, impaired perception, decreased alertness, channeled thinking, lack of concentration, slowed reactions, requiring greater stimulus, impaired short-term memory, poor judgment, loss of accuracy, error accumulation, neglect of tasks, erratic performance, and increasing reliance on habitual behaviors.
High altitude, noise, vibration, G-forces, heat, and dryness can aggravate all of the above symptoms. Physical factors such as fitness, diet, hydration, weight, rugs, alcohol, medication, caffeine, and tobacco are pre-disposition factors.
Fatigue can be overcome by sleep. The time of sleep is not so important for recovery of lost sleep time as is the depth of sleep. Older people sleep less and less deeply. Older people are more easily disrupted from sleep.
Fatigue is a treacherous hazard to safe flying since it is not apparent to person and will lead to accumulation of errors and eventual accident. Person cannot respond to events in a safe and thoughtful manner. Any fatigue high enough to interfere with decision-making will be greatly influenced by illusions.
Fatigue misconceptions
corrected:
--Rest is as good as sleep
--You never know just how tired you are.
--I have flown this tired before
--My motivation will solve the problem of fatigue
--I can fly well even if tired
--I don't need much sleep.
--Coffee is all I need
--Pills will cure fatigue
--One cure works for everyone.
What To Expect
from Fatigue
--Reduced ability to concentrate
--Reduce awareness of deviations
--Reduced vigilance
--Reduced comprehension of ATC instructions
--Fatigue increases if you are "doing nothing"
--Increased temper excursions
--Increase in 'know-better' mistakes
--Increased rationalization of errors
A sustained mechanical oscillatory disturbance as while flying a helicopter can cause vibration fatigue. The body reacts by tension of the muscles, the muscles get tired, fatigue sets in. Manual agility, dexterity and precision are reduced. Concentration weakens and flight judgment is impaired.
This problem often begins with a distraction that causes fixation
on an instrument or occurrence. Complex flight operations are
the first skills to deteriorate.
--Knowing where you are becomes a problem
--Heading excursions take place
--Instruments are ignored
--Attention and vision fixates
--External references begin to fade from consciousness
--Seat posture relaxes
--Silence prevails
--Writing becomes less linear
--Movements decrease and slow
--Clearances cannot be copied in total
--Eye/hand skills begin to fail
--Pilot accepts what exists as O.K. without checking
--Bad judgment prevails
The most common cause of diminished alertness and proficiency is lack of sleep. This condition is said to affect 30% of the U.S. population. This may be due to an actual loss of sleep or a change in a sleep pattern called the circadian rhythm. Pilots tend to neglect their need for sleep. The need for sleep is a defining limit to pilot mental capability. You must have sleep or your mind will fail. Once beyond the limit pilot performance deteriorates and can become irrational. Sleep is a restorative and can be both stored and deprived within limits set by the biological clock of the individual. As you grow older you will need less sleep. Jet lag sleep patterns are worse when flying from west to east. Accident rates climb precipitously when your body begins demanding sleep. The average American gets about one hour too little sleep each night.
Sleep serves as a restorative to both body and mind. Every
day we resent our 25-hour biological clock. This extra hour makes
it easier for us to stay up late than to get up early. Your energy
cycles and you are susceptible to daydreaming or drowsiness at
the lowest part.
Accident rates rise in the afternoon and become significant at
night. Postponing sleep causes a sleep deficit that as it increases
an accident becomes more likely. Jet lag is a type of sleep deficit.
A sleep deficit can best be resolved by going to bed early, not
by sleeping late. A large deficit cannot be made up in one night.
21% of aircraft accidents cite sleep deficiency as a factor.
Sleep begins when you stop knowing what is happening around you. You have stopped getting external information. The circadian rhythm makes you feel the most sleepy between three and five in the early morning and mid-afternoon. Your performance will suffer most when you have missed your normal sleep period and are staying awake for an extended time. You will be slow to recognize flight problems, slow to react to the situation, and will have difficulty selecting the best option when you are sleep deprived.
When drowsiness occurs, you cease to monitor the instruments. You will tend to fixate and drift off mentally. We go into a mental autopilot not thinking of what we are doing. This is the lowest level of alertness. The next level of alertness is one in which you are in constant search-and-scan, seeing what you are looking at, hearing what is said and asking question. This is the "flying" mode from pre-flight to shutdown. This gradual deterioration of alertness is best observed in watching others. It can creep up on you and influence your flying without your even noticing. Your alertness rises again when you have located a problem. You focus on it and prepare to execute a solution. This might occur when required to make a crosswind landing. The highest level of alertness is when adrenaline begins to flow and survival becomes a factor.
Naps can be planned or unplanned, the brain has signals that it sends to the body. The more sleep is needed the more brain signals are sent to the body. Most people get about two hours less sleep daily than they need. Over a few days this sleep deficit must be corrected. Deeper sleep is one way. Longer sleep periods are another. Naps are still another. Avoid caffeine after 5 p.m. A cola has the caffeine equivalent of a half-cup of coffee. Sleeping pills and caffeine are addictive.
