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<< Lancair Builders' Mail List >>
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>> A 90% SaO2 is the normal level of ogygen in your veins, not your
arteries. As such, it should be an absolute lower limit of SaO2 to fly.
Below that you get in trouble FAST. (Again, I won't reproduce the graphs or
equations.)<<
Ted,
Have YOU ever flown to 15K or higher with a pulse oximeter, unpressurized?
I do this often and with a wide variety of pilots.
In my experience, only a third of the pilots will maintain more than about
87% using nasal canulas. NONE are in trouble.
I have seen a significant percentage of people that show as low as 78 to
83% at 18000', on the pulse oximeter and they stayed that way for hours and
were just fine.
Now... don't jump on me here. I know that in a hospital setting, somebody
that low is a candidate for a code blue, but it is *** IN FACT *** correct
data for people (including myself) who have flown at altitude for years on
nasal canulas.
The first time I saw that on a pulse oximeter, I was hugely surprised!!!
I then cranked up the nasal canula flow rate to use the MASK flow rate and
that brought my personal level up from 83 to about 87.
Using the Mountain High pulse units, I can keep my O2 sat on the pulse
oximeter up in 89 to 92 range routinely.
I absolutely ***DO*** feel much better when I do that at the end of a 3 hour
flight.
However, there is something weird going on here between the medical
understanding of O2 saturations and the real world pilot measurement with
oximeters, since a LOT of pilots fly around at 15 to 18K on canulas, and a
significant percentage of them have O2sats on the oximeter that are below
85%.
Regards, George
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