Short Finals

Essentially in flying from say, Australia to Europe, we disrupt the natural operating pattern of our body. By interrupting the body’s circadian rhythm we confuse our natural senses as to when we need to eat and sleep. It doesn’t take long to realise that eating breakfast at 2100hrs body time is going to be confusing for the body’s natural time clock.

Dr Bergau noted several primary enemies that the long distance traveller has to learn to cope with. Firstly, something that none of us can avoid is the very low humidity that is part and parcel of the modern high altitude airliner cabin. Natural body comfort is found at sea level when the humidity is in the 35-40% ratio. In most airliners, the humidity factor is below 10% while some measurements have recorded figures as low as 3%. There have been experiments over the years at fitting air humidifiers but these have largely been unsuccessful. They used some 200 litres of water per flight hour and only boosted relative humidity to between 15 and 20% while at the same time producing visual condensation that often served to panic novice passengers into believing that smoke was coming from the overhead aircon vents! One way to capture your passenger’s attention but ideally not the way to engender confidence in them.

Passengers should eat light. Irrespective of class we often preorder the vegetarian menu as this usually results in a more varied, lower fat diet that leaves you feeling much lighter at the end of a long flight.

Passengers should also get as much sleep as possible. The other evils are alcohol and tobacco. Alcohol at altitude has a far more destabilising effect on the body than it does at sea level. As you are also in a very dry environment it also actively contributes to dehydration, a major cause in itself of jet lag-related fatigue. In fact you should drink an additional litre of water or non-carbonated liquid (fruit juice, etc) for each 1 0 hours of flight duration. Thus you should consume an extra 2. 5Its at least on a typical Sydney/ London flight in order to avoid dehydration. Dehydration also induces chronic fatigue and upsets the ability of the body’s digestive system to eliminate wastes, often resulting in the routine stomach problems that often plague travellers.

The third bogey man is of course smoking. If we could think of anything good to say about smoking then we would, but as there isn’t, there we won’t! Smoking decreases the ability of the white corpuscles in the bloodstream to be able to transport and absorb oxygen, often. by as much as 6 to 8% at a typical relative cabin altitude of 8,000ft. Meanwhile, the toxins, Carbon Monoxide, Radon, etc all continue to do their work at destroying what could be a viable human body. The acrid smoke, which is harsher in a very dry and pressurised cabin environment also serves as a major eye irritant while any non smoker will readily tell you how the nearby presence of cigarette smoke affects nasal passages, even to the point of inducing Hay Fever in many people. The third point regarding prolonged smoking in a closed environment is that the sheer stench of smoke on the person’s clothes is enough to make even Pat Cash feel second-hand!

Jet lag is real and if you travel a lot it needs to be combatted as best you can. Sleep as much as possible, drink as much water as possible, eat light and don’t smoke and you might just survive till the next airport. Bon Voyage. Safer in the Air!

The October edition of the always interesting Avmark Newsletter contained some pertinent safety data that deserves more attention. The popular media game of course now in the US is to highlight every little problem that occurs within that vast nation’s air transport system. Generally, the lay press blames deregulation for creating the supposedly unsafe airways that exist today. A cursory glance at the facts, of course, would tell a different story.

Avmark compiled a graph of the total safety record of the US airline system since the Federal Aviation Act was passed in 1938. The graph records fatalities per 100 million revenue passenger miles and consequently is about as accurate as you can get. The result is basically that the overall air safety factor has increased by a factor of 50 between 1938 and 1986. Avmark points out that in 1986 there were only 4 airline fatalities, or half the number of people that were eaten by bears in US National Parks!

A friend of mine recently was held above Sydney for nearly an hour while a severe thunderstorm abated. Naturally, this is a good occasion to sanction some measure of nervousness as to one’s future on the planet. However, I pointed out to her later that it was significantly safer ‘up there’ in that thirty million dollar Boeing than for instance negotiating Sydney’s infamous Parramatta Road in the same conditions. Mind you, that doesn’t make prime time television, nor do the six thousand plus Australians that in the coming year will expire through smoking-related ailments or for that matter the 50,000 Americans who perished on that nation’s highways during 1987!

A bent Cessna, a family with lost luggage, a senator bumped from his flight – now that’s news!

Two Faced Boeing!

Had the pleasure recently of travelling aboard Ansett’s Polynesian Airlines/Cook Islands International service to Samoa and Rarotonga. Ansett of course have had a long association with Polynesian and took on the task of providing an international carrier for the Cook Islands during 1986.

Initially an Ansett 767 was deployed on the Rarotonga (Cook Islands) route operating out of Sydney non stop each week. This unfortunately was perhaps a trifle premature and more recently the requirements of the two carriers has more reasonably been satisfied by a single 727. The interesting thing though VH-RMN though is that it sports Polynesian livery on one side and CII colours on the other. Accordingly, the crew park the Boeing with the appropriate livery facing the terminal at their various ports of call!

We were most impressed with the standard of service aboard the aircraft and it is certainly a tribute to the Ansett cabin crew training people that they have been able to turn out such a capable group of flight attendants. The tech crew of course are all ex-Ansett and certainly don’t mind their Pacific stint with its exotic destinations and uncongested airspace where one isn’t spending half the sector selecting yet another ATC frequency. The longest sector is some 2,336nm from Sydney to Apia and usually benefits with the strong westerlies, at times the aircraft is even flown at a lower cruising level just to capture a stronger jetstream. On the return haul a fuel stop is made at Noumea, which fortunately is pretty much on the direct Apia/Sydney route anyway. Ansett hope to be able to upgrade to a 767 again soon and with the ongoing problems in Fiji, it no doubt will only be a matter of time before their destinations of Western Samoa and the Cooks take on a new interest as viable holiday destinations.