Sleep suggestions
--Do not exercise before bedtime.
--Avoid food or drink before bedtime.
--Avoid sleeping pills
--Take naps of less than an hour.
--Do cockpit exercises.
Any over-the-counter medication whose name ends in "ine" should be checked in a flight medical examiner for use before flying. Beware of any medicine that is supposed to make you feel better. At altitude the effects may be damaging to flight safety. Medicine taken is just as likely, even more likely, to be the basis for grounding a pilot than is the ailment itself. Medicinal side effects are both variable and unpredictable. Virtually all medications have side effects. Never take a medication for the first time and then fly. Make the safe decision if you are sick.
FAR 61.15 requires you to report within 60 days any vehicle action involving drinking and drugs. This is in addition to you admission on the medical questionnaire. The report must include full identification, address, certificate number, type of violation, date of conviction or administrative action (plea bargain), the State, and whether this is part of a previously reported action. In an FAA enforcement action, the FAA will argue the strictest interpretation of the FARs.
CO reduces ability of blood to carry oxygen. Symptoms are similar to hypoxia. Headache, drowsiness, dizziness should initially be corrected by opening outside air vents. First, everything that is happening feels as though it is happening far away. You feel sick to your stomach and get very sleepy. Things lose their importance. Problems cannot be solved. Recovery takes considerable time.
Carbon monoxide exists as an odorless, colorless and tasteless gas resulting from incomplete combustion. CO is lighter than air and mixes quickly. For the thousand accidental deaths there are three and a half times as many suicides. Ten times as many survive as die accidentally. CO has a half-life of five hours in the living. Dead, CO lasts for three days.
Given the choice between carrying oxygen or carbon monoxide our red cells will chose CO 200 to 1 oxygen. This differential causes hypernic hypoxia by a low oxygen release to the cells and tissues of the body. The toxic effects initially cause the brain to increase the respiration rate. At 10% there are no appreciable effects but your are functioning at sea level as though at 5000'. At 20% we lose night vision, display shortness of breath, have a headache and tingling in the extremities. At 30% the previous symptoms become more pronounced along with vomiting, difficult in making decisions, irritability, and flushing. At 40% all of the above plus disorientation and unconsciousness. Brain damage and death follow. At 60% breathing ceases followed by death. Any CO poisoning requires that the NTSB be informed of crewmember inability to perform.
Most CO accidents are cause by heater defects where the muff about the exhaust pipe has leakage. The best defense besides continual inspections is to have CO detector detectors.
Is poisoning due to the exhaust fumes resulting from carbon burning with insufficient oxygen to produce complete oxidation. The resulting gas has one atom of carbon and one atom of oxygen. CO is odorless, colorless and cannot be tasted. CO poisoning may not be distinguished from fatigue or hypoxia except that the occurrence can occur at any altitude.
Engine exhaust in an aircraft has 7% CO. Very small amounts
of CO over a period of time will reduce a pilot's ability to fly
safely. It is the length of exposure as well as the amount that
makes the critical difference. Susceptibility to CO poisoning
increases with altitude due to the propensity of CO to enter blood.
CO is 200 times more attracted to the blood hemoglobin as is oxygen.
As little as one part CO to 20,000 (.005%) parts of air is enough
to begin the death process of the brain.
Above 10% CO poisoning you will suffer from a headache. Above
20% you will be sleepy and sick to your stomach, HEADACHE, vision
and speech problems. You will be incapacitated above 40% and dead
at 70%. If you get a headache while flying, open the window and
shut off heater.
CO has a half-life in your body of about five hours. It will take a full day to recover. 70% of exhaust system failures result in CO poisoning. CO prevents the hemoglobin from both carrying and releasing oxygen. Antihistamines, alcohol, lack of sleep, or blood deficiency will exacerbate CO poisoning. Prevention of CO poisoning is directly preventable by proper aircraft maintenance. Club aircraft require extra alertness.
If you suspect CO exists in your cabin air as you might
smell some engine exhaust fumes.
--Get a detector.
--Put a checklist by the detector.
--Shut off the heater
--Use any oxygen
--Descend
--Land ASAP
--Get medical treatment
--When in doubt, get on the ground.
Hot or cold temperatures affect the quality of the preflight. In the winter, as your body cools you tend to mentally and physically slow down. Flying in an unheated aircraft in the winter will drastically decrease your flying efficiency and effectiveness.
Human need for 2-4 quarts of water a day. You become thirsty with a deficit of 1.5 quarts of body fluids or 2% of body weight. The deficit causes a reduction in blood volume and triggers thirst. Thirst arrives too late and can be mollified too easily. At 3% of body weight fluid loss fatigue and weakness occurs. Symptoms are headache, sleepiness, dizziness and weariness. Avoid diuretics such as coffee and alcohol. Don't rely on thirst as drinking trigger. Measure fluid intake daily.
