Aircraft Oxygen Systems

Description

Aircraft Oxygen Systems

Aircraft Oxygen Systems(English) by Robert Scheppler (2006).

Description

Aircraft Oxygen Systems

Most pilots don’t think too much about using portable oxygen. Sure, everyone knows that you have to use supplemental oxygen if you fly more than 30 minutes at cabin pressure altitudes of 12,500 feet or higher. That at cabin altitudes above 14,000 feet pilots must use oxygen at all times. And that above 15,000 feet each occupant of the aircraft must be provided supplemental oxygen. All of this is spelled out in Federal Aviation Regulations Part 91.211.

So are the rules for oxygen use in pressurized airplanes, which are governed by the times necessary to descend to safe altitudes in the event of a cabin depressurization. (Above FL250, a 10-minute supply; between FL350 and FL410, one pilot must wear a mask if cabin pressures rise above 14,000 feet msl — unless there are two pilots at the controls and they have quick-donning masks available. From textbooks and stories of — or direct experience with — sessions in FAA-approved altitude chambers, pilots also know something about the dangers of hypoxia (insufficient oxygen) at altitude. Specifically, as the blood’s oxygen saturation drops with altitude, a series of symptoms — all of them dangerous — can set in.