Quote:
Originally Posted by brisfitworks
Concerns about breathing exhaust may be exagerated.
Obviously, all rotary pilots suffered this, to some extent.
Lots of variations in pipe design between aircraft and between issues of any type over its design life says there was something up. Noise and flame suppression are two know causes of change. German exhausts definitely seem to be conscious of the prop's swirling of the exhaust around the fuse, but...
I know from standing up in our Strutter, during the first airshow, that we didn't even know we had a very significant exhaust leak in our collector ring until we hit the smoke system - the smoke flooded out the top cooling vents and made the everything disappear and we went IFR for those few seconds. That was even for me in the back standing up!
There is so much airflow in the cockpits we didn't smell the exhaust leak!
|
For reference sake, normal background CO in the atmosphere is 0.1 PPM. Symptoms appear @ 35 PPM with a slight headache @ 6-8 hours continuous exposure. Immediate unconsciousness with 2- 3 breaths requires 12,800 PPM.
It's a viable concern in an enclosed cockpit however, that having been said, fatalities have occurred in an open air environment with a boating activity called, "transom surfing." I suspect, a freak set of circumstances on a hot still day while on the ground, could possibly duplicate this.