iscover
Whatever you fly, be it a fast combat jet or a humble light, an excess of alcohol in the bloodstream, even after a night's rest, will leave you with a degraded ability to cope with even low level situations beyond the normal. (Mitch Lovett)
Air Safety
0 comment
Flying the Morning After the Night Before
The following experiment by the Aviation Psychology Laboratory at the Heidelberg College in Ohio illustrates the persistent effects of heavy drinking on a pilot’s ability to safely conduct a flight. Every pilot should read this feature with great interest as it tends to make one rethink the basic wisdom of the traditional B to 12 hour bottle to throttle rule.
The Aviation Psychology Laboratory at Heidelberg College (Ohio) experimented with alcohol as a variable in fiight safety more than 10 years ago. They used a static single engine jet flight simulator and a . 08 percent blood alcohol level (not considered an intoxicating level by many US States). Almost without exception, the subjects exhibited very serious errors of omission.
These errors, had the aircraft been real, frequently would have resulted in fatal mishaps and at the least would have resulted in placing the plane and its occupants in potentially dangerous attitudes and situations. The most interesting finding overall was that the effects of alcohol were greatest on those ‘pilots’ who, on non-alcohol flights, had shown themselves to be the smoothest, best coordinated, most flawless and coolest under pressure. If they were relaxed when they mounted the flight simulator, this condition was drastically changed by the alcohol and performance deteriorated accordingly.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
