The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-07-07
| NAVY REMINDS
PILOTS when TO
HOOK UP OXYGEN
BY WILLIAM ii. ADAMS
United Press Staff Correspondent

OHItcU ETcSS CLdII Correspondent
Washington, July 7 CUP Since
breathing is necessary, pilots of the
Navy are advised not to be self
conscious about it. Neither must
they take it for granted.
In one of series of inspira-
tional booklets put out for naval
personnel, Oxygen Sense" this
and other simply evident but ire
mendously important advice is
given for the benefit of men who,
for a considerable part of their
lives until the war ends, will live
at $4,000 feet or more above the
earth.
Linking hard science with hu-
morous fact, the booklet explains
that the per cent of oxygen in the
air at sea level and at the strato
sphere ceiling of 10000 feet is
identical. But although air is uni
form, air pressure is not, and there
is not enough air to maintain life
in the stratosphere.
Pilots are advised to have a
healthy respect for what their al
timeters show. This gadget tells
when oxygen masks should be
worn:
u at 1000 to 10000 feet when
the flyer is aloft for four hours or
longer;
q at 10000 to $4,000 feet when
the pilot stays there for two hours
or longer;
81 at all times at $4,000 feet or
higher, no matter for what length
of time, and
d in night flying from the
ground up at all attitudes to pre-
serve vision and prevent night
blindness.
Sucker without 1t
Pilots finding it necessary to use
oxygen should make certain that
after the hose has been connected
it has been locked. Certain planes
have sufficient vibration to shake
the coupling loose.
Anoxia - lack of oxygen - i'm
parts a feeling of bravado that
"keeps you less and less efficient
and more and more a sucker for
any japanese or Nazi fighter who
Jumps you," the brochure warns.
Anoxia is an insidiuos ailment; its
symptoms are not at first apparent.
Selfconfidence an d foolhardiness
accompany it, and by the time the
pilot wakes up to know what the
trouble with him already it is too
late.
Once stricken, pilots who have
been using their gauge surfaces
for mirrors in which to part their
hair will not even live to regret it.
It's at time like this, the broch-
ure says, that a raiding japanese
airman arrives to take over where
the gauge mirror left off, and to
part the pilots hair for him. To
read the gauges often is to give
the Nip the slip.
For by the time pilot starts
anxiously fumbling around with
blurred vision and drunken hands
for his oxygen hose connection the
chances are overWh e l. n ely
against his ever making it. Once
caught, the pilot won't reach the
ripe old age of IS and retire for
age" they are told.
The man who puts his oxygen
mask on at the first possible op
portunity has the laugh on all
others who scott at his tinidity.
1t isn't really timidity, the broch-
ure emphasizes. It's way OF out
living your fellow filters.
Unaware of Clumsiness
Anoxia has characteristic eff
feet on humans. From 10000 to
$4,000 feet without oxygen the
flyer gets a headache and his re-
flexes are dulled. Sight is i'm
paired and the flyer is clumsy.
But he is not aware of it.
At $4,000 feet he reaches the
giddy, giggling stage of drunken
ness, 'like silly girl in juke
joint.
At 10000 feet the flyer is really
in a mess. What he sees is
blurred and dark, he hardly hears
his engine, his breathing is diff
cult and his pulse is racing.
The pilot can stand only a half
hour of this, and after that time
he collapses and will die.
At $4,000 feet the end is near.
The pamphlet ends on an opti-
mistic note. There is no danger to
high altitude flying, it says, if in
structions are followed For hun
dreds of flyers are dashing around
up there every day, with their
masks on