Stress, anxiety and fear cause hyperventilation. The person begins abnormal rapid breathing. Reduction of carbon dioxide causes suffocation, drowsiness, tingling, lightheadedness, and coolness. This leads to spasms, incapacitation, and unconsciousness. Symptoms resemble hypoxia. Can be corrected by controlled breathing in a paper bag.
There is a little known partial solution for the pilot or person who is at an altitude where oxygen deficiency is likely. You can increase the air pressure in you lungs and thereby aid the absorption of oxygen in your lungs by the following process. You can partially pressurize your lungs by only breathing out through 'pursed' lips. You must purse your lips and blow out instead of exhaling normally. Inhale normally but pressurize your lungs when exhaling.
An adult will breath in 3,000 gallons (by volume) of air per day. This includes 600 (20% of total) gallons of oxygen. Your blood system has 25+ trillion (12 zeros) red blood cells (hemoglobin). Each one is capable of loading up four oxygen molecules for distribution throughout the body. when returning to the lungs for a refill they unload CO2 first.
Mankind evolved expecting to breathe air containing 21% oxygen
under 14.7 pounds of pressure. Once God has given man enough money
to fly, this 21% at higher levels of lower pressure this 21% becomes
inadequate. Symptoms of hypoxia will occur in the altitudes over
five thousand feet. Age is a factor as are the life-style factors
of fatigue, drinking, and smoking. The condition of hypoxia because
of altitude can become magnified and compounded by human individual
factors. Hypoxia is caused only by reduced atmospheric pressures
caused by altitude and not by other density altitude factors.
As altitude increases arterial blood oxygen pressure lowers so
that less oxygen is available to the blood for transfer to the
brain. A change of only 4% is sufficient to affect mental function.
Once you experience hypoxia and have identified your symptoms
you will be more apt to recognize them next time.
Hypoxia is oxygen starvation. Lack of oxygen impairs the whole
body but most importantly the brain. The first part of the body
to show significant effect from oxygen deficiency is the retina
of the eye. Every individual is affected but in different ways
and to different degrees. The danger in hypoxia is that it occurs
insidiously below the conscious threshold. Hypoxia makes you happy
and such happiness in the cockpit is dangerous. The best warning
indicator for hypoxia is the altimeter. You will quickly recover
by descent to a lower altitude.
Since hypoxia is due to reduced barometric pressure, low-grade hypoxia begins on takeoff. The percentage of oxygen is same but less is reaching the blood stream. Any stress or increase in activity requires more oxygen, up to 8 times more. Pilot performance deterioration begins at takeoff, as well. Slowed response times and inability to deal with complexities due to hypoxia compromise safety. Noticeable oxygen deficiency effects begins at 4000' as safety margins are beginning to erode. The hypoxic symptoms of difficulty breathing or headache may not be obvious or may not occur at all even though there are the foregoing changes in mental status.
I have seen complete personality changes occur after a couple of hours around 12,000'. Symptoms occur such as headache, drowsiness, dizziness, euphoria, tingling, perspiration, or belligerence are typical. Tunnel vision and blue fingernails occur with times as little as 15 minutes above 15,000'. At 16,000' disorientation, lapses of judgment, loss of impulse control, risk-taking behavior, decreased problem solving abilities, impaired memory, mood disturbances, and lowered coordination are common. Unconsciousness occurs in 10 minutes at 20,000'.
All effects are made worse and happen at lower altitudes with fatigue, age, smoking, health habits, and drinking. Oxygen recommended above 10,000 day and 5,000 night. If oxygen is being used, being knowledgeable about the operation of the system and be able to recognize his and the system's warnings of oxygen deficiency is essential. FARs require oxygen if ½ hour above 12,500', crew above 14,000', everybody above 15,000'.
We take 20,000 breaths a day that take in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. At altitude the air expands and there is less oxygen available per breath. Above 10,000' supplemental oxygen is recommended. At night 5000' is the recommended level.
There are no reliable signals for the use of oxygen. The brain suffers first and affects the judgment. Oxygen deficiency gives you a high along with a headache, lightheadedness, dizziness, tingling and warmth, poor coordination, impaired judgment, and tunnel vision.
Hypoxia begins when your cells become oxygen deficient. The brain cells are first to be affected. You have two kinds of measures for oxygen deficient performance. Effective performance time (EPT) which is an average charted for many people. Your experience may vary. Time of useful consciousness (TUC) is based on altitude chamber research. Again, your experience may vary. With good training and a good system the hazard of hypoxia is low.
A hypoxic carpenter would measure ten times instead of twice and cut five times instead of once. Judgment is indecisive and slow. Caffeine, tobacco, dehydration, respiratory problems, age, fatigue, alcohol and nutrition all affect the onset and severity of hypoxia. The most common of all these deficiencies in the general flying population will be dehydration. Take water when you fly and drink it while you fly.
