Mon Jan 10, 2011 10:56 am
#927516
I flew a 2h25 sector at FL95, -15ºC and, after a few minutes the heater packed up. I was dressed in a shirt and a jumper and, although my feet felt a little cold, I wasn't too badly affected, so didn't divert, descend or put a coat on, everything seemed fine.
I landed, dropped off my passenger with engines running and took off again for an hour long 3500' run home at about -5ºC.
As soon as I was airborne I noticed that I wasn't functioning properly - transmitting on wrong box, "forgetting" basic things, and I also started shaking uncontrollably. I put the a/c on a/p and reached round and put on my coat. Even inside that I was shaking with cold and was very aware of my performance being dubious (it was a bit like being drunk or dead tired, I could do the right things but only with a huge amount of effort and concentration.)
I did seriously consider diversion, but came to the conclusion that in my drugged and confused state I was probably better to land at a very familiar environment than to try and work out the procedures and circuit pattern at somewhere less familiar.
After I landed, I taxied to self-fuel and, to give you an idea of how numb I was, I seriously overfilled 3 of the 6 tanks ( I allowed the first to overflow because I was distracted by aircraft above (see my other post shortly about Biggin yesterday afternoon), so realised that I had to focus more, and still managed to do the same thing twice more.)
So, please be aware that if you get seriously cold, it can seriously affect your capability for thought and rational decision making.
I landed, dropped off my passenger with engines running and took off again for an hour long 3500' run home at about -5ºC.
As soon as I was airborne I noticed that I wasn't functioning properly - transmitting on wrong box, "forgetting" basic things, and I also started shaking uncontrollably. I put the a/c on a/p and reached round and put on my coat. Even inside that I was shaking with cold and was very aware of my performance being dubious (it was a bit like being drunk or dead tired, I could do the right things but only with a huge amount of effort and concentration.)
I did seriously consider diversion, but came to the conclusion that in my drugged and confused state I was probably better to land at a very familiar environment than to try and work out the procedures and circuit pattern at somewhere less familiar.
After I landed, I taxied to self-fuel and, to give you an idea of how numb I was, I seriously overfilled 3 of the 6 tanks ( I allowed the first to overflow because I was distracted by aircraft above (see my other post shortly about Biggin yesterday afternoon), so realised that I had to focus more, and still managed to do the same thing twice more.)
So, please be aware that if you get seriously cold, it can seriously affect your capability for thought and rational decision making.
Timothy
Not sent from my iPad.
Not sent from my iPad.