Coffee and safety

All of us are capable of being retarded. Those dumbasses in the NTSB files are us. Not special short bus retards that stumbled upon an airplane. Now your ego(mine too) will bury this public safety message so you can blissfully go about your day.
 
If you're so exhausted as to need caffeine to remain adequately alert, perhaps today isn't a good day to fly. I'm in that zone now. Dress rehearsal last night (~5 hours) plus a full day's day job both yesterday and today. I'm not flying today. No way. And I don't care how nice the weather is (it's just perfect!).

Caffeine is known to increase alertness in small quantities, in the context of car and truck driving. Presumably, this will transfer to aviation. In large quantities, it's really hard to slip a crosswind correction when your legs are crossed 'cause you really gotta pee RIGHT now. And you can overdose, leading to confusion like that discussed in the article.

Caffeine is a diuretic. It may affect hypoxia; it certainly will affect dehydration.

So, it depends.
 
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IM SAFE. Period....

Good ADM begins on the ground. Including knowing physical yourself and saying, "Sorry, we are not flying today".
 
MAKG1 said:
If you're so exhausted as to need caffeine to remain adequately alert, perhaps today isn't a good day to fly. I'm in that zone now. Dress rehearsal last night (~5 hours) plus a full day's day job both yesterday and today. I'm not flying today. No way. And I don't care how nice the weather is (it's just perfect!).

Caffeine is known to increase alertness in small quantities, in the context of car and truck driving. Presumably, this will transfer to aviation. In large quantities, it's really hard to slip a crosswind correction when your legs are crossed 'cause you really gotta pee RIGHT now. And you can overdose, leading to confusion like that discussed in the article.

Caffeine is a diuretic. It may affect hypoxia; it certainly will affect dehydration.

So, it depends.
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Sorry, all my fault. The title is misleading. The article in the link does not suggest more coffee for flying (the scares me) but how a small incident with a cup of coffee made me think about a safer way to report flying incidents.
 
Could you elaborate? That sounds interesting. Are you referring to the formal debrief the author discusses?
 
No coffee for me before flight, runs right through me and needing to take a leak rig after take off hurts the schedule.
 
Coffee is a stimulant and will certainly give you the feeling you are on top of your game. It is no different than the caffeine pills, and energy drinks people take. However, if you are taking any stimulant so you can fly, I would suggest as others have you should not fly. For me flying is all the stimulation I need to fly.
 
Skylane81E said:
No coffee for me before flight, runs right through me and needing to take a leak rig after take off hurts the schedule.
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There was one flight I'll never forget. I had just met the owner of a 1963 Cessna 172 and started flying it and had yet to fly with her until one day she wanted to have the avionics shop in Iowa troublshoot the static that spewed into the com radio when flying low around Lincoln. Anyways we jump in the plane and head fo Iowa right after work. Starting to sweat bullets about 10 miles northwest of Omaha, depature finally gives us the boot and we are on our ouwn. I trimmed the nose down hard and left the engine turning near redline RPM for the nearest airport. Screaming in (as fast as a 172 goes anyways) I taxi to a run up pad and tell her "HOLD THE BRAKES I GOTTA PEE!" and bailed out.

She was beat red and laughing when I return to the cabin. I just shrugged my shoulders and said "WHAT? I REMEMBERED TO PEE DOWNIND AWAY FROM THE PROPWASH".

Got back to Lincoln about 9:30pm dark and chilly to find a flat tire on her Jeep. First time ever changing a tire as a tripple amputee kinda sucked. :mad2:
 
wow a triple amputee could change the tire but she couldn't??
 
MAKG1 said:
Could you elaborate? That sounds interesting. Are you referring to the formal debrief the author discusses?
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When I red the debrief by the pilot and the analysis made by instructors and other readers all anyone (and myself) could mention is the responsibility and duty to report even the smallest incident. As if not reporting was a choice of his.
When I had my "coffee cup incident", the debrief came back to mind and the pilot's attitude became clearer. The way the brain works makes reporting a difficult task sometimes. And the same mental process might happen with an in-flight incident, when an important piece of information, even noticed, will go unchallenged. The brain is our best friend but sometimes not so !
 
to[FONT="Century Gothic" said:
[/FONT]nycondon;1205516]wow a triple amputee could change the tire but she couldn't??
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Let us have Kimberly weight in too :)
 
Gatorade bottles.

That is all.
 
AggieMike88 said:
IM SAFE. Period....
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And then I got a job flying......

Seriously, coffee keeps me going at the end of a 16 hour day - without it I would literally be too tired to fly.
 
The I,M, and A are freebies for me, but usually 3/6 ain't bad.
 
Caffeine can cause dehydration which is not recommended for flight.
 
Gee .. one of the most important things to get installed in my plane when I was building it was the cup holder in front of the stick.
 
MAKG1 said:
Do we need to?

I'll eat my fuel probe if Kimberly can't change a tire. This is a woman who assists annuals for fun!
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I hope your fuel probe tastes good.

I don't even know how to change the oil in my car. If I have a flat I call AAA.

First of all, I don't have a jack in the trunk. Second, I live in a 287 sqft studio apartment so no tools (that t-shaped lug nut remover thing).

The reason I assist annuals for fun (and by assist I mean take off inspection panels or fill battery cells with distilled water) is because I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING.

