hotshot

You guys should check out the radiation calculator at http://airlinepilotcentral.com/frame...n_profile.html. Apparently I absorbed 1.36 microsieverts of radiation last Monday, the equivalent of 1/10th of a panoramic dental x-ray.

vagabond

I couldn't get it to work for me. Don't know what en route altitude is and/or what numbers to plug in. That is not a radiation calculator, it's a Stupidity Meter!

hotshot

Date of flight: Obvious
Origin code and destination code: The 4 letter ICAO code (KSEA, KDFW, KSGR, etc.)
# of enroute altitudes: Number of altitudes you cruised at during your flight. If you flew at 12,000 the entire time it would be 1. If you cruised at 12,000 for a while and then went up to 15,000 you would enter 2.
Minutes to 1st enroute altitude: How long it took to get to cruising altitude in minutes.

Next page:
Enroute altitude and time: Enter your cruising altitude and how long you where there in minutes.

Hit continue and viola!

UAL T38 Phlyer

I flew with a Capt on the 727 who would unroll an aluminum sheet above FL180 and tape it to the cockpit over his head.

After recollecting the "Simpsons" episode where Bart did something similar (he was convinced Major League Baseball was placing thoughts in his head via satellite [which was proven as fact at the end of the episode]), I finally asked around leg 3, "OK, I gotta ask--what is that for?"

He cited a Finnish study that said pilots who flew internationally had skin cancer rates 10 times higher than the world-wide average. The conclusion of the study was that:

1. Background radiation exposure from flying at high altitude increased their risk, and

2. The disruption of their circadian rythym increased the risk.

I was still on probation, so I didn't point out to him that:

A. The cockpit aluminum skin over his cranium was at least 0.040 if not 0.050 or 0.063 inches thick. If that didn't stop the radiation, I doubted his extra 4 mils (0.0004) would do it. And, I can't remember if it is Alpha, Beta, Gamma, or X-Ray radiation, but at least one of them is not affected by metal by any significant amount.

B. He didn't try to block the cockpit windows--probably a far more transparent medium for non-visible radiation, as well as the more familiar visible type.

C. Perhaps the real reason Int'l Pilots in the study get more skin cancer is that they tend to be very senior, older, and have generally more time off, and a lifetime accumulation of toys. Maybe they get more skin cancer because they spend more time on their boats, the beach, or playing golf? The report didn't say if leisure-time activities were evaluated.

D. Fighter Pilots spend their entire careers basking in the warming glow of either their, their wingman's, or their opponent's radar beams. Side-lobe radiation from your own jet can be several watts--the equivalent of "defrost" from your microwave oven. Get locked-up by another guy at gun-range, and you are on "Broil." Fighter pilots do not seem to statistically have higher than normal skin cancer rates.

Science and statistics are meaningless unless you know exactly what was measured. And the media loves to leave out the control details.

GBU-24

Boy do I miss the the toasty feeling (sts) of my wingman's APG-70 from radar trail departures in the winter...it was always nice to return the favor with a liberal dose of HUD footage of my wingman under the pipper at the bubble!

sqwkvfr

English please?

ryguy

Bummer, I got 44 micros yesterday. The company is required to keep track of it for us. We have a company limit of 4 point something in a rolling 12 months before they start looking to reduce us. The absolute limit is (I think) 6.48 millisieverts for a rolling 12 month period.

UAL T38 Phlyer

To quote out-of-context from the classic movie Airplane!: "Excuse me stewardess; I speak Fighterpilot." All of GBU-24's comments are humorous sarcasm:

GBU-24: "Guidance-Unit; Bomb; number 24." A laser-guided bomb. So even his screen-name is in Fighter-speak.

Radar-Trail Departure: When weather, runway condition, or weapons load prevents taking off in a formation takeoff, a way to keep the formation together is a trail departure. Lead flies a briefed departure speed and power setting. Number 2 (and 3 or 4, if a 4-ship) take briefed spacings after Lead releases brakes--20 seconds being most common. Once airborne, follow the SID and use the same speed/power settings. Once on top of the weather and Lead in sight, rejoin on him. Wingman can use their radar to gain Situational Awareness on the other aircraft, so the "warm glow" reference is pun intended that you may be cooking the guy ahead of you with a 1200-watt microwave oven.

STS: "So To Speak," more commonly invoked in the Air Force than Navy. Used whenever a statement can be viewed as a double-entendre; ie, sexual implication or overtone.

APG-70: the designation of the radar installed in the F-15E.

HUD footage: Heads-Up Display, and the video tape of any event occuring within it. This is used for playback after a sortie to learn from in training situations, or to validate shots and "kill" criteria when operational.

This tongue-in-cheek (sts) statement refers to the fact that if his wingman (who often is his opponent during training "dogfights") is appearing for long periods in his HUD tape, it means he has been victorious in defeating his wingman, and at such close range, with a radar lock (desired for an accurate gun-solution, ie, ability to aim the gun), it means the guy got really cooked.

Bubble: during peacetime training, the closest you can pass to another aircraft when dogfighting is 500 ft metal-to-metal (or plastic-to-plastic in the case of F-16 v F-16). "500-foot bubble" frequently gets shortened to "the bubble."

By the way, the Air Force never talked about radar-radiation exposure when I was a young fighter-pup. To my knowledge, they still don't.

hotshot

If I remember correctly, didn't the Mig-25 Foxbat have a radar that was so powerful it could kill rabbits hundreds of yards away? I remember a Foxbat pilot talking about the radar once, and I belive he said it was so dangerous that it was highly illegal to have it on while on the ground.

Ftrooppilot

We all worry about hearing and forget eyesight. Wear you sunglasses now or pay the price later.


Both the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officially consider aircrews to be occupationally exposed to ionizing radiation.



“In other words, by the very nature of their work, aircrews are acknowledged to have a greater exposure to cosmic radiation than those who are in earthbound occupations. Flying, especially at the higher altitudes common to long-haul flights, can expose crews (and passengers) to levels of cosmic radiation many times greater than they would receive on the ground. Those flying in higher latitudes, and especially so-called "polar routes," are exposed to still greater doses of cosmic radiation than those flying in the middle latitudes.”


The kind of cataracts found in he pilots, called 'nuclear cataracts,' are characterized by clouding that begins near the center of the lens and then spreads. Although nuclear cataracts can be age-related, the pilots appeared to be getting the cataracts at a younger age than the non-pilots in the study.

Source: Rafnsson, V., Olafsdottir, E., Hrafnkelsson, J., Sasaki, H., Arnarsson, A., & Jonasson, F. (2005, August). Cosmic radiation increases the risk of nuclear cataract in airline pilots. Archives of Ophthalmology, Vol. 123, pp. 1102-1105

Archives of Opthomology: Cosmic Radiation Increases the Risk of Nuclear Cataract in Airline Pilots
The biological adverse effects of pilots’ radiation exposure, other than cancer and chromosomal aberration, have been the subject of only limited study. Radiogenic cataracts are, however, well-known, and early radiation-induced lesions on the ocular lens are well documented. A study in which information was gathered by questionnaire only indicated increased rates of cataracts among US pilots. Link: ttp://archopht.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/123/8/1102#RREF-EEB40017-12