High altitude performance decreases within in 20 to 30 minutes at 18,000'. You have enough time to take defensive measures and descend. At 25,000' your EPT will be less than five minutes. Using oxygen at night and even during the day at lower altitudes will improve flight performance. For the G. A. pilot the nasal cannulas with an oximizer offers the best bang for the buck.
The smoking of tobacco is a form of self imposed physical and psychological stress that constitutes an immediate and on-going threat to health and safety. A smoker may deny that drugs are a part of his life. He lies in the face of facts. The whole purpose of a cigarette is to get a nicotine fix. Different from cocaine or heroin? How? The person who smokes is a health and economic hazard to everyone. The residue remains on his person, clothes, possessions, and associates.
Nicotine is an addictive psychotropic that can either stimulate or depress. Immediate side effects can be constriction of blood passages, visual degeneration especially at night, reduced lung capacity and nicotine and coffee together multiply the harmful effect of each. The individual ability to assess the effect of any drug is reduced in the taking. Drug interactions are a most common difficulty.
The smoker will die younger, have poorer health, and will suffer considerably in the process. Smoking makes worse the negative effects of radiation, carbon monoxide, and lack of fluids. Smoking deprives the heart of oxygen, constricts the arteries, alters nerve impulses to the heart and lungs, weakens muscles, causes abdominal cramping, and nausea. Nicotine itself decreases the body's ability to adapt to stress. Nicotine withdrawal symptoms include depression, irritability, difficulty in concentration, decreased heart rate, fall in blood pressure, tension, and impaired performance.
These symptoms are worse if withdrawal occurs. It is not possible to avoid withdrawal while flying commercially since cabin pressure is kept at 8000'. Recovery from withdrawal can occur in as little as eight seconds after inhalation of nicotine-laden smoke. This is both a physical and psychological release. The victim has been sucked into an addiction by a combination of governmental and economic interests. The addictive process is entirely deliberate. Cigarettes were sold at four cents a pack in World War Two. The military still gives a ten-minute smoking break every hour. College 'Judas Goats' were paid handsome sums just to attend college functions and give away free cigarettes. Free distributions were made at fairs and other public functions mostly frequented by the young.
Psychological advertising and selective groups have been targeted by the cigarette industry to get as many addicted as possible. Government subsidies have supported these activities both directly and indirectly. The recovery from nicotine withdrawal carries with it the side effect of carbon monoxide poisoning. The carbon monoxide (CO) of cigarette smoke combines with the hemoglobin in blood at a rate of 250 to 1 times more easily than does oxygen. As little as one part CO to 20,000 (.005%)parts of air is enough to begin the weakening the thought processes of the brain.
The CO level of a smoker is usually between 4 and 10 percent just after a cigarette. A frequent smoker can have up to 10% CO saturation at all times. Any additional CO from another source would compound the problem of the smoker. You can't do anything to recover from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by smoking; it's there just as though you had a direct connection from an exhaust pipe into your lungs. Engine exhaust in vehicles has 7% CO. Working around cars, even in partially closed spaces, can be doubly hazardous the one's health. If your work can be a matter of life-or-death your smoking may well cause a problem. CO poisoning reduces visual acuity, brightness discrimination and dark adaptations to a significant degree because of hypoxia. At sea level, three successive cigarettes gives a night driving vision capability identical to what the non-smoker has at 8,000' in the mountains. Reversal of these effects will not occur until five hours after your last cigarette.
Susceptibility to CO poisoning increases with altitude due to the propensity of CO to enter blood. This prevents the blood from being able to transport adequate oxygen to the body's cells. The hypemic hypoxia of the smoker reduces his oxygen intake by 5-10 % of normal capacity. The fact that smokers are hypoxic means that we can expect smokers to feel anxiety, forgetfulness, irritability, confusion, and altered judgment with every cigarette. Judgment, math ability, and reasoning will be affected. The indication is that smokers are more likely to enter into personal arguments and show lack of both good judgment and logical reasoning ability in those arguments. Very small amounts of CO over a period of time will reduce a person's ability to perform safely. It is the length of exposure as well as the amount that makes the critical difference. This lack of oxygen to the brain impairs judgment and diminishes the ability to make reasoned decisions. The pack-a-day smoker will have a chronic 10% CO level. CO effects are accumulative so that any additional automotive pollution or altitude will increase the percentage of CO.
Any onset of sluggishness, warmth, and tightness across the head is an early symptom of CO poisoning. A headache, weakness, dizziness and dimming of vision comes next. You won't be aware when you lose strength, vomit, convulse, and enter a coma. A breath of fresh air will not revive you. Several days may be required for full recovery. The smoker is betting against a CO impairment that has already occurred and can only become worse. Carbon monoxide and other toxins in tobacco smoke interfere with the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells. Less oxygen means less energy. Smoking causes an accumulation of mucus in the windpipe and bronchial tubes, constricts blood vessels and reduces the supply of oxygen to cells.
