Dont Fly Sick!

loudbagel

loudbagel

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Hummingbird Saltalamacchia
Two weeks ago I develped a slight head cold with all the general symptoms, clogged nose and such, I got it on Monday and It was gone by Wednesday one week ago.

So I go flying today in the Cirrus, I took it all the way up to 8500ft for an hour then came back in and landed, everything went fine, flight was normal.

I put the plane away and head out the door maybe 20mins after touchdown, I get in my car and start driving down the road. I notice at this point my ears have not "popped" so I do as I was taught which is to plug my nose and blow like hell. As soon as my ears popped I believe I experienced a small dose of vertigo:yikes:(road began diving away and to the right from me) I was able to pull over and stop but by that time the vertigo had ended.

I had been taught physiological factors during my training and I know not to fly sick, but with symptoms of my head cold subsiding almost a week and a half prior, I cant believe this was the cause?

Could this head cold(again no symptoms in the week leading up to the flight) cause this instance of vertigo?

And was my little incident vertigo?


Stay safe!
 
Me, I self grounded myself (is that a phrase?) because I know it takes me about two weeks to overcome a nearly 12 hour jet lag difference coming from Southeast Asia.
 
Absolutely. It generally takes a big yawn and a few seconds for me to clear my ears. No problem in an airplane. No problem in life until I took SCUBA lessons. I discovered that yawning is problematic with a SCUBA mouthpiece. I surfaced, couldn't get my ears cleared and had the most amazing vertigo experience a couple of feet from the surface. Kept my head, it passed in a few seconds.
 
Caught a cold at Oshkosh once. Had my buddy fly us back. By the time I got home my temperature was in the triple digits, higher than it's been since I was a kid with the mumps.
 
If, for whatever reason, you find yourself at altitude with clogged sinuses - the time to val salva (holding your nose and blowing to clear your ears) is during the descent...not after! The later can cause much pain and, as has been mentioned, temporary vertigo. In extreme cases, a physician may have to punture the ear-drum to alleviate the pressure difference. I'm told that's excrutiatingly painful.
 
As a former scuba dive master I'm familiar with barotrauma, a few brief comments. First, obviously never fly sick. Second, you can test your ears ability to clear on the ground - hold your nose and mouth shut and *gently* exhale, you should feel a mild ear compression and the second you stop a decompression. If you don't, you're clogged and are likely to have trouble in the air. Third, (and I'm hesitant to mention this) if for some reason you are clogged and must experience pressure change (remember never fly sick) sudafed can help - three MAJOR caveats - one it can wear off at a bad time, two it's a drug with all the encumbering issues, and three make sure it works and you can clear.

When I started diving I had routine trouble clearing my ears - a few 100 dives later none. Nothing like 'exercise' to adapt the body.
 
I noticed when I was in the chamber they had an 'emergency' bottle of NeoSynephrine in a holder on the wall.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I noticed when I was in the chamber they had an 'emergency' bottle of NeoSynephrine in a holder on the wall.
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our squadron's Chief Corpsman would hand us a squeeze bottle of spray decongestant for just those emergencies - and then say "Two things... first, if you ever come to me with a sinus squeeze from descending too fast with congestion, and didn't use this bottle, I'll kick your a$$ before I fix it. Second, if you ever tell anyone I gave you this, I'll kick your a$$."

He was big enough to do it. :D
 
j1b3h0 said:
If, for whatever reason, you find yourself at altitude with clogged sinuses - the time to val salva (holding your nose and blowing to clear your ears) is during the descent...not after! The later can cause much pain and, as has been mentioned, temporary vertigo. In extreme cases, a physician may have to punture the ear-drum to alleviate the pressure difference. I'm told that's excrutiatingly painful.
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One important thing to mention about val salva - be careful and don't overdo it. I actually ruptured my own ear drum once trying to clear my ears that way from a bad cold/sinus infection. That was miserable and took almost 8 weeks for my hearing in that ear to return to normal.
 
I do a lot of scuba diving. Actually one of the big reasons I'm getting my PPL is so I can fly to some of the places I dive.

A couple points about ear clearing. By the time it starts to hurt, it is pretty much too late. You really need to clear before you start to feel any pain, if you get in the habbit of clearing your ears as soon as you start to notice the slightest preasure differential it will be MUCH easier.

Second, the more you do it, the easier it gets. Unless I'm congested I rarely have to do anything to clear my ears. It is not unusual for me to do a 150+ fpm descent on deep dives. I have done so many dives over the years it just happens without anything more than basically thinking about it.

