Checkride Prep; Task C: Weather Preparatio & Task H: Human Factors Flashcards
Hypoxia
A condition where there is an insufficient amount of oxygen in the bodies, tissue and organs.
It occurs when the partial pressure of oxygen in the air is reduced typically at high altitudes. Supplemental oxygen is required at high altitude of 12,500-after 30 minutes for crew. 14,000-after 30 minutes for everyone and 15,000 for everyone.
Symptoms include headache, dizziness, fatigue, confusion, and impaired judgment, and loss of consciousness .
Hyper ventilation
When a pilot breeds abnormally quickly or deeply while flying.
It can occur during stressful situation, such as flying at high altitudes.
Symptoms include lightheadedness, tingling in the extremities, headache, nausea, blurred vision, impaired judgment, memory impairment, muscle spasms, and ticks.
Treatment try to breathe more slowly and deeply breathe 100% oxygen to send to a lower altitude breathe into a paper bag held over the nose and mouth
Middle ear and sinus problems
(Ear block)
Air pressure changes during flight can cause discomfort and health issues in the middle ear and sinus problems.
Causes; pressure changes, Eustachian tube dysfunction, sinus congestion.
Prevention ; avoid flying if you have a cold or a sinus chew gum suck on hard candy or yawn.
Spatial disorientation
Occurs when a pilot loses their sense of aircraft position, altitude, or air speed.
Causes; sensory conflicts, lack of visual references, malfunctioning instruments, high work load.
Symptoms; feeling like you need to roll the airplane in opposite direction of a wing maneuver
Oculogyral illusion, where a turning target appears to move faster than it actually is.
Prevention; pilots can learn to fly by a reference to their instruments. Spatial disorientation training can help pilots learn to trust their instruments and maintain situational awareness.
Motion sickness
A common condition that can occur door, air travel. Movements of the aircraft discrepancy between visual and vestibular information and stress or anxiety.
Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, and pale skin.
Prevention medication avoid triggers focus on a fixed point fresh air avoid head movements.
Carbon monoxide poisoning
It occurs when CO enters the body through the lungs and displays oxygen in the bloodstream.
Causes; leaks in the aircraft exhaust system, defective cabin, heaters, ground support equipment operating near the aircraft and smoking in the aircraft.
Symptoms, headache, dizziness, nausea, weakness, confusion, and loss of consciousness.
Prevention regular maintenance of the aircraft, exhaust system, and cabin heaters use of carbon monoxide detectors in the aircraft, avoiding smoking in the aircraft, proper ventilation of the aircraft doing ground operations.
Treatment immediate exposure to fresh air, oxygen therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy in severe cases.
Hypothermia
Life-threatening condition that occurs when the body loses heat faster than it can produce it resulting in a dangerously low body temperature. Innovation operating in the winter.
Causes exposure to cold air, water or wind, wet, clothing, or equipment, prolonged time in a cold environment windchill factors.
Symptoms, shivering, cold skin and extremities, slurred speech, confusion and disc disorientation, drowsiness slowed, heart rate and breathing loss of coordination.
Prevention wear appropriate clothing for cold conditions, including layers, waterproof, outerwear, and a hat.
Optical illusions
A visual phenomenon that miss leads a pilots perception of their aircraft position. These illusions can be caused by lights, color and pattern.
Examples include water reflection, false visual horizon, black hole effect, elevator, illusion, graveyard, spiral autokinesis.
Great start! You’ve identified some crucial points. Let’s dive a bit deeper:
On a clear night, distant stationary lights can be mistaken for stars or other aircraft. Cloud layers or even the northern lights can confuse a pilot and indicate a false visual horizon. Certain geometrical patterns of ground lights, such as a freeway, runway, or even lights on a moving train, can cause confusion. Dark nights tend to eliminate reference to a visual horizon, and visual autokinesis can occur when staring at a single light source for several seconds on a dark night, making the light appear to move. A “black-hole approach” involves featureless terrain leading into a runway, which can complicate landings. Additionally, bright runway lights may give the illusion of being lower or closer to the runway.
Reference: Airplane Flying Handbook (Chapter 11)
Dissolved nitrogen in the bloodstream after scuba dives
Excess nitrogen that accumulates in the divers blood during a dive at depth.
Pilots and passengers who have recently scuba dive, should wait a specific period before flying to allow their bodies to eliminate the axis nitrogen through normal breathing, preventive decompression sickness at altitude. 12 to 24 hour period.
Metar
Metars provides current weather observations updated hourly focuses on surface conditions.
TAFs
TAFs terminal airdrome forecast
Offers a detailed forecast for a specific airport updated every six hours usually covers 24 to 30 hour. Period.
PIREPS
Pilot weather reports
Gives inflight weather observation from pilots, are invaluable for recognizing real time conditions such as turbulence and cloud tops that may not be fully captured in forecast.
AWOS, ASOS, ATIS
AWOS, ASOS, and ATIS
Provides real time or near real time weather data for a specific location, critical for planning, departure, and arrivals.
AIRMETS and SIGMENTS
AIRMETs and SIGMETs give advisories for hazardous weather conditions like turbulence or icing.
Surface analysis charts
surface analysis charts offer an overview of frontal systems and high/low-pressure systems.
Graphical Forecasts for Aviation (GFA), Winds Aloft charts, Weather Depiction Charts, Radar Summaries, and Surface Prognostic Charts
Graphical Forecasts for Aviation (GFA), Winds Aloft charts, Weather Depiction Charts, Radar Summaries, and Surface Prognostic Charts expand your understanding by covering broader regional forecasts, wind information, and graphical data for navigation and safety.
All these elements together form the backbone of your situational awareness and planning, ensuring your route is safe and suitable for your aircraft’s performance and your piloting capabilities.
