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There are several channels on YouTube devoted to MS Flight Simulator re-enactments of air crashes. While not always 100% technically accurate, they can give you the general narrative of these accidents as well as the final investigation results and some speculations on circumstances. Most of them are done from the perspective of "armchair experts" who've clearly never actually flown other than as an airline passenger.
Cheers,
Wes
What's a pressure-breathing exercise?I've been through a Navy chamber ride which featured "mask off" stops at 26K, 32K, and a pressure breathing exercise at 46K.
Yikes, it seems the lesson is: "if in doubt, grab the oxygen mask"The difference in usable consciousness between 26 and 32 was dramatic! About 2 min 15 at 26 before I started missing my coordination targets and reached for my mask. At 32, I kissed the floor 20 seconds after my mask came off. No warning tingles or wooziness, just "plop"!
I guess that does fairly accurately test judgement under adverse conditions: Bailouts are chaotic (if you survive it) and after that you still need to keep your head about you as you hit the water. At night, that's gotta be hard figuring out which way's up as you can barely see anything, in daytime you can at least see the bubbles, then there's that nice parachute that helped keep you from going splat, and now plans to drown youRight after the chamber "touched down", they took us off the oxygen and sent us out to the "boom bucket" ejection seat trainer and the "Dilbert Dunker" cockpit submersion escape trainer.
The danger of hypoxia is not when you have a task to do, it is when you don't. If you are trying to do something and cant, losing coordination etc then you may well think "Oxygen starvation" the real danger is when you are just sat doing nothing in particular and feeling drowsy, suddenly you are gone, like falling asleep at the wheel of a car. It is hard to believe you can fall asleep while driving a car or truck but many do. Perhaps the most dangerous part is that it isn't unpleasant, quite the opposite, people who have survived it describe a pleasant sleepy feeling, hypothermia sometimes does the same.What's a pressure-breathing exercise?
Yikes, it seems the lesson is: "if in doubt, grab the oxygen mask"
I guess that does fairly accurately test judgement under adverse conditions: Bailouts are chaotic (if you survive it) and after that you still need to keep your head about you as you hit the water. At night, that's gotta be hard figuring out which way's up as you can barely see anything, in daytime you can at least see the bubbles, then there's that nice parachute that helped keep you from going splat, and now plans to drown you
I've watched them (there were a series of books written by MacArthur Job as well) mostly out of curiosity, and being an aviation buff.I have been watching Air Disasters on the Smithsonian channel, mainly due to professional curiosity.
It's sad that people use automation so much that they become incapable of doing anything on their own.Some foreign airline professional airline pilots were inadequately trained on non-automatic flying techniques
Was that the Crossair flight?One airliner was lost because of the crew incompetently flew a non-precision approach (ILS was down, oh panic!) by drifting off course and descending BELOW the published minimum descent altitude (MDA) without having the runway in sight (could the runway not be seen because there was a hill in the way? Alas).
Those are the old radio-navaids with the needle pointing to the antenna, and using two to identify intersection points that form corridors?We flew worldwide routes into places like Addis Ababa and Tehran where the approaches were ADF (four ADF in the case of Tehran).
While I understand procedures are to be followed, I tend to try and find out what's written on paper, and what you actually do (they should be the same, but they aren't always...): I was always under the impression that if a depressurization occurs, first thing you do is grab the mask, turn on the oxygen, and then sort out anything else...The last example was the most baffling, the crash in 1999 of the Learjet 35 carrying the golfer Payne Stewart.
It was in the list but it was like #8 or something...When the investigation group reviewed the published emergency procedures, donning the oxygen mask was not at the top of the list (I don't know if it was mentioned at all)!
All military... frankly it should be extended to commercial aviation too, but it ain't gonna happen.AF and I assume Navy pilots
Yes, but it's vital to make sure you convert kilos to gallons, and gallons to liters right or you'll takeoff with half a tank. I'm amazed nobody noticed the plane was climbing really well...I loved the one on the Gimli Glider. We REALLY need to all convert to the metric system!
Yeah, that was profoundly screwed up...Pacific Southwest 1771
For hiring or requiring everybody to go through the magnetometer?They changed screening rules after that.
