Smoke on a plane

The Aforementioned Altitude Chamber

Nice Rubber Family

These are the dummies used in crash tests at CAMI in Oklahoma City where I went through the Physiology of Flight course today. If you've never been in an altitude chamber, try it...it rocks. I didn't quite pass out but I did have a slight case of hypoxic amnesia. That is to say, at least one minute of my life went by unnoticed. But I did get to take note of my individual hypoxia symptoms which was kinda the whole point. What was most amazing though was how quickly everyone recovered after donning the oxygen masks. Where as the symptoms of hypoxia set in about a minute after rapid decompression (to 25,000 feet), the recovery happens almost entirely within the first few breaths of pure oxygen

Tomorrow we are scheduled to do the Post-Crash Survival course. This will probably not be quite as fun, but we do have a water egress scenario in the FAA pool. By the way, thanks to any taxpayers reading this. You are our benefactors.

Sorry for the long delay

Since I've been back from California, I've found it pretty hard to post. I'm staying in a different place every night and continuing to live out of a duffel bag. As far as the plane goes, progress is slow but I'm not too worried just yet. I moved it to one of the T-hangers so that I could work on it without distraction, but that hasn't worked out that well. I'll try to be better about posting.

Pokin around

One of the best things about this class is that we're able to look under the hood of certified airplanes.

Lassen Peak

I should be studying today but I had to get out at least once during this trip. Drove out to the nearest national park and hiked the biggest hill I could find. Turns out they have mountains in California and their air is real thin like. This particular mountain/volcano was well worth the hike.

Hand propping

Propeller repair

This was cool because we got to hack up the prop beforehand.

Composites

Today, we learned about composite repairs. Did you know that the tensile strength of the composite material that makes up the Lancair IVP is about eight times stronger than steel? Me neither. There are a few caveats (e.g. only in tension, not in compression), but I still found that pretty impressive given that it weighs almost nothing.

I'm pretty tired now though, so I'm gonna get some rest. I'll probably have some more stuff to write about after the weekend.