REFLECTOR: Flying High

[Chuck Jensen]

Richard,

What was the equivalent altitude that you starting experiencing peripheral vision degredation?  

On the other hand, a fellow just got done climbing Mt. Everest wo/oxygen.  And flying a Velo is less effort than climbing Mt. Everest...except for landing in a nasty crosswind.

Chuck
Do Not Archive.

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On
Behalf Of Richard Riley
Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 12:58 PM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Flying High


At 07:55 AM 5/14/05, you wrote:
>     Each person's reaction to oxygen depravation "can" be different. 
> There is a list of symptoms such as headache, nausea, giggles, and all 
> the other things that Jorge mentioned.

Absolutely.

I went through the chamber at Edwards before they closed it.  I was in 
amazingly good shape at altitude - kept up conversation, did math problems, 
said tongue twisters.  But my peripheral vision was gone.  I had about a 40 
degree field of view, everything else was red/black.  Of course, other 
things deteriorated with time, but that was my first significant 
symptom.  I'm kind of lucky, it's an easy one to recognize.

I turn on my O2 system (electronic metered), and set it to night, at 5000 
feet.  I'm refilling from a welding tank so it costs pennies, and after a 
flight I just feel better.  It also means I don't think twice about going 
to 15 or 17k, to get above turbulence.

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