Flight Training - August 2020 - 14

PREFLIGHT FLIGHT LESSON

BY DAVID FORERO

FEELING THE HEAT
DEHYDRATED IN THE SOUTH FLORIDA SUN

WHAT HAPPENED

Halfway through my
route, the heat was really
catching up to me.

I TOOK THE DAY OFF FROM WORK TO DO A PILOTS N

14 FLIGHT TRAINING AUGUST 2020

AEROMEDICAL FACTORS

DEHYDRATION
CUES
Symptoms go
beyond thirst

Signs of dehydration include fatigue,
headache, cramps,
sleepiness, and dizziness. According to the
Pilot's Handbook of
Aeronautical Knowledge, most people
become thirsty with
a 1.5-quart deficit or
a loss of 2 percent of
total body weight-so
don't wait until you
feel thirsty to take
action.

Flying in heat or
at high altitudes
increases the
rate of water loss
from the body
and makes dehydration more
likely.

LEFT: ALEX WILLIAMSON; ABOVE: STEVE KARP

Paws flight. I was in a Cessna 172M for a short hop
from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE) to
Wellington Aero Club Airport (FD38) to pick up some
puppers, then over to Executive Airport in Orlando
(ORL) to drop them off. The flight started early and
was uneventful. I took the crew car at Orlando to get
some lunch before returning to Fort Lauderdale.
In typical Florida fashion, the late morning into
the afternoon was starting to heat up. Born and raised
in South Florida and having done all my training here,
this was nothing new to me, but even when I was
flying, I preferred the evening hours.
I was solo and couldn't get much higher (my typical solution to the afternoon heat) because of cloud
cover. There were holes in the clouds and the ceiling
was broken, but I opted to stay below them. I did my
usual practice of leaning toward the door and aiming
the air vent my way. But halfway home, the heat
was really catching up to me. I don't know if I was
dehydrated (I stay very hydrated) or suffering from
heat exhaustion, but I was slowly but surely becoming
lightheaded and intermittently seeing stars. At first,
when it was minor, I wanted to tough it out. When the
headache started to settle in, followed by becoming
lightheaded, I made the decision to divert.
For the preceding 20 or so minutes, I had been
keeping tabs on the three or so closest airports. I

decided to divert to Witham Field in Stuart. I don't think it was the closest airport
from my position (Okeechobee County
Airport was, as well as being closest to
my flight path) but I decided to shoot for
Witham for a few reasons: It has a tower,
I've been there before, and it's on the coast.
I tuned the radio to the tower and
waited my turn. I got in once or twice with
my N-number waiting to be acknowledged, but the tower controller had some
traffic to deal with. At this point I had fully
shifted from toughing it out to getting on
the ground, so the next pocket of silence
I called with the N number immediately
followed by "I'm lightheaded and I need to
land now" or something along those lines.
I was immediately acknowledged and
even at 10 or so miles out, he got landing traffic on the ground right away, and
anyone else in the air out of my way, and
got me on the ground. I strolled right up
to the FBO, hydrated, and retreated to the
pilot's lounge, where I must have napped
for three or four hours.
Afterward, I got back in the air and
flew the coast back home. One of my considerations when choosing Stuart was its
location on the coast, so I could fly a mile
off the shoreline the rest of the way home
in the late afternoon/evening and enjoy
the refreshing, cool ocean air. I got home
safe and sound and ultimately am happy I
decided not to tough it out.
ATC was professional as always and
I thank them for that. When I got on the
ground they checked up on me but I told
them I was fine. In hindsight, I'm glad
I opted to divert, because who knows
if I would've been fine otherwise? I'm
usually pretty conservative when it comes
to safety, but in that moment I initially
thought that I'd be fine having done this
kind of flying plenty of times. At the end of
the day, play it safe.

Flight Training - August 2020

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