October 1998
| Select WP15FS22 | October '98 |
What’s in this Issue: |
Airworthiness Corner SIC
SAC Air
Traffic Control Safety
Seminars |
For
Sacramento
Area For
San
Jose Area For Fresno FSDO For Sacramento FSDO For San Jose FSDO |
SIC SAC CARBON MONOXIDE
POISONING IN THE COCKPIT
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A private pilot and his instructor were enroute to Denver in a Mooney. It was wintertime and the heater was on. Unbeknownst to them their muffler was cracked and carbon monoxide (CO) fumes were entering the cockpit. They were cleared to land on a runway which was over 5000 feet in length. They were unable to land on their first attempt. After several go arounds, they finally landed. As each pilot exited the aircraft he collapsed upon the wing and rolled off of it to the ground. They were rushed to the hospital where their blood levels of CO were found to be over 20%. Fortunately, these Mooney pilots survived. | |
On December 27, 1997, Dr.
Rob Frayser lost consciousness due to CO poisoning from a
leaky muffler. His plane on autopilot slaved to his GPS,
flew for 250 miles until it ran out of fuel. Trimmed to
the stops, the plane crash landed in a field. Dr. Frayser
was able to wake up and exit his plane with only a broken
wrist. These pilots were among the lucky ones. The NTSB files are replete with reports of the many pilots who perished from CO poisoning. |
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| Blood Level | Symptoms |
| 10% | None |
| 10-20% | Loss of night vision |
| 20-30% | Tingling, Nausea, Headache, Fatigue or "I have the flu" |
| 30-40% | Vomiting, impaired judgment, reddish flush to skin |
| 40-50% | Unconsciousness, death if not treated |
| Carbon Monoxide is odorless, colorless and
tasteless. The onset of symptoms can be insidious, and
you may just "go to sleep", never to awaken!
Neither the leak nor the concentration of CO in the
cockpit needs to be great to poison the pilot. With
Hemoglobin (Hb) greedily latching onto CO, even low
levels, given enough time will tie up enough Hb to cause
poisoning. Deadly blood levels can occur in as little as
30 minutes or less with CO levels in the cockpit air of
as little as 0.5%. The absorption of CO is cumulative. If you live in an area |
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of high air pollution such as Los Angeles, you
may already have an elevated blood CO level sufficient to
put you at an altitude of 5,000 feet, even though you are
at sea level, due to hypemic hypoxia. Add to that another
5000 feet if you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and presto you
are at 10,000 feet MSL, while still on the ground. With
this lack of oxygen to your brain, it is no wonder you
haven’t realized the perils of smoking. It
won’t take much more CO in the cockpit to finish you
off! The majority of CO which enters the cockpit will come from an |
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exhaust leak which finds
its way into the cockpit via the heater or a leak in the
firewall. Our heaters are simply shrouds which surround
the exhaust system which send the collected heat to the
cabin. These gases are very corrosive and leaks in the
exhaust systems occur. Corrective action is sometimes a
weld rather than replacement of the corroded part. The
result can often be a recurrent exhaust leak adjacent to
the weld. What is the cost of a new exhaust pipe or
muffler when compared to the life of the pilot or his
passengers? (Continued below left) |
PREVENTION The very first step must be prevention. The integrity of the exhaust system must be exquisitely maintained. Make sure that the seals in your firewall are intact. Do not park downwind from another aircraft in the runup area. If you are in line to take off, make sure that the cabin is well ventilated We must MONITOR for CARBON MONOXIDE in the cockpit. At least one, and better two indicators should be positioned so they are part of our scan. The higher they are the better as CO tends to rise. |
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For many years I have used "Dead Stop," which I have ordered from Sporty’s. A similar product is available through WAG-AERO. The sensor turns from a cream color to black with exposure to CO. It must be replaced every 30 days. Its retail price is $3.50-$3.95. Recently, the Quantum Group in San Diego has marketed their CO detector "Quantum Eye." This detector is yellow and turns to black as the level and/or duration of exposure to CO increase. It has the advantage that its sensor is good for at least 18 months. It retails for $9.50 through WAG-AERO. It can be ordered | |
