Head Cold

[barney]

If you guys had a head cold (sinus congestion, sore throat) and you could'nt clear one of your ears, how high wold you fly? Not at all, 5k, 10k, 18,000?

thanks

[brabus]

Don't fly. I flew once even when I could just barely clear my ears and the sinus pain was really bad. No flight is worth that. Just suck it up and don't fly for a few days.

[Butters]

1 ft MSL.

[barney]

copy all. thanks. scheduler is gonna be pissed.

[JeepGuyC17]

Yeah dude, don't fly. I've had some pretty severe sinus pain even just flying commercial when I was sick.

[Toro]

WTF?

Are they not teaching aerospace physiology any more?

[Butters]

WTF?

Are they not teaching aerospace physiology any more?

No, apparently it has been replaced with the Cyberspace physiology curriculum.

[barney]

They still theach aero-phys but I get caught in the argument of suck it up it's a little pain, and I could be making a bad situation worse. It's not like the squadron says to you when you go DNIF for a head cold, "Congratulations, Good choice". They say ######, now I gotta find someone else, quit being a ######.

[Toro]

They still theach aero-phys but I get caught in the argument of suck it up it's a little pain, and I could be making a bad situation worse. It's not like the squadron says to you when you go DNIF for a head cold, "Congratulations, Good choice". They say ######, now I gotta find someone else, quit being a ######.

Who the f*** told you that? Pass that word to your flight doc and he'll give them a running kick in the junk. Trying to suck it up of your own will is one thing - telling somebody else to do it is flat out poor.

Let me pass to you the story of a guy who recently try to 'deal' with a head cold. The guy's a highly experienced O-5 with more Strike Eagle time than me, and a very good sense of how his body responds to flying and colds. He has flown with 'minor' colds before and never had a problem, so a few months ago he figured that flying with another 'minor' cold wouldn't be a problem. On decent from medium altitude, he got a sinus block. If you've never had a sinus block, pray you never do - it is in the top three most painful things I've ever had happen to me. He tried to level off for a while and snort some Afrin, but he was getting skosh on fuel, so he had to land fairly quickly. By the time he landed, he was in agony and he had blown something in the vicinity of his nasal cavity - blood was free-flowing from his nose. Obviously he went DNIF, and stayed DNIF for the next month while the docs tried to fix him with meds and rest. Oh by the way, guess what kind of sortie he was flying? Red Flag spinup....yup, he missed Red Flag. After a month of different meds, nothing was working and the docs were one last attempt away from scheduling him from surgery and a potential permanent DNIF. The last treatment ended up working, but six weeks and one missed Red Flag later, he'll tell you it definitely wasn't worth it.

I'm not saying that you DNIF yourself every time you get the sniffles. I'm also not saying you should be a tough guy and push your body when you're at the point where you don't know how your body will respond. If you don't have the experience to know better, you either defer to the flight doc and let him make the decision or you don't fly.

[Guest Bulldog2]

They still theach aero-phys but I get caught in the argument of suck it up it's a little pain, and I could be making a bad situation worse. It's not like the squadron says to you when you go DNIF for a head cold, "Congratulations, Good choice". They say ######, now I gotta find someone else, quit being a ######.

I know exactly what you mean by that quote. I have gone DNIF for head colds and I have also been on the receiving end when you show up not expecting to fly and someone decides 5 minutes before brief that they should go DNIF and you get thrown into a flight COMPLETELY unprepared. Then you run into the all familiar quote, "well you should be ready and prepared for every event you are opted for."

Bottom line, if you are not feeling up to it, dont fly, regardless of whether it's a head cold or not. The only advice I can give is let the scheduler know ASAFP! when you know you will not be able to fly. That way he has time to find someone who is ready to take your place and you don't end up screwing your buddy.

My .02

[Butters]

They say ######, now I gotta find someone else, quit being a ######.

Sounds like something a FAIP scheduler with ZERO experience would say. Hell, you could walk up holding your severed leg, tell the scheduler they are re-attaching it in an hour, and he would say the same thing!! Suck it up! If you fly with a head cold you run the risk of being DNIF for longer than a day. Missing a day or two of flying is no big deal, getting thrown into a flight last minute because someone went DNIF is part of being in the AF. It does not stop at UPT. I have seen too many people go longer term DNIF because they pushed a medical problem.

Worst story I have is the member of my UPT class that was DNIF for 6 months. She did not do the chamber with us because she had a cold. When she went the next week, she was suffering from mild DCS symptoms. She did not tell anyone and when she went for day 2 of the chamber (we used to do 2 flights the second was up to 41K) she hit the ground and started doing the funky chicken passing 25K. The med-evaced her to Brooks where she spent a week in a dive chamber to the air bubble out of her brain stem. She finally recovered but need to wear glass after that. Finally flew again 6 months later.

DON"T SCREW WITH THIS CRAP.

[Guest Cap-10]

Don't fly with a craniuim cold... I pushed it once and on descent, it felt like someone had stabbed me in the nasal cavity with an ice pick....69 times.

As for telling scheduling, go ugly early. There is a big difference to 1) telling COB the day prior that you don't feel good and are going to 7am sick call 2) telling first thing (I mean, wake up, take a leak, still don't feel right, call the Ops Desk) the day of, and 3) sitting on the fence, still trying to make up your mind during the brief, and then calling King's X 6-9 before step time.

And yes, I have seen #3 happen in my last tour in the FTU..I believe he sat WDO for about 12hrs a day the next few weeks when he wasn't flying.

Cap-10

[pawnman]

If you're going to go DNIF, go early and tell people early. Most schedulers won't have a problem with you going DNIF, they have a problem with you telling someone 5 minutes prior to the brief. As others have said, if they give you a difficult time, start getting other people involved...Flight/CC, the docs, ADOs if you feel it's necessary.

[Guest F16PilotMD]

Worst leadership mistake out there (okay, maybe not THE worst, but) is to make a young-un feel bad about not flying. We all felt like that when we were young hot-shots. Now, old and grey, we realize that our pink body is more important than our ego. Waiting until the last minute to sound off is a foul. But don't fly if you don't feel good. This is one of the toughest things to get across to the LTs. They all think they will be in trouble or behind the time-line etc. You can fix that. You can't fix dead.

[BQZip01]

The singularly worst advice I got was from a F-15 GIB who told me, "I've flown with a head cold before. Yeah it sucks, but it's no big deal. You guys [nav students] are flying in a 737. You should just suck it up."

I don't care if you are going up in a T-43 or a passenger jet. Coming down rapidly in altitude can cause some major problems. DON'T DO IT!!!