Ice or Hypoxia?

The Flying Club manager where I learned to fly in WA was also the DPE- a crusty old fella who'd been flying long enough to have been a USAF Colonel- in Vietnam.

He once told me a story about a crew in a twin of some sort that go hypoxic at a relatively low altitude. I forget the type, but it had a CVR.

They giggled all the way to fuel starvation... and impact.

I'd rather ice up and lucidly "fly it all the way to the crash site" in some sort of controlled, quasi-intentional fashion that just fiddle while Rome burned and take whatever type of crash sequence the Reaper dealt me. If I absolutely have to lose to the elements, I'm going out wide-eyed and swinging for the fences. Might not 'go out' at all in that scenario.
 
I've been off O2 at 21000 for over 15 minutes without any negative effects..then it was a slow degradation to over 25 minutes...It's very likely that you're out of the icing before then and I would climb out of the icing...you won't have control of any sort if you stay in it...just my opinion...
 
Bumblebee said:
I've been off O2 at 21000 for over 15 minutes without any negative effects..then it was a slow degradation to over 25 minutes...It's very likely that you're out of the icing before then and I would climb out of the icing...you won't have control of any sort if you stay in it...just my opinion...
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I suppose this is true- a short duration could be readily survivable.

Granted, some of the previous examples had longer periods of time involved.

The training video they give about loss of cabin pressure here at the Beagle uses a pretty dramatic example from a guy who experienced one in C-141 at altitude. The effects were rapid. I'm not really sure I'd want to risk that creeping in at me unless I was really sure that it would get me clear of the ice in rapid fashion.
 
MikeD said:
Better than having the castle burn down, fall over, then sink into the swamp.....
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You know, thanks to this quote, when you Google that line right there, this thread is actually the second thing that comes up in the results.

Monty Python.... and pilots discussing hypoxia and ice.


FTW! :laff:
 
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