REFLECTOR: Flying High

[Jorge Bujanda]

Al,
Great example of several totally unexpected things going wrong on a 
perfect flying day; stress, lung and eye irritants, decreased oxygen, 
etc. I have learned from it. I am glad about the outcome and I am sure 
the experience made you a much safer pilot.



Al Gietzen wrote:

> Each person's reaction to oxygen depravation "can" be different.
>
> And different under different conditions. I think Jorge mentioned the 
> effect of stress. When living on the far north coast of CA (yep, sea 
> level), I would routinely fly at 9,500 or 10,500 ft over the mountains 
> of northern CA and southern OR; never experiencing any symptoms of 
> lack of O2, or even considering it. On one occasion at 10,500 I found 
> myself in smoke from major forest fires. I was flying VFR, and not 
> able pick up a VOR. No visible terrain. I was stressed. I was getting 
> a headache. I proceeded by dead reckoning to Klamath Falls, not sure 
> if I was going to find it, and it was a place I had never previously 
> landed (continued stress). Came out of the smoke, found myself close 
> to KLMT, descended to pattern altitude (still over 5000 ft) and made a 
> very poor landing (mis-judged how far the wheels were off the runway 
> as the stall horn started sounding, and the left wing dropped). 
> Fortunately didn’t bend anything, but felt weak and shaky as I stepped 
> from the airplane, and wondered what was going on.
>
> Realized later that it was more than just relative inexperience, but 
> likely was some degree of hypoxia. And I was younger then. I’m 
> planning an O2 system in my Velocity.
>
> Al
>
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