Taking an UNPRESSURIZED plane to 25,000'

[MissionaryBushPilot]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ryjVn7Gv0

[ericg]

Well done, if you get bored with with flying you could try movie directing. :-))

[MissionaryBushPilot]

Glad you enjoyed it. More to come, so consider subscribing if you would like to see more content like this in PNG.

[Flightrite]

Interesting ?

[Bruce Tuncks]

25,000 ft is well under the height of mount everest. I dunno just when the climbers use oxygen, or if they use it at all. Anybody climbed everest?

[Kyle Communications]

Excellent video great commentary

[kaz3g]

25,000 ft is well under the height of mount everest. I dunno just when the climbers use oxygen, or if they use it at all. Anybody climbed everest?

Not me... I don’t like heights. But later model Spitfires climbed past 40000 with just oxygen for the pilot (and lots of pullovers). Some of the PR flights were pressurised towards the end but the lids were screwed down which didn’t do much if you needed to abandon ship.

[pmccarthy]

James Glaisher on 5 September 1862 broke the world record for altitude, but Glaisher passed out before a reading could be taken.

Estimates suggest that he rose to 35,000 feet. The movie The Aeronauts is based on this story. Glaisher made 28 ascents between 1862 and 1866, recording observations that were crucial to our understanding of weather. Among his discoveries were the fact that wind changes speed at different altitudes, and the way raindrops form and gather moisture.

[facthunter]

Going to about FL 140 was considered to cure Whooping Cough. I did it several times for that purpose. Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

I knew a spitfire pilot who once forgot his oxygen mask while training. He flew without it and had bad luck when their leader decided to take them to over 30,000 ft.

He said he remembers 26,000 going up, and his next memory was 9,000 ft going down.

[IBob]

Managed to get our club signed up for a High Altitude session with the RNZAF, back when everything was less formal.

First we had a physiology lecture, then they stuck us all in their evacuation chamber (?)

 

Initially they took us to 18,000ft, with masks off.

If people knew how that felt we'd all have evac chambers in our basements and there'd be no need for bars. Unfortunately, it's not sustainable without damage. It's a very happy feeling, and they asked us various questions about the lecture, which we mostly didn't answer, but didn't much care.

There were about 18 of us in there, sitting round the walls, with an oxygen mask each, also two instructors.

 

They then had us put on the masks and took us to 25,000ft, where they had us take the masks off in pairs while everyone else watched.

The two with masks off were supposed to do repeated subtractions on paper, as I recall, it was 301 minus 7, then minus 7 again and so on. And every couple of minutes the instructors would get them to do coordination tests, which consisted of putting the index finger on their own nose, then on the instructors upheld index finger, repeatedly.

In short order, the maths becomes very difficult, but that's okay, and the coordination is like extreme drunk, but that's okay too.

They also had us hold our arms out straight in front of us, and you can't do that after a bit either: the arms keep dropping then jerking back up, it's called hypoxic flaps.

And different folk respond differently, which is the idea of having all the group watching. We had one girl got target fixation on the nose to index finger exercise, got very annoyed when the instructor dropped his arm, repeatedly grabbed him by the wrist so as to be able to continue it.

After a couple of minutes they tell you to put your masks back on. Some folk aren't interested in that either and the instructors have to hold the masks on them.

I can't remember what I did, but I do know that my colour vision had gone without me realising it: when I put the mask back on I got a terrific rush of colour.

 

Most people recover within seconds once the mask is on, but some do not...we had one of those.

And strangely enough one of our girls carried on doing the maths and the coordination etc fine at 25,000ft. And she was a smoker too........

 

It would be the easiest.....and nicest....thing in the world to carry on flying out over the sea, or to fly right on into a mountain. Our bodies send us no warning signals at all when hypoxia sets in.

 

If in doubt, trim for descent...........

[pmccarthy]

In 1918 a lot of flying was done at 20-21,000 feet as planes by then could reach that altitude. Apparently most pilots could do it for about 30 minutes.

[lee-wave]

Managed to get our club signed up for a High Altitude session with the RNZAF, back when everything was less formal.

First we had a physiology lecture, then they stuck us all in their evacuation chamber (?)

 

Initially they took us to 18,000ft, with masks off.

If people knew how that felt we'd all have evac chambers in our basements and there'd be no need for bars. Unfortunately, it's not sustainable without damage. It's a very happy feeling, and they asked us various questions about the lecture, which we mostly didn't answer, but didn't much care.

There were about 18 of us in there, sitting round the walls, with an oxygen mask each, also two instructors.

 

They then had us put on the masks and took us to 25,000ft, where they had us take the masks off in pairs while everyone else watched.

The two with masks off were supposed to do repeated subtractions on paper, as I recall, it was 301 minus 7, then minus 7 again and so on. And every couple of minutes the instructors would get them to do coordination tests, which consisted of putting the index finger on their own nose, then on the instructors upheld index finger, repeatedly.

In short order, the maths becomes very difficult, but that's okay, and the coordination is like extreme drunk, but that's okay too.

They also had us hold our arms out straight in front of us, and you can't do that after a bit either: the arms keep dropping then jerking back up, it's called hypoxic flaps.

And different folk respond differently, which is the idea of having all the group watching. We had one girl got target fixation on the nose to index finger exercise, got very annoyed when the instructor dropped his arm, repeatedly grabbed him by the wrist so as to be able to continue it.

After a couple of minutes they tell you to put your masks back on. Some folk aren't interested in that either and the instructors have to hold the masks on them.

I can't remember what I did, but I do know that my colour vision had gone without me realising it: when I put the mask back on I got a terrific rush of colour.

 

Most people recover within seconds once the mask is on, but some do not...we had one of those.

And strangely enough one of our girls carried on doing the maths and the coordination etc fine at 25,000ft. And she was a smoker too........

 

It would be the easiest.....and nicest....thing in the world to carry on flying out over the sea, or to fly right on into a mountain. Our bodies send us no warning signals at all when hypoxia sets in.

 

If in doubt, trim for descent...........

Remember that well IBob...did the hypoxia session twice at Hobsonville back in the 70s...I remember at 25K tunnel vision and virtual blackout.....'Hobby' was an RNZAF base on the N shore of Auckland open to gliding and some private flying. I served as instructor for several cadet squadrons for in the 80s and 90s. At Omamara and over the Kaimai ranges I managed to achieve several diamond height gain flights reaching a shade under 30K on one occasion...also reached over 20k at Aboyne in Scotland. Long distance wave flights in the S island of NZ are normally flown at lower altitudes due to the cold and the danger of losing your oxygen supply...some gliders had visual O2 blinkers on the dash as a positive visual indication of the correct flow rate.