How many months do you live at altitude, before climbing the
next 5,000 feet? In other words, as I understand, a healthy
person can climb, 5 to 10 thousand feet above their living
altitude before hypoxia become serious. If you live at
10,000 feet for 6 months to a year, your body adjust and
adapts to that pressure and oxygen levels, you then can
climb or fly higher. If you return to sea level you may be
"super charged" or even get sick for a short while until you
readapt.

In the 1940 and 50s, I understand it took many moths for
Everest climbers to portage several higher and higher base
camps, before the actual assault on the top.


"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
|
| "Jay Honeck" wrote in message
|
ups.com...
| I managed five landings without rolling past the
numbers with calm air
| the
| other day. Making really short AND smooth landings AND
hitting the exact
| aimpoint has proved elusive. I can usually accomplish
any two but not
| all
| three. It gives me additional respect for the pilots
demoing Helios at
| OSH.
|
| I can't imagine what flying something like that must be
like. Very
| challenging, it sounds like!
|
|
| It is always difficult to get every bit of performance out
of an aircraft.
| Usually we make it easier by using approach speeds that
are high and settle
| onto the runway. To put it down on the first foot of
pavement at the
| absolute minimium speed is a challenge in anything.
|
|
|
| I was
| climbing in the Andes early in the year and then made
an attempt on the
| North side of Everest in the spring. I reached 25,000'
without O2 and
| then
| bailed for a variety of reasons.
|
| Um, isn't life pretty much unsustainable at that
altitude without
| oxygen?
|
| Depends on what you consider unsustainable. The highest
permanant
| settlement is about 18,000'. Personally I felt that I was
constantly
| deteriorating above 21,000'.
|
|
|
|