HGFA Skysailor Magazine

36 SKY SAILOR May | June 2019 P hysical fitness, medical fitness and flight readiness are key topics at the elite levels of our sport, but how important are they for the weekend flyer? In the August 2003 edition of our magazine (page 20), John Buchanan says: “Flying successfully and safely requires mental alertness and good decision-making over a long period of time – but factors such as fatigue and stress accumulation, nutrition, dehydration, hypoxia and recovery can affect a pilot’s ability make good decisions and safe actions.” But does the weekend flyer need to consider these factors? A day out in the sun – e.g. ground handling, local flying, and hiking back to launch can be physically demanding – your flight preparation needs to consider nutrition, dehydration, hypoxia (if you are flying at altitude), and recovery. These are more than just performance factors – they are safety factors too. Aviation training has recognised for some time that a pilot needs to understand the limitations of the human body. An essential core subject of commercial pilot training (ATPL) is ‘Human Performance and Limitations’ – a subject that originally covered spatial disorientation, hypoxia and other aspects of Aviation Medicine. Originally, the subject of Human Factors vaguely incorporated these aspects of Aviation Medicine, but Human Factors now include Human performance factors such as stress, fatigue, alcohol and drugs, diet, health and well-being. These aspects of sport flying have always been part of our training. The HG Advanced study guide has these subject questions: ➲ ➲ What are the biggest risks to advanced pilots? ➲ ➲ How does stress affect your body? ➲ ➲ What are hypoxia and hypothermia, and how would you recognise the symptoms? ➲ ➲ How long do the residual effects of alcohol affect your flying ability? But where we used to only consider these topics at an advanced level, it’s now appropriate to incorporate these Human Factors at all levels of our training. The integration of Human Factors into our Operations is an essential part of our Safety Management System, which is an integral part of our Part 149 implementation on which our organisation’s approval to operate will be based on. Therefore, this stuff is no longer in the ‘good to know’ category, but in the ‘must know’ category. CASA have just released a new Human Factors for Pilots kit. You can download it at [www.casa. gov.au/safety-management/publication/safety- behaviours-human-factors-pilots-2nd-edition], or order a paper copy from CASA’s online store. The kit is written with General Aviation (GA) in mind, but a lot of it is very relevant for HGFA pilots as well. We will be drawing from this kit for training materials development. The subject matter covered in this article can be found in book 3. So, with nutrition and hydration playing an important role in facilitating good decision-making, what do we need to do to maintain flight readiness? Nutrition Before and during flight we need to maintain an adequate blood sugar level. This doesn’t mean eating and/or drinking sugary things, since doing so provides only a short term ‘sugar hit’ closely followed by a fatigue slump. We need to eat properly, i.e., foods with a low GI rating – fruits vegetables and legumes, less refined grain products and less concentrated sugar. (I’m sure you’ve all heard this before, but if not – there is more info here [www. betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/ carbohydrates-and-the-glycaemic-index].) Hydration Dehydration can cause cramps, increased heart rate, fatigue, impaired concentration and nausea. Despite what marketing says, you don’t need fancy electrolyte solutions – you need to maintain your hydration levels with water, even Adelaide tap water will do. Hypoxia In most sports, oxygen is considered a performance enhancing substance. In sport aviation it’s a safety requirement. Currently in Australia, all pilots flying over 10,000ft in a non-pressurised aircraft have to use supplemental oxygen. There is discussion about raising this limit, but the difficulty is that the effects of hypoxia can happen at different altitudes for different people, if you have a low level of fitness, or low blood pressure, if you smoke, or are unwell, you can be affected by hypoxia at an altitude as low as 5000ft. As John Buchanan said in his 2003 article: “Be wary of convincing yourself that you can handle 10,000ft to 12,000ft continuously because you are fit or used to it. To test yourself, borrow an oxygen system and take a sniff after exposure for a while at 8000ft. It is very likely that you will experience a clearing of the head and energy level increase.” Recovery Alcohol stays in the system a lot longer than previously thought, if your flying is part of a big weekend, it’s worth considering that sleep, alcohol, exercise, and relaxation are all factors that need to be managed in order to give you the ability to make good decisions and safe actions. Medical factors Physical fitness and flight readiness relies on your underlying medical fitness. Like most other sport aviation organisations, we rely on a pilot to declare Flight Readiness At a club BBQ a few years ago, I was talking to a veteran top hang glider pilot. I asked him if he had any big cross-country flights planned in the coming season? “No,” was the reply. “Why not?” I asked. “I’m just not fit enough,” he answered… by Peter Allen