High Altitude Training - AVFO Class 10

Several students from Airline and Flight Operations Class 10 recently took arranged some special High-Altitude Training SFU to enhance their studies. Sean Samuel, one of the event organizers along with Keven Choy and Alston Cheng provides this overview of the event:

We started the day by having a 1.5 hour ground school, discussing hypoxia, and then Sherri went into some very detailed facts about how it affects us. The information was very focused from a scientific perspective on hypoxia, but there were little nuggets of information that were very beneficial (such as how the level of O2 and pressure actually drops off with altitude).


From there we had a one hour lunch, and then we returned for the chamber training. We were split into groups of six for the training and changed into ‘scrubs’. The group started off by first breathing pure O2 (to get rid of nitrogen in the body) and then we entered the altitude chamber. We did a climb to 5000’ and descent back to sea level to ensure we were able to equalize our ear drums (for safety). Then we proceeded to FL250 and half the group removed their oxygen masks (the other half would stay on to ensure safety of their partner). We did a few tests at that altitude (and those of us outside could very quickly see the onset of hypoxia through the video cameras in the chamber). Afterwards partners switched and repeated tests before commencing a descent to FL170.


We spent 30 minutes at FL170 with all six participants off of the oxygen masks. Tests were once again repeated by all, and then they came back to sea level. Most people once they came back to sea level were able to realize that they were in fact hypoxic, but while they were being exposed had no idea. Hence I believe in the future they would be a lot more self-conscious of their state while flying.