A Chapter 21 member recounted an AME's suggestion from an Oshkosh aero-medical seminar on the use of oxygen and hypoxia. Yup - Find Your Number.
We're all different - age, body type, health status (both acute and chronic medical conditions), etc. So, the regulations regarding oxygen use may fit a healthy 22 year old but not everyone.
To find your number you'll need to go flying.
Take (or borrow) a pulse oximeter and climb to a cabin altitude where your oxygen saturation falls to and settles at 90%. That's your number. It may be 8,000 or 10,000 but for the majority of us it is not 12,500 ft. and above. Below 90% you are "on the bottle".
Of course, the use of oxygen at night at cabin altitudes of 5,000 and above still holds true. And the number is not static. Recovering from a respiratory illness, a general change in your health status, certain medications, smoking, seasonal allergies, etc. may require a change in your number.
So the take away message here is you may be experiencing mild hypoxia well below the altitudes in the regs. So, go find your number and remember to check it often.Statistics: Posted by rhino — Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:40 am
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