WingsuitPilot
New Member
Hello,
I ruptured my left eardrum last week. I am currently on a sabbatical from work, so I am not concerned with being grounded at the moment. However, I have two questions.
First, I ruptured my eardrum flying a wingsuit while skydiving. I was falling about 3500 feet per minute at the time. While I am taking a break from flying professionally I would like to continue skydiving. I am in Italy at the moment and have gotten conflicting responses from ENT surgeons here as to recovery time and what I can do while waiting for it to heal.
In a general way, how long should it take to heal and how susceptible to re-rupturing is it until it heals.
Can I fly as a passenger on airline flights or as a passenger in a helicopter with more significant altitude changes while my eardrum is healing with out hindering the healing process?
Can I return to skydiving once the infection that caused it has healed? If so and in the future is it advisable or not advisable to wear earplugs while jumping. When I jump I am wondering if the shrinking pocket of air between the earplug and my eardrum contributed to the rupture. I encounter very high rates of decent while jumping and generally fall between 2200 and 5000 feet per minute when I use a wingsuit/parachute. If I do a normal skydive without my wingsuit I fall closer to 10,000 feet per minute. Is there a maximum descent rate I should limit myself to or a maximum altitude change in freefall to limit the overall pressure change while healing.
To what extent must it heal before my next flight physical renewal and return to work. Also, what tests if any will the flight surgeon need to perform aside from visual.
Also, what can I do to help it heal and how can I protect it for things like showering. Up to now I have been doing my best to keep water out of it, but something other than creating additional pressure on it while I bath such as an ear plug would be great.
These are a lot of questions, but part of my sabbatical was to learn to better fly a wingsuit, so I don't want to limit the healing but I would like to get back into freefall.
Thank you
I ruptured my left eardrum last week. I am currently on a sabbatical from work, so I am not concerned with being grounded at the moment. However, I have two questions.
First, I ruptured my eardrum flying a wingsuit while skydiving. I was falling about 3500 feet per minute at the time. While I am taking a break from flying professionally I would like to continue skydiving. I am in Italy at the moment and have gotten conflicting responses from ENT surgeons here as to recovery time and what I can do while waiting for it to heal.
In a general way, how long should it take to heal and how susceptible to re-rupturing is it until it heals.
Can I fly as a passenger on airline flights or as a passenger in a helicopter with more significant altitude changes while my eardrum is healing with out hindering the healing process?
Can I return to skydiving once the infection that caused it has healed? If so and in the future is it advisable or not advisable to wear earplugs while jumping. When I jump I am wondering if the shrinking pocket of air between the earplug and my eardrum contributed to the rupture. I encounter very high rates of decent while jumping and generally fall between 2200 and 5000 feet per minute when I use a wingsuit/parachute. If I do a normal skydive without my wingsuit I fall closer to 10,000 feet per minute. Is there a maximum descent rate I should limit myself to or a maximum altitude change in freefall to limit the overall pressure change while healing.
To what extent must it heal before my next flight physical renewal and return to work. Also, what tests if any will the flight surgeon need to perform aside from visual.
Also, what can I do to help it heal and how can I protect it for things like showering. Up to now I have been doing my best to keep water out of it, but something other than creating additional pressure on it while I bath such as an ear plug would be great.
These are a lot of questions, but part of my sabbatical was to learn to better fly a wingsuit, so I don't want to limit the healing but I would like to get back into freefall.
Thank you