The radio active residue from cigarette smoke (radium-226,
radon-222, lead 210, and poloniun-210) remain in the lungs as
hot spots for up to five years. A smoker of 1 and ½
packs a day, will ingest into his lungs a radiation level of 8000
millirem just from cigarettes in one year. 500 millirem annually
is the top of the "safe limit" for nuclear workers.
Such a smoker exceeds the safe limit by 16 times. This is equivalent
to 300 chest X-rays a year.
There is statistical evidence that smokers have more vehicle accidents.
Most of these accidents likely caused by not detecting traffic
to either side. The peripheral vision of the smoker is reduced
by about 39% from what normally would be available. Peripheral
vision is a major physical separation factor between talented
athletes and everyone else. The smoker, flying in the mountains,
is far more likely to have a judgment-related accident than is
the non-smoker. Smokers are poor judges of what is probable. Casinos
have resisted establishment of non-smoking areas since their income
is based upon probability. Smokers do not know odds. Smokers lose
much more than non-smokers do. Otherwise, they wouldn't smoke
and casinos would have lower profits.
Regardless of age, a smoker is eleven times more likely to die or be killed than a non-smoker is. This is because side effects of smoking affect life style and judgment. The smoker, on the average, dies 10 years before the average non-smoker. Every 53 seconds in the U.S. a smoker either quits smoking or quits breathing. One cigarette takes seven minutes off your life expectancy. Just about the length of time it takes to smoke a cigarette. Smoking directly causes 1/3 of cancer deaths.
The children of a smoker will learn at an early age that smoking is the 'adult' thing to do. Growing up is the name of the game. The highest proportions of school dropouts are the children who smoke. The smoking student and one from a smoking household will miss 25% more school days due to bronchial and lung problems than will a child from a non-smoking environment. There is scientific evidence that being susceptible to either a smoking or drinking addiction may have a genetic basis.
If one cigarette is supposed to take four minutes off your expected life span, just think how much you won't be able to do. The probability of becoming a pulmonary cripple, and not being able to enjoy our later years, alone makes it worthwhile stopping. If there is not a direct relationship as to your intelligence and the care you take of yourself, there should be. You will do everything better if you don't smoke. If you are with smokers for one hour you are breathing in the equivalent one cigarette, radiation and all.
The pilot who smokes is a hazard to himself and other pilots. The fact that smokers are hypoxic at relatively low altitudes means that we can expect smoking pilots to feel anxiety, forgetfulness, confusion, irritability and altered judgment at relatively low altitudes. The applicable question is should smoking pilots have any more right to fly than drinking pilots? Know your limitations. Don't fly if not 100%.
350,00 people die before their time due to the direct effects of smoking every year in the U. S. 1/3 of these deaths are lung cancer but smoking greatly increases the probability factor of cancers of the head, neck, throat, larynx, mouth, lip, tongue, bladder, stomach, kidneys, pancreas, and cervix. 1/4 of the nation's heart attacks has been directly attributed to smoking.
A cigarette contains up to four thousand known toxic carcinogens. Cigarette tars cause 80% of all human cancers by damaging DNA molecules and fomenting mutation. Acetaldehyde, related to the embalming chemical formaldehyde, causes aging damage to body tissues such as arteries, skin, and lungs. Smokers do age more rapidly in these and other specific body tissues.
As a psychoactive alkaloid, nicotine is highly addictive. It increases blood pressure, constricts blood vessels, and increases blood cholesterol fats. Inhaled nicotine causes near instantaneous increases in the heart rate. Pumping faster means the heart is working harder. Above a certain level nicotine acts as a depressant and increases anxiety levels of perception. Nicotine has been identified as an essential distribution trigger for the spread of cancer.
Like cocaine, heroin and alcohol, nicotine affects the central nervous system. It creates physical dependence by giving pleasurable sensations and below certain levels it causes irritability, cramps, depression, anxiety, headaches, and cough. Basically, a smoker is a drug addict.
Cigarette smoke has a collection of gasses such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. Monoxide reduces the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to the heart, brain and lungs. The oxides have direct links to the DNA mutation process. Hydrogen cyanide is the chemical trigger to the cigarette cough.
Cigarettes are given trace amounts of several heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel, and polonium. Cadmium has been directly traced to hypertension, anemia, baldness, and scaly skin. Lead, an accumulative poison migrates to the nervous system, brain, bones, glands, kidneys, liver, heard and hair. Lead is a known cause of impotence, infertility, anemia, colic, and mental disturbance. Arsenic affects the muscles, brain, lungs, liver, esophagus, and skin. Effects are headaches, drowsiness, back pain, gastrointestinal problems, convulsions, vomiting, diarrhea, baldness, impaired thinking, hearing loss, poor vision, fevers, weakness and bloody urine.
Smoking affects women by causing earlier menopause decreased fertility and more frequent still births, spontaneous abortions and premature deliveries. Infants born of smoking mothers have smaller birth weight and are more susceptible to complications. Men find that smoking affects the function of the smaller blood vessels that determine peripheral vision and penis erection.
