Originally Posted by
EvilGN
Valsalva is the fix for clearing ears while descending...if its just your left ear you need to clear, try tilting your head to the right so your left ear is pointed upward, close off your other ear with a finger, and hold your nose closed and blow gently. If you have a sinus block, this will not work and you could end up blowing a sinus cavity. That is why you should never go flying with sinus troubles. Along with that, just becuase you can successfully valsalva (clear a sinus) on the ground, this does not mean that another cavity is not blocked.
I can't close off the other ear as my helmet gets in the way.
Do you fly with the combat edge mask? If so, does the ocluder (sp?) valve work for you? Unfortunately for me the tweets pressurization system sucks and is causing me some problems.
To everyone else thanks for the help. My problem is that with the mask I have a heck of a time pinching my nose which makes it hard to valsalva.