What is hypoxia?
A FAA flight surgeon gave me an excellent definition on the term. Hypoxia. He called it “STUPIDITY”. What typically happens when experiencing serious Hypoxia symptoms, you get too stupid to realize that something is wrong. For the regular smoker (especially with older people), these effects all occur at much lower altitudes. A person at sea level, who regularly smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, may theoretically be at 7,000 feet. If that person were flying at 12,000 feet, the actual altitude experienced could be as much as 19,000 feet. Obviously an altitude requires the use of oxygen. A person’s age drastically effects night vision. A 60-year-old has only 1/3 of the night vision of a 20-year-old. Of importance, there is very little peripheral vision at night. The see and be seen concept of aircraft collision avoidance is obviously limited during night flying. It is recommended that if one were to go above 18,000 feet, that person should be on oxygen for at least for 30 minutes prior t
