Altitude sickness?

flyboy04

Well-Known Member
Ive only gotten sick on an aircraft twice since ive started flying and both times ive been at a higher altitude in a cessna 172. The highests ive been in the cessna is 7,500 and both times ive gotten a horrible headache and started to feel sick at my stomach, one time i had to use the sick sac
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. Is this related to altitude or just a coinsidence that i was high both times, has anyone else experience simular problems?
 
Ive lived in Louisiana all of my life and yes it was pretty much at sea level, here in florida its the same so ive never really experienced living at a high elevation.
 
I would say its coincidence. I've never had anyone get sick because of altitude...except low altitude, where its frequently bumpy around here. But I have no physiological/medical background to back that up, so you can pretty much ignore anything I say. Except that, no matter what is causing it, as you fly more and more, it will no longer be a problem.
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That's probably just motion sickness; you really do need to be at altitude for a day or more before genuine altitude sickness kicks in. Consider that airliner cabins are pressurized to 8000' at cruise; if people got altitude sickness (a form of hypoxia, really), they'd set it to a lower pressure altitude.
 
I usually get sick when its hot and facing the sun. The only thing I can do is climb up to a cold altitude and point all the vents at myself.

Tom
 
Hmmm... Well, it is possible that you're one of those that are less tolerant to high altitude flying. People's physiology is a bit different, and the air is thin enough at 7500 feet to begin to have an effect. You might have been experiencing some anxiety due to very slight hypoxia. I've experienced this myself when I first started flying single engine planes up higher. It's.... weird....
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In any event, my best solution is to aim the vent at me and blow some cool air my way. You'll eventually get used to it. Absolutly worse case, you can start using supplemental O2 up there.

Paul
 
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