Flying with a cold

[Goose]

Hey guys, I have a cold, its not to bad now mostly just blocked ears and a sore throat. Just called in and canceled my flight, but am i being over cautious? was meant to be doing forced landings so i wouldn't have been going up that high but was worried about my blocked ears causing trouble.

Basically the point of this thread is to ask your opinion, am i being a women about it or was it the right call to make?

[cowpatz]

It was a good call. Even though 3000ft is not that high, the up and down aspect of forced landing practice will cause some irritation. Besides you will not feel the greatest anyway and this will most likely lead to a sub par performance and you will probably come away feeling you could have done better. I dont even do simulator duties with a cold.

[HardCorePawn]

Illness
Medication

Stress
Alcohol
Fatigue
Eating

So I'm guessing you're failing the first one at least... and probably the second if you're taking things like coldral... and quite possibly the 5th

So I would say... Good Call

[Goose]

QUOTE (HardCorePawn @ Feb 2 2009, 10:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Illness
Medication

Stress
Alcohol
Fatigue
Eating

So I'm guessing you're failing the first one at least... and probably the second if you're taking things like coldral... and quite possibly the 5th

So I would say... Good Call

Yeah thats what i was going off. Hopefully will be all good by tomorrow!!

[mfraser]

I'm always an advocate of erring on the side of caution. Having spent hours in the back of the Huey at altitudes from treetop level to over FL130 I can appreciate the vices and frailty of the human body in times of illness in anything but your 'normal' place on earth. I have, on the odd occasion and only under medical advice, flown while 'under-the-weather' - however not at the controls. The rule of thumb from the Airforce base doctor was that if you could valsalva - the act of forcibly exhaling into a closed airway - then you were deemed fit to fly subject to the other parts of the "I'M SAFE" ethos. The valsalva technique is the mechanism by which divers equalise the pressure squeeze on the sinuses at depth, the reverse of which happens to humans with an increase of altitude. Again, err on the side of caution and postpone the flight and always seek medical advice before jumping into the aircraft!

[SA227]

You just made a very good command decision.
The pressure changes that occur with altitude are their greatest below 5000ft. You possibly just saved yourself a lot of pain and possibly a burst ear drum which would keep you out of the air for at least 6 weeks.

[FlyingKiwi]

A very good call - I've flown with what I thought was a quite minor head cold a while back, and although I fortunately didn't do any damage, I'm glad I hadn't gone flying with it any worse than it was, it was far from the most pleasant experience I've had while flying. As the others have said, missing a few days of flying due to a cold is a bit frustrating, but it's far far better than the possible alternative of being off for a month or more because you ended up doing some damage to your ears.

[ronwestnz]

Ya good call.

My first ever trans tasman flight was on a Qantas 747 out of Auckland to Brisbane.

The morning of the flight, I woke up with blocked ears, nothing unusual, my ears tend to wax up fairly heavily, and i often wake up with blocked ears.

Off to the doctors for a syringe out, being a saturday had to see the doc first, normally just goto the nurse. he had a look, ooohed and ahhhed and sent me off for a flush, said come back before i left.

Had the flush the and the nurse ahd a look and sent my on my way to the airport.

Got on the plane, was keen as, being my first international flight, thought cattle class service was awesome, could (can) only dream of what the first class was (would be) like.

An hour into the flight, things started going bad, and only got worse, my ears wouldn't pop with the pressure changes, it got so bad i thought my head was going to implode, spent the last too hours of the flight with head in my hands, and my eyes watering like i had stuck my head in a bucket of onions.

Was even worse on the decent, was bad enough I had thoughts in my head of hijacking the plane, just to stay in the air

We landed and headed for the gold coast, most of the way there i still couldn't get my ears to pop, and had a hard time hearing and my throat was sore as by now.

Off to the docs again, he took one look and ex pleated and asked if i had flown with my ears like this, i said yes and he said i was lucky to have ear drums left.

Turns out i had a tropical ear infection, and my ear canals had inflamed to the point where my canals where completely closed off, and there was no way a doctor should have let me fly with it, kinda wondered if the nurse knew that and why she bundled my out the door with seeing the first doctor a second time.

No wonder it hurt like hell and i couldn't hear anything, spent my first 7 days overseas anywhere on some various serious penecillin, just so i could fly home.

So good call, would hate to think what is would like with a head cold.