Eggs at 15,500 and oxygen saturation

[carym]

Robert, I agree with everything you said.

Not to go on and on, but I just wanted to explain why hyperventilation is not a good idea to get your oxygen saturation up. As a flatlander, and an old one at that, my wife an I drop our oxygen saturation into the 80's (and sometimes even lower) when much above 8000 feet, even though we are at 98% or above when on the ground. In fact, my wife passed out once while climbing thru 9000 feet and I had to put the oxygen on her to get her to wake up. From that time on I have always made sure that we use oxygen whenever we go above 8000.

As you know, there have been several recent severe accidents that appear to have been due to hypoxia. Enough said.

[Tim H]

J

Seriously I'm not sure about eggs, but beware of potato chip bags. We were hauling a couple big bags of chips to a fly-in party in the back of our DA40, and they scared the crap out of me when they exploded at 7000 feet.

I had several potato chip bags explode on my as well. The next time I flew with potato chip bags, I used a pin to poke a small hole in the bag so it could "breathe" but still remain somewhat fresh. Worked fine.

Tim

[Steve]

In fact, my wife passed out once while climbing thru 9000 feet and I had to put the oxygen on her to get her to wake up. From that time on I have always made sure that we use oxygen whenever we go above 8000...

You know that commercial airliners typically maintain a cabin altitute of 8000 feet in cruise.

Steve

[carym]

That is what is commonly stated. However, the altimeter on my watch has never shown more than a 5000 foot altitude when at 35000 feet


Cary Mariash
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rwtucker]

That is what is commonly stated. However, the altimeter on my watch has never shown more than a 5000 foot altitude when at 35000 feet

Same here. I don't have my watch altimeter anymore but I used to see around 7,000 in some of the older jets on high cruise courses, around 6,000 on newer aircraft on high courses but the Bombardier RJs that I used to fly on a lot usually showed less than 5,000. I'm not sure where the 8,000 figure comes from but you see it everywhere.

[CFIDave]

I'm not sure where the 8,000 figure comes from but you see it everywhere.

Agreed. Furthermore, Boeing makes a big deal out of the fact that the carbon fiber composite fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner permits pressurization down to 6000 feet instead of 8000 feet.

[rwtucker]

I wonder if the 8,000 spec is an FAA required minimum PA based on the aircraft's maximum rated altitude.

[Kai]

Thanks for all the insight, Cary and Rob. Without explicitly asking Rob for permission, I have changed the thread topic so future generations of Diamond pilots will find this thread easily.

[rwtucker]

A big thanks Kai. I didn't know if I could do it on my end.

I know we really appreciate your keeping this system usable (and searchable), especially with people like me who tend to go off in tangents.

[trepine]

This is what I have, and would recommend it to anyone...I usually strap it on anything above 8K ft...It never needs refill and does pulse mode so it doesn't dry out my nose. Sometimes I just rest the canula pointing up on my chin right below my lip and breath off it that way...My oximeter shows that I usually drop sats some starting at about 7K-8K.

http://www.inogenaviator.com/