thanx for sharing. lovely aircraft. I wish she was under cover though. The old lady deserves it.

Well done Sir! Are you out and about this year? Can we unite you with my Hurri cockpit?

Of course some managed to ‘get away with it’ …the ones that did not lie in graves.

It is all to do with partial pressures. You will have effects over 10,000ft hp…period. You cannot change the laws of physics. The severity depends on many things. You can climb mountains without supplemental O2…..some get ‘acclimatised’. The symptoms get more severe with altitude

They likely got up to 20,000ft and did not feel any adverse effects – that does not mean they were not experiencing them! The biggest symptom is over confidence and euphoria…..leading to poor judgment. Many glider pilots say ‘I went to 18,000 ft and I felt great’ – yep I am sure you did.

We do a particular hypoxia drill that takes us up to 25,000ft then we take our masks off. It is a good demo and would convince even the most negative of you!

One of the drills for fast jet flying we did was pressure breathing – which is counter intuitive. Normally you breathe in and relax to exhale. With pressure breathing you relax to inhale and then exert to breathe out.

You can cover yourself with syrup and feathers and walk in the arctic – does not mean you need to, should do or have too!

I don’t think they did (written as last post popped up! Bearing mind that, even now, some glider pilots do flights above 10,000ft hp, and say they felt ‘fine’ I dare say it was commonplace in WW1. Incidentally, I have seen various accounts about how pilots feel fine! Obviously they would – hypoxia makes many feel the same symptoms as being drunk! My own symptoms are being euphoric and happy. That is the danger as every thing feels good and better sometimes – your brain knows you are hypoxic and then convinces itself that you are not experiencing hypoxia! So mistakes are easy to make and explain. We do a 5 year check – one of my favourite tests is to write my address down as we do it or take 9 away from 1000… the results can be hilarious – and worrying. History is littered with sad cases of hypoxia leading to aircraft loss.
BTW, glider pilots – try to stay below 10,000ft hp unless you have O2!!

Further detail – for continuous flight >10,000ft hp, O2 required. Some UK advice is O2 for flt >8000ft hp. This is likely due to the first symptoms of hypoxia being reduced night vision.

Wulfie and Varsity…you have PMs!

For once Malcolm you and I are in complete agreement! I echo your sentiments.
Philip was going to use the Hurri as a commute plane (UK to Finland) when I last spoke to him a year or two back! I live so close – hope to see her in the Finnish markings which are oh so welcome. I, for one, would love to see a Hurri in Soviet markings and PZ865 in her racing /Hawker House colours – maybe to coincide with the anniversary of the Peter Townsend racing times? Reenact the RAeS garden part with the Hind, Tomtit and Glady in same colours?

Simple answer is ‘not enough’ :)!