AircraftOwner Online

The Federal Aviation Administration’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in Oklahoma City offers a dynamic  course to help pilots understand physiological and psychological stresses of flight. The one day course is a must for anyone who flies higher than 10,000 feet but is valuable for all pilots.

    The course covers the common physiologic problems of flight as well as some of the uncommon ones like decompression sickness. Probably the most important part of the course is the experience in the altitude (hypobaric) chamber which cannot be easily duplicated in an aircraft.

    Pilots understand that training and recurrent training is important. Understanding physiologic issues is difficult without experiencing them and then periodically, revisiting the subject for new developments and reminders about how serious these problems may be.

    Spatial disorientation is one area that many pilots last felt on a spinning ride at a playground many years in the past. Adults tend to think that it takes that kind of force and velocity to create spatial disorientation because they have not felt the sensation in an aircraft.

    The FAA demonstrates that the initiators of do not require major forces using equipment like a Barany chair, a Vertigon, a GYRO, or a Virtual Reality Spatial Disorientation Demonstrator. This is the type of training that might have saved the life of John Kennedy Jr. and many other pilots­both high and low time.

    The use and abuse of oxygen and oxygen equipment is covered in the course as well as how to use a pulse oximeter. Understanding why the FAA recommends oxygen as low as 5,000 feet at night is covered as well as high altitude hypoxia in the chamber.

    The chamber experience is certainly dramatic. Pilots are taken to as high as 25,000 feet in the chamber and asked to remove their oxygen. They are then asked to do some simple math problems or other simple tasks. Watching the video of pilots going really stupid is entertaining and educational. The video is used to show this behavior because the hypoxic victim cannot recall how dumb they were.

    Rapid decompression from 8,000 to 18,000 feet is another demonstration that cannot be duplicated in an aircraft. Just knowing what that feels like and knowing what to expect is a real eye opener.

    Every pilot should go through a personal physiologic and psychological check list prior to each flight. The FAA uses the acronym “I M SAFE”. The acronym stands for Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, and Emotion. Let’s go through this simple check list.

    Illness may seem straight forward but there are many pilots who took off with their stuffy noise from the spring hay fever season who suffered incapacitation pain when they could not clear their ears on decent. The stuffy nose did not appear to be important on the ground but aviation presents many unique factors to illness.

    Medications can definitely be a problem. No pilot should fly when starting new medications since every drug can cause side effects regardless of the labeling. Of particular concern are psychoactive medications. A psychoactive medication ranges from psychological drugs like anti anxiety agents to simple antihistamines over the counter. Any drug that can affect the brain, whether it is sedating or alerting, can pose problems in the cockpit. Altitude may also increase side effects of medications.

    Stress can have significant impact flight safety. Regional airline pilots has claimed, rightly so, that they jobs are harder than the big iron pilots due to all the takeoffs and landings in a day at uncontrolled airports with marginal weather reporting equipment. This is the kind of stress that leads to mistakes­most not so serious but some are tragically fatal. This same kind of stress can affect general aviation pilots. Getting up early for business trips with returns late on the same day is a classic example of stress for a GA pilot.

    Alcohol is generally an obvious problem for piloting an aircraft. What also has to be considered is the effect of residual alcohol from the night before and/or a hangover on pilot performance. Also, a hangover will increase the risk of motion sickness, spatial disorientation, and cognitive mistakes.

    Fatigue goes hand in hand with stress. It can be a real problem on long flights as well as cause real impairment as the work load increases.

    Emotion is a factor that frequently gets overlooked. Going out and doing touch and goes may not be the best way to shake off the anger generated by your teenage kids. The effect of emotions on the thought process and the ability to perform complex task is significant.

            More information on the CAMI course can be found at http://www.faa.gov/pilots/training/airman_education/aerospace_physiology/index.cfm. Courses are also given as several military facilities around the country.