I frequently tell my open water scuba students (basic scuba cert) to practice ear clearing. It might look a bit goofy, but if you will practice a few times a day for the day or two before you need it, it gets much easier.

Third, and most important. Do not force it! You can do some serious permanent damage to your ears trying to force them to clear. I have friend with permanent tinitus (ringing in the ears) from poor clearing techniques over the years.

-Dan
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
A doc once told me you lose 5% of your remaining hearing each time you rupture your drum.
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FWIW, after my eardrum was done healing, I did an audigram and had no change in my hearing at all (I get audiograms in the Navy once a year, so I have a pretty decent baseline to gauge from).
 
I too self ground when I have a cold that affects my ears. I always wondered how pro pilots deal with it.
 
I've had difficulty clearing my ears in flight even when flying with a cold that seemed to affect only my throat. So as a general rule, I don't fly with any kind of a cold, or if it's really mild and doesn't involve the ears, I limit myself to low altitudes, no more than 2000 AGL.
 
Another one is don't fly with an abscessed tooth. For 2000' the pressure would build up, build up, build up. Eyes watering then....POW!!! At 2500', 4500', and 6500' I would go through it. Descending was a non issue however.
 
I once was with a scuba diver who failed to equalize the air space behind his mask on an 85 ft dive or 2.5 extra atmospheres. It left his eye whites deep red and eye sockets black and blue.

It was really amazing since you start to feel a mask squeeze by 16 ft and everyone is trained to simple exhale through their nose to equalize the mask. I still can't imagine how he soldered on ignoring the pain. About 5 minutes into the dive he came to me pointing at his mask, so I indicated he should clear it (I had no idea what problem he was having).

After clearing my own mask and indicating he should do the same he shook his head no, so I pointed up and he shook his head no. I insisted and took him up and his eyes were very injured. I knew to be worried when he wanted 24 lbs of weight for a t-shirt dive in 86 degree water, but I never imagined that outcome.
 
Tooth squeezes can be the worst. Don't know they are there until it happens, and it's darn difficult to equalize.

@Dan in Georgetown -- Getting tired of brown water diving, are we? Me too!
 
When I took off yesterday, I had a minor sinus congestion. Max altitude was 6500 and DA on the ground was 1100. Upon arrival there was a 737 parked in front of us with his generator running and was very loud. I had natural hearing protection. I didn't notice clogged ears until the right ear 'released' then I made the left release.

I took a nasal spray decongestant lastnight and started feeling better, then 3 hours later I retired. I awoke with more congestion than yesterday. A shower and the spray is making me feel better.

Today is leg 2 of our trip, which I'd like to get up to 7500 or 9500 to clear the open water portion, but I'm concerned about how it may affect this sinus issue I'm having. Option B is to remain lower over land, which will add about 30mins to that leg. Option C is to stay on the ground. Outside pressure is the wife wants to go (me too) on this mini-cation to the Outer Banks and the hotel (difficult to find availability) is already paid for.

I haven't had breakfast yet, we have all day and tomorrow to wait it out.

Doc Bruce, are you still monitoring this thread? Advice please?
 
Jaybird180 said:
Today is leg 2 of our trip, which I'd like to get up to 7500 or 9500 to clear the open water portion, but I'm concerned about how it may affect this sinus issue I'm having. Option B is to remain lower over land, which will add about 30mins to that leg. Option C is to stay on the ground. Outside pressure is the wife wants to go (me too) on this mini-cation to the Outer Banks and the hotel (difficult to find availability) is already paid for.
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Stay low and go around.

If you must go high, descend at a really low rate - Like 300 fpm max, and work the entire time to clear. As the pressure builds, it'll get harder to clear.

I once had an ear block after landing that was only from 6500 MSL to 887 MSL descent, less than 6000 feet. It hurt, and took ~12 hours to clear. I think a descent from 9500 to 0-ish would have caused damage.
 
It could be, it could also be from the pressure pulse when it popped. The better way to clear your ears is through the use of the Valsava maneuver where you move your jaw to clear.
 
We launched!







Got 40 miles out, max altitude 7500









Turned back :(


Learned valuable lessons. Will post on it in another thread.
 
Am monitoring, but I am just SWAMPED at the office. Today there wasn't a SINGLE CALL I didn't have to place on hold. Unbeerevable.

It sure is miserable flying with congestion. Just miserable, miserable, miserable. You might be able to do it with Afrin, but it only for 72 hours of 12 hourly- usage. The membranes get into rebound swelling after that. :(
 
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