Philip,

You might want to consider buying oximeter for your flying. They make small batter powered ones you can clip on your finger in flight and it’ll give you your blood’s oxygen saturation level. This is the best way to measure the onset of imparement. Self-assessment only works so far, because the symptoms of hypoxia include a feeling of well-being and relaxation.

As for making your way into the LA basin, those of us based here would probably tell you that flying at 14k isn’t likely to save you much in the way of punishment when you’re passing over the Banning/Palm Springs area. The worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced was in that region. I was on my way to an aerobatic competition in Borrego Springs and got whacked with such extreme turbulence I couldn’t even keep the plane upright. Even though I was strapped down, I still banged my head on the canopy several times.

If you really want to see some serious “a train”, fly up the Owens Valley toward Mammoth. The valley floor is maybe 1500 MSL while just a mile away the terrain will rise to 15,000 feet. It’s well worth the trip, though. It’s the only place I can think of where you’ll see things like this:

http://www.rapp.org/url/?ZKJ0PHJK

That’s a photo of the Owens Dry Lake. No retouching or editing. I’ve seen that lakebed appear bright red, flourescent green, black, white, and every color in between.

Welcome to California.

grate

Patrick: Not sure. I do think that, despite the oxygen, I make more small mistakes at high altitude than at low, e.g., getting a digit wrong in a VOR frequency or whatever and having to correct it. I’ve never noticed this when driving or walking around at high elevations in the Rockies or Sierra, though I have noticed getting a headache sometimes, but maybe because I wasn’t trying to do much of anything except put one foot in front of the other.

Philip, do you think that mistakingly hearing “Fly heading 230 for a train” instead of “Fly heading 230 for terrain” is such an early sign of intellectual impairment as a result of flying at high altitude, or just a (funny) coincidence?

Kleman, the regs are not optional, even for folks who think that they are smarter than the entire FAA. In any case I’m not sure that you do understand airplanes as well as the FAA. It doesn’t take “only one hour” to get to 14,000′ in a cheap turbocharged airplane such as a Mooney but rather more like 10 minutes from sea level. And that Mooney can keep climbing right up to 25,000′. Airline pilots learn about “seconds of useful consciousness” following decompression. At 37,000′ it is about 7 seconds. Down in the 20 thousands it is more like 30 seconds. http://www.mountainflying.com/hypoxia.htm is a good intro and notes that “Intellectual impairment is an early sign and makes it improbable for the individual to comprehend his own disability” (i.e., many people won’t realize that they need oxygen before they become unconscious).

Eventually I think I’ll get around to buying a pressurized airplane such as a Piper Malibu or a turbine-powered aircraft of some sort. Then I won’t have to deal with supplemental oxygen except in an emergency.

“… guard against the possibility of a severe reaction …”: Any citations or specific cases for this? This simply does not happen, if you mean a sudden reaction that takes place over seconds or minute. You have plenty of time to use oxygen after you notice you are getting a headache or other reaction. The risk from “descrease in mental acuity” is pretty much balanced out by the risk of explosion from the oxygen.

As for mountaineering, sure the Everest example was an exageration, but you’ve never flown that high and never will. In the range of 10,000-14,000 feet, backpackers and climbers go from sea level to those altitudes in half a day all the time in the Sierras and the Rockies (most of the way in their cars). Admittedly though flyers may do it in only one hour.

BTW, your double-spacing-between-sentences hack isn’t working in the comments: get to work and fix that! I’m having a lot of trouble recognizing the ends of your sentences.

Grr, no edit, sentence should have said “..payfor access in most airports…” …

Philip, it was a troll, I realize it’s not a feasible solution and I’m no expert so I can’t ascertain whether or not more private jets == less commercial flight scheduling… it sure seems that way though…

It’s just a blast based on my frustration with my flying XP … being stuffed into a tube along with 200 others, having to endure long waits in airports (post 9/11 has made this a lost worse) not designed to accomodate travelers (why is it every hotel now has high speed net access availability, most for free, while I can’t even get payfor access in most airlines, let alone a sandwich after 8p…)…

… God I hate flying but I’ve been forced to do it once or twice a week for the last year… I’m going to start making it a mandatory stipulation that I cannot travel unless it’s first class, which will make scheduling even tougher…

Funny you bring up Neutron Jack … he’s probably singlehandedly been responsible for the loss of millions of jobs, as corporate CEO seek to emulate his GE performance and search to slash everything and become a shell company, a brand name that can basically act as a toll booth, but a powerful tool booth that can dictate the fortunes of lesser companies… not so sure that the existence of “Jack Welch” characters is beneficial to societal fortunes

Oh yes, Javier, I forgot to mention that the briefers had called for turbulence below 14,000′ and that there was a pilot report of “severe turbulence” with 2,000 fpm updrafts. So I wasn’t in a hurry to get down lower and become intimate with the mountains.

Naum: Your proposal to ban private aircraft would work well in a planned Soviet-style economy where removing resources from one sector frees them up for another. How exactly do you imagine that, in a free market economy, keeping the rich from going golfing, fishing, and partying in their Gulfstreams will cause the addition of more 737 flights for the rabble? Certainly it is not airspace congestion or conflicts with private aircraft that cause airlines to go bankrupt. Most cities in the U.S. are desperately anxious for more rich people to show up in private jets. One corporate looter such as Jack Welch shows up in one of the GE jets (he’s retired but I read that he still gets to ride on them as much as he wants). The GE shareholders pay for $10,000 of jet fuel at the local gas station. Jack himself buys a $10 million 7th home. He stays in a $12,000/night hotel suite while his 7th home is being redecorated. You’d need to attract 500 average folks to equal the boost to the economy of a single rich guy like Jack Welch.

I’m all for banning all private air flights and having more commercial flights added … in many cities, the volume of traffic has grown so much… …the skys should belong to us all…