Dr. George O. Bizzigotti wrote in message . ..
On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 19:43:55 -0800, "G.R. Patterson III"
wrote:

Aviation wrote:

On the one hand, passengers need to get denser air to breathe
but large aircraft have oxygen masks that drop down.

[snip]

As for your ears, they're already toast. The pressure just dropped
from the pressure at 8,000' to that at cruise altitude in a few seconds.

Based on what others have written about chamber simulations, it would
appear that irreversible ear damage (which is what I would infer as
being "toast") is not an inevitable consequence, although. I've no
doubt that the sensation from any reversible consequences is not
always pleasant .

Basically, the pilots need to get their masks on and get the plane down below
25,000' as rapidly as it can possibly be done. The descent to 10,000' can be made
a little more leisurely, but not much - there's always someone in the cattle
section who panicked and isn't wearing a mask.

One aspect that I have not seen addressed in this thread is the fact
that most oxygen systems can provide supplemental oxygen for a few
minutes only (I dimly recall figures like 3-5 minutes, but that may be
inaccurate). The pilots also need to get down to 10,000 feet within
that time before everyone's oxygen generators run out.

Regards,

nope. supplemental oxygen depends on the capacity of the resevoir, the
flow, the delivery system in use and of course the demands on this
(load) the requirements are in the FAR's.

23.1441 thru 23.1449
25.1441 thru 25.1449
121.327 thru 121.337
125.219
135.89 thru 135.91
135.157