The urge to smoke only lasts three to five minutes. You should find an activity that will distract you from lighting up. One cigarette takes seven minutes off your life expectancy. Just about the length of time it takes to smoke a cigarette. 1/3 of cancer deaths are caused by smoking; 1/3 from diet, and 1/3 from life style choices.
Half of the American population is addicted to coffee. 25%
drink ten or more cups a day. Quitting coffee is both difficult
and painful. At age 71 I dropped coffee primarily to lower my
blood pressure. I had a two-week headache. Now I take afternoon
naps. The lure and temptation of coffee still exists.
Coffee has some negatives:
1. Raises the adrenaline level.
2. Blocks adenosine, a brain chemical that calms you down.
3. Can cause panic attacks by increasing lactate in the body.
4. Increases risk of stroke by increasing blood pressure.
5. In conjunction with diet, cold, anti-depressants will dramatically
raise blood pressure.
6. Can addict babies whose mothers drank during pregnancy.
7. Contains at least five cancer causing compounds.
8. Contains pesticides that are not allowed in the U.S.
9. Linked to heartburn and ulcers.
10. Leading cause of sleep disturbance.
11. Constricts blood vessels of the eyes.
12. Contributes to iron loss, zinc loss, and sex drive loss.
13. Causes excretion of calcium, potassium, magnesium and sodium
before they can be used by the body due to diuretic effect
Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system. Its psychotropic effects are addictive. Effects are individualized with possible side effects being a rapid heartbeat, irritability, tension, insomnia and frequent bathroom visits. Withdrawal causes headaches, stomach upset, nervousness and irritability. I had one week or more of all of these some three years ago when I quit coffee. I lowered my blood pressure ten points. The attraction of coffee still exists since my wife is still addicted. She drinks coffee and I now take naps.
Symptoms of BENDS (decompression sickness)
Severe pain in both shoulders
Itching over a good portion of the body
Vision difficulties
Numbness in the tongue
Mild headache and nausea
Airsickness is caused, as is seasickness, when the brain receives
differing messages from sensory organs. If the inner ear and balance
organs differ in sensory perception from what the eyes sense the
brains initial reaction is to get even by making us sick. Every
person reacts differently so there is no sure way to forecast
or prevent. Motion sickness, or airsickness, can be lessened or
improved if the person can be placed in control of the aircraft.
An upset stomach can cause motion sickness. Get fresh air into
the cockpit. Carry a plastic bag or a non-mesh hat. The only positive
cure is to get on the ground as quickly as possible. I took a
ride in the FAA rotating chair (It has a name) just before lunch
one time and I was unable to eat.
There are medications available that, when taken prior to flight,
reduce the sensitivity of the inner ear and balance organs to
motion. The pilot should not take them. I have always advised
my passengers to look as far away as they can toward the direction
of flight. Chewing a bit of crystallized ginger candy has been
a historical preventive of nausea. Accupressure bands found in
boating supply houses have been found effective when placed correctly
on the wrist.
Spatial disorientation is the No. 1 cause of fatal accidents. Even the best pilot will become disoriented under the right conditions. Effects on inner ear can cause a mentally and physical compelling move in a given direction. This can be the after effect of a gradual turn, spiral, spin, acceleration, leveling off, updraft, false horizon, autokinesis, (lights that move), runway illusions.
Human performance is mitigated by physical stresses such as fatigue, fitness, sleep, food, age and illness. Psychological stressors such as personal family problems, work load, situational awareness. External dynamic stresses can be due to weather, turbulence, aircraft performance and time factors. Stress is the result of events that cause preoccupation reducing external awareness and making activities subject to distraction. Stress causes the taking of risks that would otherwise be unacceptable.
Stress in moderate amounts is both necessary and desirable when flying. It prevents boredom and inhibits fatigue. The other extreme of stress leads to panic and impaired capability. Accidents happen when flying requirements exceed capability. Time in the air will decrease capability and lower the stress/panic threshold. 69% of accidents occur in the landing phase of flight operations. This is when time in the air is greatest and the stress/panic threshold lowest.
Whenever excessive tension exists, the ability to make considered judgments deteriorates. The concepts of what is best or safest become an emotional decision based more on fears or concerns rather than realities. Under tension the ability to make correct decisions deteriorates and compounds both the tension and the reliability of the selected solution. The pilot MUST recognize areas of tension and undertake an instructional program to raise a proficiency level to where competence reduces tension. Failure to resolve a tension-producing problem will eventually lead to erroneous decisions capable of producing an accident. The instructional program must expose the student to those tension producing situations before the student goes solo. Stress exposure is a form of stress inoculation.
The most common tension producer is through use of the radio. At a given point in airspace the student knows that he should be prepared to say a given sequence of communication facts. Where to start talking, what to say, in what sequence, and the fear of the unknown ATC create tension. After being lost or disoriented the most dramatic tension producer is x-wind landings, next I would place unfamiliar airports, especially if they are small, followed closely by radio procedure uncertainty. Night flight over unfamiliar terrain certainly raises cockpit temperature. Turbulence produces tension in the best of us as does proximity to the ground. All of these tension producers can be reduced or eliminated by gradual programmed exposure. Stress reduction, according to one expert, can be achieved by only landing at airports and peeing every chance you get.
