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High Altitude Ballooning, hypobaric chamber visit
Before we could attempt our high altitude hot air balloon flight
Lev David and I had to visit some grown ups that would frighten
us.... Well me certainly.
I was very pleased that, the Levster had managed to blag
business class seats on BA/Commair and sitting at 31,000' on the
way up eating breakfast it seemed that the trip would be very
straightforward. Until Lev asked what the outside temperature
was and we were told a chilly -42. We also had a tailwind that
got us to our destination 10 minutes early, ah um. But, the
houses didn't look too far away!!
The flight also gave me a chance to look at the Greytown /
Tugela area in great detail.
A slight technical crisis had arisen at East Coast that was
unwinding as we flew; the result was that rather than staying
over in Pretoria and meeting David Mortimer, what would be right
now, Lev had to quickly arrange to get us back the same day.
I went to the hire car office; we then proceeded to wait almost
as long as it had taken to fly up from Durban for the car. You
know the story, space for five people to help with only two
working.
That made us fairly late onto the R21, we had been told it would
take an hour to get to the Institute for Aviation medicine in
Pretoria and of course there were traffic snarl ups being
reported on the radio.
Stress is one of the factors that affect the early onset of
Hypoxia, with a problem at East Coast, complete change of
arrangements, delayed hire car and journey we thought impossible
to do in the available time we managed to arrive on time and
feeling not in any way flustered!
I was fairly amazed that Lev just uttering the words, "We are
here to see Sgt Major Ross", made the gates open, it was
effortless. I expected at least 20 minutes of being asked
questions about my great grandparents.
As it should be, in the building in which big machines are held
there were plenty of echoing corridors and steps. The chambers
of which there were two had the appropriate number of levers and
dials. Sgt Major Ross was the man operating the controls and
unfortunately I cannot remember the names of the two doctors.
One a physiologist and the other a straight forward medical man.
Both of them seemed just older than my eldest son who is in
grade 0.
We were to be taken fairly rapidly up to 12,000' sit there a
while making sure all was ok and then at 2000 fpm up to 20,000'
where we sat for several minutes without oxygen steadily loosing
functions! Yet again sponsors HP came to the fore as the machine
monitoring our health was made by them. The doc measured our
blood saturation level dropping and would not let it drop below
60%.
Just for Lev here's a chart explaining what range it
should be
in. I think, although my mind may not have got this right at
20,000', I will have to review the video carefully. Lev's
saturation which was 100% at base point dropped to 65 and mine
79 although my saturation at the start was 95 I think. By the
following chart that makes me indifferent normally. That can't
be right ;-)
Stage Altitude in Feet Saturation (%)
Indifferent 0 to 10000 95 to 90 Compensatory 10000 to 15000 90
to 80 Disturbance 15000 to 20000 80 to 90 Critical 20000 to
23000 70 to 60
My slightly better performance at altitude may be the km's I
have done in the gym. Or it could be that Lev had been up until
two that morning preparing today's show which then all fell
apart and he's sitting at the station making another plan right
now! Or could also be the fact that Lev lives at sea level and I
live at 4000'.
I was very nervous about the chamber, Lev on the other hand took
the view that there were grown ups, sort of, with us and they
wouldn't let anything happen. I took no solace earlier when one
of the Generals in a brief brief suggested that, "30,000' is too
high and we might be best to pray!" Hum sound medical advice,
I'm not sure.
The chamber itself was noisy, brightly lit and with a bearded
man outside at the big picture window operating levers.
If you suffered from claustrophobia the closing of the door
would instantly bring on panic I should think. At one point Lev
asked if Sgt Major Ross could hear us and then made some off
colour remarks to which the psychologist replied that, "He
couldn't hear us which was just as well because he is the chap
that lets us out".
I personally felt the tingling at my extremities and anxiety.
More than likely euphoria but its hard to tell. Lev seemed to
get quieter. We obviously both survived but the stupidity of
attempting anything at high altitude without the right equipment
was underlined.
When they bought us down at 4000' fpm my right ear very quickly
became blocked and very painful. I asked them to slow the rate
of descent, which Sgt Ross did and then we actually climbed back
up to 18,000' again which helped. We then descended at a much
slower rate with me clearing my ears best I could.
We left Johannesburg in a rush to get Lev back to the station,
I think neither of us really grasping what a day we had had.
Only in the following week did we really start talking about our
chamber ride!
Gary
http://www.airborneadventuresafrica.com
About the author:
A professional hot air balloon pilot for 18 years. Gary has
flown passengers in Thailand, Australia,Kenya, South
Africa,England and France
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