On Sep 13, 9:47 am, es330td wrote:
My father has a C182 in which I have been to about 10K ft MSL. I am
currently working on my license and am considering building a Velocity
or Aerocanard, both of which have ceilings up into Class A airspace,
one as high as FL250. (Before anyone cautions me about building one
of these, I know two people with Velocities and a local builder who
has built multiple canard aircraft. I will have lots of support and
will have logged PIC time in one long before mine is built.) While I
know that oxygen is required at altitude, what is the effect of the
lower pressure on pilot and passengers? I am doing this in part for
the purpose of transporting myself and family to visit friends and
relatives and am curious about the effect on my two children,
currently 3 and 5, and whether this will make them less pleasant to
fly with.

TIA

Thanks for everyone's responses. I am somewhat lacking in knowledge
at this point; I know my desires but not the specifics of
implementation. By the time this plane is built the kids will
probably be 5 or more years older but if my friend with the Velocity
lets me rent it it may be an issue sooner. I know that planes gain
efficiency at altitude but I don't know how high one must go to
realize those gains. I just assumed that with a service ceiling over
FL200 that pilots would generally want to go there. My CFI flies King
Air 350's and Citation Jets for hire so I am used to hearing about his
experiences, something very different than the flying I will be doing.