No, the requirement was that employees could bypass screening, he was fired but due to a screw-up, they did not seize his ID...My memory is that passengers on intrastate flights didn't have to go through pre-flight screening, and that this rule changed shortly after, but it may be that the passenger still had an airline ID and could bypass security.
If the ammo would not have the power to penetrate a body, you could be looking at some kind of covert op: There are many zip-guns that do not have rifling...Lots of theories with the DC-6 crash killing Hammarskjöld. His bodyguards were found with bullet wounds at the crash site. Wiki's explanation seems logical as to how the wounds were caused.
Yeah, but look how many planes takeoff and land just at one airport in one day without incident?The Air Disasters series I have seen make me wonder about ever getting on an airliner again.
Amazing, you'd think the fact that they were flying into the sun would tip them off... I was driving today and had to keep fiddling with the visor because some of my route had me pointing into the sunThere was a VARIG 737 where the pilot and copilot read a flight plan for a course of 27.0 deg as being 270 deg and flew off into the setting sun until they ran out of fuel over the jungle and crashed. Their destination was almost due north and they flew into the setting sun
When my 2 oldest were flying from Vancouver to Prince George, an episode of "Mayday" was playing in one of the lounges. This didn't help my daughter who is petrified of flying
Quite similar in some ways, they both deprive the brain of oxygen, but CO, HCN, KCN are actually worse as they not only bind to hemoglobin, but also disrupt the electron transport chain (that's the aerobic cycle that occurs inside the mitochondrion of our cells) which renders all of our cells anaerobic...Hypoxia is almost exactly the same as Carbon Monoxide poisoning
Good point...The danger of hypoxia is not when you have a task to do, it is when you don't.
You know, I was thinking of something: The B-52's sometimes hit altitudes of 55,000 feet, as did some of the V-Bombers.At one time B-17 crews carried bailout oxygen bottles. That practice had been discontinued when I was there. The training theory was when bailing out at altitude you may pass out during free fall but regain consciousness in time ( 10,000 to 15,000 ft, ) to activate the parachute. Scary business.
I think you misunderstood.I guess that does fairly accurately test judgement under adverse conditions: Bailouts are chaotic (if you survive it) and after that you still need to keep your head about you as you hit the water. At night, that's gotta be hard figuring out which way's up as you can barely see anything, in daytime you can at least see the bubbles, then there's that nice parachute that helped keep you from going splat, and now plans to drown you
Sorry...............BillI think you misunderstood.
The Dilbert Dunker is not about bailouts, it's about going into the drink off the flight deck without time to punch out. They swaddle you in all the paraphernalia of a jet pilot and strap you into a cockpit on top of a ski-jump-like tower over a swimming pool. Then the cockpit runs down the skijump, dives into the pool, summersaults inverted, and sinks. You have to free yourself from all the straps, harnesses, and hookups, get yourself out of the cockpit, figure out where "up" is amidst the cloud of bubbles, and struggle to the surface. It's funny how the immediate bouyancy that makes it difficult to exit downward out of the inverted cockpit evaporates once you're headed upward, making it a struggle to surface. Makes you appreciate the safety diver hovering down there with his shroud cutter and Bowie knife.
Cheers
Wes
Above approx 45K pressure altitude, even 100% O2 doesn't provide enough partial pressure of O2 for human survival, so if pressurization is lost, oxygen must be supplied to humans at pressure above ambient. This tends to inflate your chest like a balloon, and you have to struggle to exhale. Human musculature is designed to expand the chest while relaxing the muscles causes an exhale. Pressure breathing forces you to fight the pressure in order to exhale, a very tiring and claustrophobia inducing effort. I strained my very weak exhalation muscles in only 5 min at 46K, and my chest was sore for a week. Most of others in the chamber were highly fit fighter and attack pilots, and if I hadn't been doing a lot of scuba diving at the time, I would have wimped out.What's a pressure-breathing exercise?
