Light Aviation and Flight Safety: Monitoring System for Unpressurized Aircraft Cabins

(Conference Proceeding)

The practice of gliding and ultralight aviation in Portugal has been growing in the past few years and with it the responsibility to make this an activity even safer for those who fly and those who are in the ground. Simultaneously, it has been found that accidents and incidents, with no apparent mechanical causes, have also suffered an increment, and that some pilots after returning from their flights, reported having noticed in themselves, while performing the flights, euphoria, decreased reaction time, and inability to perform simple tasks. Therefore, these symptoms report a variation in the psychophysiological response compatible with the phenomenon of hypoxia that, in terms of flight safety, may represent a worrying situation. The Flight Physiology concept is taken into high consideration in the commercial and military aviation, but the competent authorities, in general aviation, have neglected it’s applicability to pilots who fly in unpressurized and unacclimatized aircraft cabins, namely, the glider, ultralight and light aircraft pilots. This is an even more serious problem once, today, the general sport aviation is a booming business throughout the world, and the regulatory frameworks of the different countries aren’t following this growth and are currently outdated of reality and its needs. With the experimental work was observed that the physiological reactions to the psychological factors combined with the environmental conditions, as arousal, stress, adrenaline, fear and fatigue, can highly influence the human body physiological response. Such parameters, analysed separately, can even surpass the physical and logical reaction caused by the decrement of the partial pressure of oxygen.

(Comunicação em Conferência)

The practice of gliding and ultralight aviation in Portugal has been growing in the past few years and with it the responsibility to make this an activity even safer for those who fly and those who are in the ground. Simultaneously, it has been found that accidents and incidents, with no apparent mechanical causes, have also suffered an increment, and that some pilots after returning from their flights, reported having noticed in themselves, while performing the flights, euphoria, decreased reaction time, and inability to perform simple tasks. Therefore, these symptoms report a variation in the psychophysiological response compatible with the phenomenon of hypoxia that, in terms of flight safety, may represent a worrying situation. The Flight Physiology concept is taken into high consideration in the commercial and military aviation, but the competent authorities, in general aviation, have neglected it’s applicability to pilots who fly in unpressurized and unacclimatized aircraft cabins, namely, the glider, ultralight and light aircraft pilots. This is an even more serious problem once, today, the general sport aviation is a booming business throughout the world, and the regulatory frameworks of the different countries aren’t following this growth and are currently outdated of reality and its needs. With the experimental work was observed that the physiological reactions to the psychological factors combined with the environmental conditions, as arousal, stress, adrenaline, fear and fatigue, can highly influence the human body physiological response. Such parameters, analysed separately, can even surpass the physical and logical reaction caused by the decrement of the partial pressure of oxygen.

(Comunicação em Conferência)

The practice of gliding and ultralight aviation in Portugal has been growing in the past few years and with it the responsibility to make this an activity even safer for those who fly and those who are in the ground. Simultaneously, it has been found that accidents and incidents, with no apparent mechanical causes, have also suffered an increment, and that some pilots after returning from their flights, reported having noticed in themselves, while performing the flights, euphoria, decreased reaction time, and inability to perform simple tasks. Therefore, these symptoms report a variation in the psychophysiological response compatible with the phenomenon of hypoxia that, in terms of flight safety, may represent a worrying situation. The Flight Physiology concept is taken into high consideration in the commercial and military aviation, but the competent authorities, in general aviation, have neglected it’s applicability to pilots who fly in unpressurized and unacclimatized aircraft cabins, namely, the glider, ultralight and light aircraft pilots. This is an even more serious problem once, today, the general sport aviation is a booming business throughout the world, and the regulatory frameworks of the different countries aren’t following this growth and are currently outdated of reality and its needs. With the experimental work was observed that the physiological reactions to the psychological factors combined with the environmental conditions, as arousal, stress, adrenaline, fear and fatigue, can highly influence the human body physiological response. Such parameters, analysed separately, can even surpass the physical and logical reaction caused by the decrement of the partial pressure of oxygen.