Being lost or disoriented seems to be the most mentally debilitating factor of all. The presence of hills and mountains to a person more familiar with flat lands can create tension. A 1900' hill in California can cause a flat land pilot to subconsciously change course first to avoid and then to keep it in sight. Students have been known to nearly fly around a mountain in this manner. Inversely, a mountain-raised person may tend to challenge rugged terrain not realizing the value of an airport vicinity route via the valleys.
There are studies that show how outside influences affect your driving and flying. No matter how competent or skilled, a major personal calamity should warn you against flying. The hidden and unseen effects of certain events associated with emotional fatigue, stress, or distraction are there.
Your personality derived from both environment and heredity in a large measures dictates how you will react to stress. An emergency is a stress situation and the instruction you receive seeks to train you to react in a planned preconceived manner. Flying is inherently stressful because being high in the air is not a natural human environment.
Every positive or negative event of our lives will influence the way we fly. We all carry a great deal of baggage from our previous lives into our flying life. It there is any imbalance in this accumulation that clouds our life control, values, goals and priorities it will show in the progress we make in learning to fly.
As humans and pilots we differ in the way we deal with stress and danger. We have preferences in the way we receive and interpret information. We differ in our preference for sequencing what is important and unimportant. Each pilot must meditate into the deeper recesses of behavior and feelings to find out just why we think, feel and react the way we do under stress.
No two people put the same importance on dress, color, time, order and neatness. These variations cause stress between people and more stress in some than in others. We are not being contrary; we are just being ourselves. In many situations of life and flying, there is only a wide range of acceptable behavior and procedure. There is no 'one way' except in the mind of the beholder. In flying, smoothness in reaching a particular performance level is just as important and getting there.
Pilots as a group believe that they have control of their lives. The older and more experienced the pilot the stronger this belief. This perception is just as important to excellence flying as is actual control.
A big part of being a precise pilot is the ability you have to be trimmed for that precision so that a distraction can be handled merely by releasing the yoke without any loss of precision. Close enough, good enough, that looks about right, and good enough for government work means that you are probably not ready to release the yoke, yet.
A pilot can be prepared and even inoculated against the fears that affect a person's pleasures in flying. Fear is a very important safety mechanism. but irrational fears prevent us from doing what is necessary. Everyone has different fears. We have difficulty understanding or accepting the fears of others. Each person must develop his own degrees of immunity from fears.
The extrovert and introvert have different levels of tolerance of risk. Risk foments excitement and anxiety. The mixture of personality traits are found in good pilots. Too much of one personality trait will make it difficult to accept and cope with emergency situations.
Instructors must discuss fears with students. The student's background colors the way they feel and react to situations. A pilot facing a critical flight situation becomes focused mentally and emotionally on one thing. Thought processes slow, mental inertial takes over, accompanied by an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration and tension. Intellectually a pilot knows what to do, what must be done but fear limits the response. Paralysis is not an acceptable option. Yet we have people who through childhood experience freeze in critical situations.
There is a solution. You can be inoculated against your usual reaction to fear. The first step is to acknowledge that you have some areas related to flying that bring to the surface some long held fears. You have some way of reacting to fears that are not compatible with the need to do something in an emergency. Fear inoculation is a training process where repeated simulations are used to reduce the stress, the increase in blood pressure, and the unproductive angler that often results in doing nothing. in an emergency. The situation is visualized in a series of ever increasingly stress situations. A series of stressful situations are created by visualization in gradually increasing intensity. This can be made more dramatic in a ground cockpit environment.
The student must orally talk through the situation by saying aloud positive statements which provide the solution to the problem. Touching the controls and instruments to show the situation and the recovery process is crucial to acknowledging the problem and the solution. There is a thin line between carelessness and confidence and even a thinner line between caution and confidence. Crossing the lines are frequency the result of little things. The wrong little things can and do result in serious consequences. You have been taught to notice little changes in the nose, the airspeed, the altitude, the radio, and your control movements. Safe flying is the sum total of how you understand and handle the little things.
Fear-inoculation and visualization can help pilots reduce the symptoms and increase the ability to perform under stress. It is important to believe that some fear and stress will improve your performance. The recognition of fear reduces its impact. Thinking about the 'what-ifs' in the pattern will help prepare your mentally for possible emergencies.
All fear cannot be overcome. A certain amount is very necessary.
What you can do is to perform in the safest manner possible. Safe
flying depends on many factors mentioned below.
Failing
to cope:
--Accept that close calls, stupidity, and carelessness happen.
--A success can bring as much stress as a failure.
--A low probability that a pilot will discuss the situation
--Anxiety, insecurity, and uncertainty happens.
