Altitude Chamber Training (pics)

[RV7Factory]

Thought you might find this interesting. Here is what I did yesterday...

http://picasaweb.google.com/pilotbrad/AltitudeChamber

It was well worth the $50.

[cjensen]

Sweet dude! Some of those pics are pretty funny...the expressions are amuzing!!

I gotta do this sometime!!

[RV7Factory]

My eyes? Did you see the guy next to me (to my left)? I'd like to say he looks freaked out, but he looked like that all day.

Two people got into the chamber, sat down for a minute, then got up and quickly walked out. I guess it wasn't for them.

[cjensen]

OOPS! I meant the guy next to you...didn't mean to type your/your...


You look funny all the time.

That dude does look FREAKED!!

[Brantel]

#7 almost looks like the "Ben" on Lost with them bug eyes.

[rv8or]

Smells gooooood, huh?


Joe

[RV7Factory]

Smells gooooood, huh?


Joe

It wasn't me... I swear!!!

[svanarts]

I think this one should be your avatar:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pilotbrad/A ... 8773380722

[RV7Factory]

I thought about it, but my current avatar puts a big smile on my face every time I see it.

[svanarts]

I can see why.

[Spike]

So what was it like?

[cnpeters]

Did this in my USAF days as a pre-med student. We went to 'altitude' in the chamber, then took off the masks. They gave us math problems to do - fairly soon, even easy addition problems were becoming difficult to solve. Color vision also starts to diminish. It was comfortable, hence the danger for pilots at altitude and in carbon monoxide poisomings. We were instructed to RECOGNIZE the signs of hypoxia and then don our O2 masks - once done, vision clarity was almost instant, colors enhanced, brain fog cleared. One of the eight of us in the chamber failed to don his mask, even with the attendant instructors yelling at him to highly consider getting his mask on. About the time he began slumping, they placed the O2 - he recovered quickly, but not without doing a little jerking of the arms and legs (the "funky chicken" per the instructors). Impressive was the lesson of how seducing hypoxia can be.

[RV7Factory]

So what was it like?

At first it didn't seem to hit me that bad, and I would describe my symptoms as a general sense of euphoria. I could feel my body slowing down, but I could still hear and understand what was going on around me. I think there is a natural response to convince yourself that you are OK, but when you go back on the O2, you realize quickly just how affected you had become.

We were at 25K, and the expected symptoms came on rapidly, but if you were at 15K and it crept up on you over time, I think you could easily fall victim to, as Carl said, the suduction of convincing yourself nothing is wrong.

They tell me that after 5 minutes at altitude I broke out into a medley of Neil Diamond's greatest hits, but I have no recollection of that happening.

[weezbad]

did they do the rapid decompression...i watched some other videos on youtube and that looks somewhat violent. i would probally be one of those to get up and leave.. nothing like a good ole MRI tube to give me the willys. sometimes it doesnt bother me, others i get all antsy and think im gonna hurt someone. likely me.

[Rockyjs]

Brad,
Anyone have problems coming down. The typical Navy run was up 5,000 fpm. Play around at 25K and come back down at 5,000 fpm. We had some ATC controllers with us once and one of them sitting across from me got 3 blocks coming down. It really got nasty. The drill was they take you off oxygen, give you a little cup of water and as you swallow it they give a blast of air up your nostril to clear the block. Repeat as necessary. This poor guy couldn't get clear, so up we go back to about 20K and they slowed the ride down to about 2,000 fpm. When we got out he had some blood trickling out of one of his ears.

Hypoxia is nasty stuff! I once was told to write my SSN as fast as I could. After about a minute or so they asked me to write it backwards. Well right in front of my eyes is my number written about 20 times, but when I began writing it backwards I actually remember reciting it to myself and writing starting with the last number and working back instead of just looking at the paper. I don't think I got it written twice before I started to ruler the paper and they put me back on oxygen.

[dons]

Might be good if every pilot could experience that under such a condition, bet nobody in that room will ever forget what can happen.

[RV7Factory]

"Did they do a rapid decompression?"

Not really. They called it rapid but IIRC we went up from 5K to 18K at 3,000fpm. It was fast enough that you had to keep your jaw moving around to equalize, but not fast enough to cause any problems. A cloud did form in the chamber (way cool).

"Anyone have any problems coming down?"

No, from what I could see nobody had any problems. The ride down was about 1,000+fpm with a stop for a night vision demonstration.

[RV7Factory]

I found this which shows the profile. The exception is the vertical spot on the way up... our acsent profile was more of a continuation of the slope, with a brief stop at 18K.

[tmbg]

I know I'm pretty sensitive to it... I get much above 9000' or so and I start getting kinda loopy, especially at night. I have a 22cuft 4 place O2 system that I picked up at oshkosh last year. People look at me kinda funny when I have an O2 system in a cherokee 140, but it makes long rides at altitude a LOT more comfortable.

If I fly over 8000' or so for several hours without oxygen, I end up exhausted and with a headache. On O2, I arrive refreshed and comfortable. Worth it!