I want to learn more. That's why I go. And being single I don't have a boyfriend to show me how things work. My ex I insisted have me change my front brakes. But he instructed me (while having a beer and laughing as I hugged the tire to remove it and fell down the hill).
 
OK, I stand corrected.

Oil changes are a messy PITA. It's a good way to learn, but I wouldn't suggest it "just because." It's cheaper to have an oil change place do it.

You can get a cheap trolley jack for $20 and keep it and a lug wrench in the trunk. Are you SURE your spare doesn't have one inside? Most cars do. They aren't easy to use, but they work by the side of the road.

It's worth it to learn this just so you aren't waiting for AAA on the side of 101 for two hours in the middle of the night....you can't go that far on a donut tire, but you can certainly get it off the highway and probably home/hotel/service station.

FWIW, I've changed a tire with that obnoxious stock service jack at 8000 feet on Mauna Loa on slippery and very sharp lava rocks. That was a really expensive rental (I wasn't supposed to take it up there). I can't imagine how long the AAA call would have taken, or if it was even possible.
 
MAKG1 said:
OK, I stand corrected.

Oil changes are a messy PITA. It's a good way to learn, but I wouldn't suggest it "just because." It's cheaper to have an oil change place do it.

You can get a cheap trolley jack for $20 and keep it and a lug wrench in the trunk. Are you SURE your spare doesn't have one inside? Most cars do. They aren't easy to use, but they work by the side of the road.

It's worth it to learn this just so you aren't waiting for AAA on the side of 101 for two hours in the middle of the night....you can't go that far on a donut tire, but you can certainly get it off the highway and probably home/hotel/service station.

FWIW, I've changed a tire with that obnoxious stock service jack at 8000 feet on Mauna Loa on slippery and very sharp lava rocks. That was a really expensive rental (I wasn't supposed to take it up there). I can't imagine how long the AAA call would have taken, or if it was even possible.
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OK I know you mean well but I'm going to go all girlie on you for a moment. In the middle of the night in 4 inch heels and a dress the LAST thing you want to do as a girl is get out of your vehicle. Sorry, but the truth. Do NOT pop your hood or show distress.
 
Oh and I can't get to my spare since I guess when my ex and I installed my subwoofer / amp combo (a Bass Link which eliminates the need to buy both an amp and a sub) we bolted it shut.

I didn't know this until my "minor / major / oil change" sessions at my Honda specialist. One of the items on their checklist is to make sure you have enough tire pressure in your spare. I came to pick up my car and they said "did you know the housing / brackets for your sub completely block your access to the spare" and I said "no". I still haven't fixed this since the piece in the back comes up like a piece of cardboard.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
OK I know you mean well but I'm going to go all girlie on you for a moment. In the middle of the night in 4 inch heels and a dress the LAST thing you want to do as a girl is get out of your vehicle. Sorry, but the truth. Do NOT pop your hood or show distress.
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OK, you're right. I didn't think of that.

Though there are a few places where I'd really think twice about getting out of the car to change a tire. Like SW DC. And that's even if I'm not wearing a dress and 4 inch heels. :)
 
ClimbnSink said:
Yeah stereotypes win again.
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Yeah, it has a lot to do with stereotypes when you see I-295 lined with stripped and burned vehicles.

Dude, I used to live near there.

I don't know what color the perpetrators were, but I really don't care to find out first-hand.
 
Those are accurate too, I was thinking of girls not changing tires.
MAKG1 said:
Yeah, it has a lot to do with stereotypes when you see I-295 lined with stripped and burned vehicles.

Dude, I used to live near there.

I don't know what color the perpetrators were, but I really don't care to find out first-hand.
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ClimbnSink said:
Those are accurate too, I was thinking of girls not changing tires.
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I would change a tire if:

(1) I had a lot of men in the car. Changing a tire on the side of a road is a huge risk here for women. That whole damsel in distress thing. Yes, I would like to know how to do it but no, I don't want to die. In 34 years I've only had one or two flat tires and they were slow leaks, not blow outs. I take my car in for regular maintenance. I know a lot of people don't. So my tires are looked at a lot.

(2) It was daytime.

(3) I knew how and I had the right tools.

I pay a lot of money for AAA and frankly that's why I have AAA. They have always showed up within 5 - 10 minutes.
 
(3) is the key to the stereotype. I'd drive on the rims out of certain neighborhoods.
 
ClimbnSink said:
(3) is the key to the stereotype. I'd drive on the rims out of certain neighborhoods.
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Agreed. Though I was thinking of becoming a mechanic. So eventually I'll probably learn how to change a tire. I do know when you put the little lug nuts back on you use a torque wrench and do a criss cross pattern. More than some girls know I guess.
 
Screw the torque wrench beside the road. Put it on "reasonably tight" and torque it properly somewhere there aren't idiots going 75 MPH past your head because they're too stupid to move over while they text their SO about what's for dinner.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Agreed. Though I was thinking of becoming a mechanic. So eventually I'll probably learn how to change a tire. I do know when you put the little lug nuts back on you use a torque wrench and do a criss cross pattern. More than some girls know I guess.
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With those dinky stock lug wrenches, yank as hard as you can and go. The Governator couldn't overtorque with those.

Not only do you know how to change a tire, you know how to do it correctly, better than half the tire shop guys do. Those guys think they can do it by counting whacks from their impact wrenches, and it severely overtightens them (but it's real fast). My fuel probe is safe....
 
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