SHELL Model under pressure

S=Software Time of useful consciousness

L=Liveware 20,000ft 30 Mins
H=Hardware 30,000ft 1-2 minutes
E=Environment 35,000ft 30-90 seconds
75% of accidents human error 40,00ft 15-20 seconds
Smoking can reduce altitude by 4,000ft to 5,000ft
Gas Laws - Difficulty in concentrating
Boyles Law – Barro trauma - Impaired judgement, mood changes and euphoria
- Volume of gas is inversely proportional to its pressure - Drowsiness and lethargy
Charles Law - Light headedness, dizziness and nausea
- Volume of a gas varies directly with temperature. As - Loss of muscular co-ordination
temp increases volume increases - Pallor and cyanosis
Daltons Law - Hypoxia - Failure of basic senses especially colour vision
- Pressure of a mixture of gases is the sum of the partial - Unconsciousness
pressures of its constituents Diving wait 24 hours. Symptoms (Bends, Creeps, Chokes)
- E.G since 21% is oxygen the 21% of pressure is due to Effect >18,000ft - Action descend to 10,000ft, don masks
oxygen Gz acceleration causes blackout
- AKA Law of partial pressures
Ficks Law – Transfer of oxygen The Eye
- Gas will diffuse from areas of high concentration to low
concentrations
- AKA diffusion law
Henrys Law - Bends
- Amount of gas dissolved in a liquid is proportional to
the pressure of that gas over the liquid

Normal lung capacity – 500ml

Calculate cardiac output = stroke volume (ml) x beats
per min. 12-20 cycles per min.

Hypoxia

Up to 5,000ft Night vision degraded

Overall vision 10% degraded
Up to 10,000ft Indifferent
(pressure drop ¼) New tasks more difficult
Slight increase breathing / HR
10,000ft to 15,000ft Compensatory Stage
Impaired judgement
Memory > 12,000ft
Alertness and drowsiness
Short term memory impaired
above 12,000ft
15,000ft to 20,000ft Disturbance stage
No defence
Euphoria
Fatigue
Dizziness
20,000ft to 23,000ft Critical Stage
Mental performance degrades
Dizziness and confusion
Loss of consciousness
> 40,000ft Oxygen must be supplied
- Rods – Low light distributed over large area
- Cones – Colour concentrated in Fovea
Smoking effects night vision
30 mins to adapt to night (Adaptation)
Presbyopia – ability to focus changing with age
Myopia – Short sighted imaged focused infront of retina
Mypremetropia – long sighted focus behind retina
Health
A BMI of over 25 is overweight and over 30 is obese
BMI calculation weight (KG) / height (m)2 = BMI
Being obese reduces G tolerance, increases susceptibility
to hypoxia and decompression sickness
Drugs
Alcohol – 20mg / 100ml blood, 8 hours throttle to bottle
Wait 24 hours after taking new medication
No flying 12 hours after local anaesthetic and 24 after
general anaesthetic
Most common incapacitation gastro-intestinal
Caffeine limit 250mg / day Memory
Hearing Sensory store
- Iconic (Visual) and echoic (hearing) memory
- Working memory (Short term) 15-30 seconds, 7 bits
- Long term memory – unlimited information
- Semantic, episodic and procedural
Phases of learning a skill
1. Cognitive
2. Associative
3. Autonomous
Motor programmes – skill based require little thought
Mental Schemas – rule based behaviours e.g. SOPs
Knowledge-based behaviours – require evaluation of
new situation using previous knowledge

Hearing range 20Hz to 20,000Hz CRM

Three small bones (malleus, incus and stapes) carry Groupthink – individual members display extreme
vibrations to the cochlea conformity
The Eustachian tube is connected to the nose and throat Communication –
to equalise pressure Sender -> Message -> Channel -> Receiver
Okay < 90dB, discomfort @ 120dB, pain @ 140dB
Prolonged exposure hearing loss esp above 4,000Hz
Balance comes from inner ear, vestibular apparatus
Utricle and saccule sense gravity
3 semi-circular canals sense acceleration

Sensory illusions
- Auto Kinesis – lights at night wandering
- Up sloping runway – feels too high (land short). Down
sloping reverse
- Narrow runway feel too high (land short)
- Fog / mist make things look further away
Empty field Myopia – eye rests focal point 2m away
- Coriolis effect – moving head while turning

Sleep
Body clock on 25 hour daily cycle (90 min cycles)
Body temp highest evening and lowest in the morning
Sleep easier when body temp falling. 90 min cycle

Stress
Part of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
1. Alarm – Prepare for fight or flight
2. Resistance – reduction in physical symptoms but
increase in hormone and glucose production
3. Exhaustion – resources being used up blood sugar
drops. Hypertension, heart disease etc