Depressurization checklists for every pressurized aircraft I know of start with: "DON OXYGEN MASKS". I'm surprised that wasn't the case with the 1999 Learjet crash. I bet it is now.Yikes, it seems the lesson is: "if in doubt, grab the oxygen mask"
Don't know about V bombers, but the BUFF had downward firing ejection seats with barometric parachute openers usually set for the low teens in altitude. My ex-SAC acquaintances tell me the seat was equipped with a bailout bottle that fed the mask while the seat was free falling under a drogue chute down to whatever seat separation/parachute deployment altitude was set in the barometric opener.The B-52's sometimes hit altitudes of 55,000 feet, as did some of the V-Bombers.
Since they didn't wear pressure-suits, how did they remain breathing after bailout?
I did.I think you misunderstood.
Yikes... I guess whatever way the bubbles go, that's the way you should go. At night that's gotta be brutal.They swaddle you in all the paraphernalia of a jet pilot and strap you into a cockpit on top of a ski-jump-like tower over a swimming pool. Then the cockpit runs down the skijump, dives into the pool, summersaults inverted, and sinks. You have to free yourself from all the straps, harnesses, and hookups, get yourself out of the cockpit, figure out where "up" is amidst the cloud of bubbles, and struggle to the surface.
It's like you can't get the air out fast enough, and you'd be wondering if your lungs are going to go pop from it. I don't know how it'd induce claustrophobia, but it sounds very uncomfortable.Above approx 45K pressure altitude, even 100% O2 doesn't provide enough partial pressure of O2 for human survival, so if pressurization is lost, oxygen must be supplied to humans at pressure above ambient. This tends to inflate your chest like a balloon, and you have to struggle to exhale. Human musculature is designed to expand the chest while relaxing the muscles causes an exhale. Pressure breathing forces you to fight the pressure in order to exhale
That sounds like it'd do it...Don't know about V bombers, but the BUFF had downward firing ejection seats with barometric parachute openers usually set for the low teens in altitude. My ex-SAC acquaintances tell me the seat was equipped with a bailout bottle that fed the mask while the seat was free falling under a drogue chute down to whatever seat separation/parachute deployment altitude was set in the barometric opener.
You can't exactly follow the bubbles because you have to swim away from the cockpit before surfacing to make sure you're well clear of the rapidly sinking aircraft and any fuel or hydraulic fluid it may have spread on the water.Yikes... I guess whatever way the bubbles go, that's the way you should go. At night that's gotta be brutal.
Don't worry, your lungs won't pop. The overpressure is regulated to a small amount above ambient, and the human ribcage is an amazingly strong structure.It's like you can't get the air out fast enough, and you'd be wondering if your lungs are going to go pop from it. I don't know how it'd induce claustrophobia, but it sounds very uncomfortable.
Zipper, biology was my favourite and best subject at school, however our minds work in different ways. I would consider Hypoxia to be much worse. That is because if you are overcome by Carbon Monoxide you are not at 50,000ft and there is at least a chance of someone finding you and getting you to safety.Quite similar in some ways, they both deprive the brain of oxygen, but CO, HCN, KCN are actually worse as they not only bind to hemoglobin, but also disrupt the electron transport chain (that's the aerobic cycle that occurs inside the mitochondrion of our cells) which renders all of our cells anaerobic...
It's called "having a good mask seal".
I did.
Yikes... I guess whatever way the bubbles go, that's the way you should go.
Been there, done that. 98% of my flying time was hand flown, but I did have a former student, a private business owner, who bought a tricked out Cessna turbo 210 and hired me to fly his people around and instruct any of them who wanted to get some stick time. This plane had a top of the line autopilot, area nav and flight management system, and flying became a matter of programming and monitoring rather than "driving the airplane". After three or four hours at FL230 unpressurized, with the nosebags on, the siren song of sleep became overwhelming. I would ask the guys in back to set their watch alarms to five minute repeat and check us in the front seats at each interval. As the only professional aviator in the bunch, I was the only one who couldn't afford one of those fancy dancy "aviator watches" that were so popular back then. Got woken up by ATC or the back seat guys on more than one occasion. Didn't help that the owner was a stickler for productivity, which meant long days, short nights, and multi day trips were the norm. Didn't have ALPA to fall back on, back then.Read this in one of those fact books - seemed hard to believe, but it also directs the reader to the appropriate site where they got the info from...
More than half of British pilots fall asleep on the job, says report - AOL UK Travel
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