directly from Quantum at
1-800-432-5599. Carbon Monoxide has been called the silent killer in the cockpit. It causes Hypoxia by preventing our bloodstream from transporting oxygen to our brains. It must first be prevented! In CO exposure, early recognition is all that we have to survive. If you suspect CO exposure due to the smell of exhaust fumes, or the symptoms previously described, or to a CO monitor turning black, take immediate action. Your life depends upon it. |
| 1. | Shut off the cabin heater immediately. |
| 2. | Open all fresh air vents and the pilot’s window. |
| 3. | If oxygen is available, go on 100% immediately. |
| 4. | Extinguish cigarettes. |
| 5. | Land as soon as possible. |
| 6. | Once on the ground, seek medical attention for yourself and mechanical attention for your aircraft. |
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Stall/Spin
Awareness Seminar with Mr. Rich Stowell-CFI of the year
‘93 October 1st, at Bakersfield Municipal Airport, hosted by Kern Charter Service, Inc.. Find out what you need to know to avoid stall/spin accident scenarios. Interact with Mr. Stowell as he touches on the history of spins and insightful spin studies. EMERGENCY MANEUVER
TRAINING- |
Note from American Flyers Everybody I have talked to tells me I missed a great show last month. April Gafford and Brent Peterson, two talented CFIs on our American Flyers team presented an informative and entertaining program on Human Factors. Sorry I missed it. Well, none of us will want to miss the program this month! American Flyers and the SJC FSDO will be putting on a safety seminar on October 27th on a very serious subject. Mr. Walker Smith, from the SJC Tower will be joining us to discuss -RUNWAY INCURSIONS-. I'm sure all pilots are familiar with the horrible tragedies that have occured at Tenerife, Los Angeles, and Quincy, Illinois just to mention a few. Professional pilots with thousands of hours in the air ending their careers, with catastrophic loss of life, their own and their passengers, - on the ground -! Not a pleasant thing to consider, but something we must study to search for methods to prevent such occurrences in the future. The seminar will be in our ground school class room, Suite 190, in the San Jose Jet Center beginning at 6:30 PM. The best seats always go first, so you may want to arrive early. As always, admission is free. This program will provide information that will benefit pilots of all skill levels, from the beginning student to the experienced CFI. Don't forget, attendance at this meeting satisfies one of the requirements for the Wings Safety Award, which in turn may be used to satisfy the Flight Review requirement. If you can attend only one seminar this year, make this the one. Let us learn from the mistakes of others. Our loved ones and our passengers are counting on us. I know I am looking forward to attending and I hope to see you there as well. See you on the 27th! Fred Abrams PS: Cliff Bonner and I will be teaching our Instrument Ground School October 23rd, 24th & 25th. Call for details! |
| NorCal..Aviation..Safety..Seminars. | October '98 |
| Note for all Seminars - Times are from 7:00 to 9:00 PM unless otherwise noted. No reservations are required unless noted by *. Never a fee. For more information contact the Safety Program Manager listed in the FSDO area heading containing the event in question. All FAA Safety Seminars satisfy the requirements of AC-61.91H; the Pilot Proficiency Awards Program (Wings) and /or the Aviation Maintenance Technician Awards Program; AC-65-25A. |
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SALINAS
MUNICIPAL AIRPORT |
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WATSONVILLE
MUNI AIRPORT 7:00 P.M Wed Oct. 28 From Dusk 'Til Dawn Location: Fire Station #2, 370 Airport Blvd., Watsonville (on airport) Contact: Airport attendant or Don French (408) 728-6075 (Continued below left) |
| SALINAS
MUNICIPAL AIRPORT 8:30 AM Fri Nov. 6 Preparing for In-flight Emergencies Location: Airport Conference Room, upstairs, Salinas Municipal Airport Terminal Contact: Jim Chappell (408) 758-7214 |
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SAN CARLOS AIRPORT |
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SAN
CARLOS AIRPORT Know Your Aircraft 7 - 8:30 PM Wed Oct. 21 Location: West Valley Flying Club, 701 Skyway Blvd., San Carlos Airport Contact: West Valley Flying Club dispatcher or George Kebbe (650) 595-5912 (Continued below left) |
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Remember the ‘ol acronym about the
classes of airspace?