--The above cause pilots to needlessly quit flying
--Stress affects the ability to use good judgment.
--Stress can become chronic.
--Denial, suppression, rationalization and chemicals are reactions
not coping.
--Life has no joy, much hostility, poor health, and no future.
Coping with
stress:
--Find for yourself or with help the source of the stress.
--Plan a program of action. This will not be easy.
--Develop your flying skills to the point where flying is not
a part of the problem.
--Create a set of inviolate standards that will make flying as
safe as it can be.
--Accept the fact that life is made up of 'furtherances' and 'hindrances'.
--Consider a form of meditation.
--Learn to unwind. Flying works wonders.
Some safety
standards:
--Know the operational parameters of the aircraft.
--Altitude, airspeed, and fuel are forms of insurance.
--Know where you are in relation to airspace, traffic, and obstacles.
--Obey the FARs because they are created by accidents.
--Fly defensively.
Physical:
Altitude, noise, vibration, motion G-forces, temperature, air
quality, and sunlight.
Physiological:
Fatigue, sleep deprivation, illness, fitness, diet, dehydration,
weight, drugs, medication, caffeine, tobacco.
Psychological:
Mental, emotional, person-environment interaction, life changes,
health,
Some stress is needed to be healthy, motivated, and alert. Only accumulated stress is excessive and harmful. Knowledge, understanding, and experience are stress reducers. Excessive stress is shown by anxiety, irritability, excitability, impulsiveness, aggressiveness, overreaction, insomnia, depression, inattention, loss of memory, self-doubt, fatigue, trembling, weakness, diarrhea, indigestion, need to urinate, migraines, cold sweats, smoking or overeating.
Stress reducing
skills:
--Find the stress source.
--Get professional help.
--Finding solutions.
--Selecting a solution
--Taking corrective action
--Evaluating results.
--Making changes and trying again.
The Holmes/Rahe Life Change Scale as a series of 42 factors that range in value from 100 (death of a spouse) to 11 as a minor traffic violation. When the total score of an individual reaches 150 there is a 37% chance that there will be physical symptoms. At 200 there is a 50% chance of stress-related illness or accident. At 300 there is an 80% chance for such an occurrence. See AOPA Pilot's Handbook.
Meniere's disease usually occurs over age 40. Exact cause is in doubt but seems related to fluids in inner ear. Initial symptoms affect hearing but may be followed over a period of time by sweating, nausea, blurry vision and fatigue. Vertigo strikes and continues as intermittent lifelong condition. Affects personality. Occurrence and severity unpredictable.
A study of helicopter accidents has shown that three times as many pilot error accidents occurred during the lunch hours as at other times. Considering the time it takes for the body to benefit from eating, a good breakfast is highly recommended.
Food when converted into glucose is the source of brain energy. Glucose cannot be stored. As blood sugar it requires constant renewal. If glucose is not renewed the body and the mind shows evidence of fatigue, mental confusion, faintness, headache, memory loss, dizziness, vision problem, cold hands and feet.
Reduced blood pressure, tension, depression and hunger are
all symptoms of hypoglycemia caused by the lack of a balanced
meal for over five hours. Ten hours without food will severely
affect decision-making ability, alertness, coordination, and perception.
Skipping breakfast causes fasting hypoglycemia. All hypoglycemia
types can be aggravated by other physiological factors.
Altitude can incapacitate a pilot through dehydration. Increase
your fluid intake prior to and during flight. What you eat is
just as important as just eating. Reactive hypoglycemia can cause
lack of consciousness. This is a reaction to the doughnut/candy
bar meal. The student pilot who does not eat because of possible
airsickness is endangering himself if flying solo. High sugar
meals cause the pancreas to create excess insulin. Insulin allows
the body to use sugar. Too much insulin and deplete sugar to such
a low level as to incapacitate the body and mind. Adding caffeine,
alcohol and nicotine acerbates the problem. Flying should be preceded
by a balanced meal. Neuronutriments are the vitamins and minerals
that the body can change into neurotransmitters. Trace minerals
such as potassium, zinc, iron, and chromium are essential to control
the body's sugar burning process. The more balanced our meals
the better will be our mental functioning and memory.
Death acquires significance only when it occurs close at hand. A far off death is just an idea and the near death at hand forces you to give it notice. Aviation death is hidden under a cover of optimism. Pilots live in flight but chose to ignore that flight is the handmaiden of death. Death in flying happens just often enough that we should not ignore the existence and possibility.
We do not discuss death except in broad shallow terms. Only when it occurs close by, do we pay attention to the fact that our mortality has been served notice. We deal with life as a continual stacking of multiple decks of cards full of memories. We think about death only occasionally. We all do. Some of us more than others. As a pilot becomes older they become both better and more conservative. In one sense older pilots have died by losing their youth and all its blessings and faults. Life is backwards, we acquire the required wisdom without the youthful energy required to make it useful. The best we older pilots can do is to leave a legacy.