Gold Rush South America - aviation related

[flhrci]

Todd and his crew flew through the Andes mountains on last night's episode. I did not realize the mountains there were so high you had to fly on oxygen. Never occurred to me.

Do any of the North American mountain ranges "require" oxygen for flying due to altitudes flown?

Having never flown near any mountains, the thought of mountain flying and oxygen use had never come together I guess you could say.

David

 

[Kelvin]

I THINK there are passages out West that do require the pilot to be on oxygen...for sure there are passages where it is a good idea...

 

[Norman]

There sure are mountains in the west that require high enough MEA's to require O2. We returned from Oregon to Iowa, and crossed the rocks at 15,000. I was not on O2 for over three hours but the pilot was. I felt OK on the flight but when we stopped at Rapid City I exited the plane and walked to the FBO like a drunken sailor. That was my first experience with hypoxia, and it made me a believer.

 

[NineThreeKilo]

When I flew in the PNW, used to play in the cascades all the time, mainly IFR (as in I follow roads), had ridges well above me on both side but never flew north of 10k.

 

[Sac Arrow]

Yeah, even some of our coastal routes are done best with oxygen.

 

[Captain]

There sure are mountains in the west that require high enough MEA's to require O2. We returned from Oregon to Iowa, and crossed the rocks at 15,000. I was not on O2 for over three hours but the pilot was. I felt OK on the flight but when we stopped at Rapid City I exited the plane and walked to the FBO like a drunken sailor. That was my first experience with hypoxia, and it made me a believer.

Isn't there some sort of rule about passengers being on O2 at 15,000?

 

[EdFred]

Isn't there some sort of rule about passengers being on O2 at 15,000?

Has to be made available to them. They aren't required to be on it.

 

[Archammer]

When I was younger we took a flight from BJC (Broomfield, CO) to SBS (Steamboat Springs, CO) and were on O2 for most of the flight. SBS was about 7k MSL, so our cruise alt was around 14k-16k MSL. I think the MSA around most of the Continental Divide north of 40° is 14k or so.

 

[Inverted]

This is how I had to fly the BE99 over the Sierras every day. MEA was 14,000.

 

[Alexb2000]

They were landing at Cusco which is at 10,860'. With mountains around them going above 20,000' you can see why they were on O2. Watching Todd's big butt run around the mine at 18K, it's pretty obvious why he was feeling the altitude. Much higher terrain than in the states.

Using O2 isn't a big deal.