When I think of learning to be a pilot, I think of stick and rudder type tasks. The more I learn though, the more I'm (pleasantly) surprised to realize there is a lot more to it than that. Some of those things include: what food to take on a long flight, the good and bad ways to keep the sun out of my eyes, and how to breathe. It sounds a little funny, but some of the fun parts of being a pilot include learning how to take care of the simpler things in life...while flying an airplane.

I recently got to attend some training in an altitude chamber at Tyndall AFB. It served as a good reminder of some of that basic pilot stuff I've learned...and helped me remember why it's important to re-learn some of that stuff every once in a while.

One of the main benefits of altitude chamber training is the opportunity to study your body's reaction to hypoxia in a controlled environment. Hypoxia, let's define it for now as degrading your body's ability to function by denying it necessary amounts of oxygen, is a big danger for pilots and has killed more than a few of us. Hollywood loves to do scenes about explosive decompressions, but I think the more serious danger is a slow, undetected leak in an aircraft flying at high altitude. Hypoxia symptoms have a way of sneaking up on a pilot, so it's very important that each of us learn to recognize those symptoms and correct the situation before we're incapacitated.

The way to learn this is to take a "flight" in an altitude chamber. In my case, this meant pre-breathing 100% oxygen for 30 minutes to prevent decompression sickness and then being sealed in a hypobaric chamber from which air is pumped until the air density inside the chamber is the same as it is at 25,000 feet. Then, I took off my mask, shut off my oxygen supply and tried to do simple math problems on a piece of paper attached to a clipboard. After a few minutes off oxygen, those hypoxia symptoms started to show up. I made notes on which ones arrived and when, and then (realizing I'd made little progress on the equations) turned my oxygen back on and put the mask back up...I was back to normal in a few seconds. Lesson 1: if you start to feel hypoxic, go on oxygen right away. It costs you little, and can make a world of difference.

This was my third time in a chamber, but I was surprised by some new discoveries. I'd experienced similar hypoxia symptoms on my first two flights and was expecting the same. This time however, some of the symptoms weren't there for me and those that were appeared much more quickly than I anticipated. Lesson 2: a person's symptoms can change over time. If you frequently fly at high altitude and haven't done a chamber flight in a few years, you might want to think about doing another soon.

After the flight, I wondered a lot about why my symptoms had changed so much. I decided that for my first two flights, my body had been more or less acclimatized to living (and working out) at 7258 ft field elevation. I've been stuck down around sea level for the couple years leading up to this flight. I also didn't get any breakfast the day of this flight and I think it played a part. Lessons 3 & 4: your body reacts differently to altitude based on what it's accustomed to, and it will only treat you as well as you treat it. The I'M SAFE acronym is how I learned to think about these factors:

• Illness
• Medication
• Stress
• Alcohol
• Fatigue
• Eating

They're not the sexy, flashy, Top Gun parts of being a pilot, but these few points can make a big difference in keeping yourself and your passengers safe. Don't forget to consider them before you fly. They are as much a part of that pilot stuff we need to remember as keeping the blue side up and the yaw string centered.

Photo via Northern Arizona University AFROTC program website.