Fitness for flight: ears, sinuses, scuba, alcohol, drugs, and water

The trapped gas that hurts on descent, motion sickness, dehydration and heat, the alcohol regulation and what alcohol does at altitude, medications and the two rules that govern them, the nitrogen that flying releases after a dive, and what the handbooks do not say about cold.

15 min read · Human factors

After this lesson you can

  • Explain what causes ear and sinus block, when each occurs, and how to prevent and relieve them.
  • Describe motion sickness and the techniques the handbook gives for it.
  • State the signs of dehydration, the intake the handbook recommends, and why thirst is not the cue.
  • State the alcohol rule of 14 CFR 91.17 and how alcohol interacts with altitude.
  • Apply 61.53 and 91.17 to medications, including the waiting rules for a new drug and for dosing intervals.
  • State the waiting times before flight after scuba diving and the reason for them.

The hypoxia, hyperventilation, carbon monoxide and disorientation lessons covered the ways the flight environment attacks a healthy pilot. This lesson is the other direction: the conditions a pilot brings aboard. A cold, a hangover, a decongestant, yesterday's dive, and a morning without water each degrade the same judgment the flight depends on, and none of them shows on the preflight.

The regulation is short. 14 CFR 61.53 prohibits acting as a required crewmember while knowing of a medical condition that would fail the medical certificate, or while taking medication or treatment for one. Everything in this lesson is a way of finding out that the rule applies to you today.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Middle ear and sinus block
  2. 2.Motion sickness
  3. 3.Dehydration and heatstroke
  4. 4.Alcohol: the rule, and what altitude does to it
  5. 5.Drugs and medications: two regulations and two waiting rules
  6. 6.Scuba diving and the nitrogen that flying releases
  7. 7.Cold, and what the handbooks leave out

These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the PPL track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.