KEEPING FLYERS FIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 34, 10 February 1930, Page 6

KEEPING FLYERS FIT.

(By JOHN A. TAMISI.)

The Allied air forces found during the World War that a man who flew steadily for more than four hours a day would become fatigued quickly. High altitudes tire a pilot quickly. This is why commercial 'planes are ordered to be flown at the lowest safe altitude, thus ensuring the pilot's highest efficiency and the passenger's safety. Experience lias proved that a flyer becomes stale from too much flying, too little exercise and loss of sleep. Therefore the men are not permitted to fly too much, and are advised to exercise and get their needed sleep. The pilot's fatigue is due to strain that he experiences. It may become chronic, and develop into a condition known as staleness (neurocirculatory asthenia). This condition results in flagging of physical energy, falling off in efficiency and flying ability, and a development of nervous instability. These are conditions which timely examinations tend to prevent. As an athlete sometimes goes stale from too much exercise of the same type, so does a pilot go stale from nervous strain, and frequently from too little physical effort. The requirements for commercial flying are strict, hut are not so high as those of military air operations, because military flyers are required to do acrobatics, to fly all types of 'planes, and to go to extreme altitudes, while commercial pilots are not. Every crash gains conspicuous publicity. Every time a flyer can be prevented from coming down out of control, the whole industry of flying is further advanced. That good eyes are one of the most important factors in aviation is agreed by all 1 writers on the subject of aviation medicine, and by nearly all aviators themselves. Pilots should possess perfect vision. As so much of flying is done at night, the eyes of every pilot are more carefully examined than if the flying was all done in daylight. Particularly painstaking as the examination of the retina, as a diseased retina causes a condition known as "night blindness." Liver disturbances of a complicated nature may also produce the same condition. The nose must be free from growths, and the tonsils free from infection and normal in size. Abnormalities such as would cause nasal obstruction must be removed, for a pilot must not be a mouth-breather. The reason for this is that a mouth-breather cannot satisfactorily expand the lungs. Diseased or enlarged tonsils must be removed, as they interfere with proper breathing, and arc a source of sundry ailments. Genera! physical ailments decrease a pilot's resistance and his efficiency and reliability as well. They make him less alert. All large and successful [•ommercial air transport services are strict abouf examinations of 'planes, and it is well that this is the case. No railway engine or steamship undergoes the close inspection and reinspectior that an aircraft Veceives from higlily-trainec! mechanics. It is sensible, therefore, to have as much concern about the man that flics it as xhout the aeroplane itself.