<p>Have any of you been in the High Altitude Chamber at Peterson aFB? If so, what’s that like and does that enable you to ride on certain aircraft? Fun? Painful? Cool? Do all cadets have to do this? (I know that there may not be posts now till after recognition…)</p>
<p>I have. The "worst" part is doing a rapid ascent from 18000 to 25000 feet. They have you breath oxygen only for 30 minutes prior to de-oxygenate, so people typically don't get decompression sickness. Your ears will click and pop, but you just let the pressure equalize. Then, during the ascent, take off the mask and go. Many things happen, bubbles in your system (the GI track) expand their volume 6 times, and your fingernails/lips start to turn blue. The idea is to wait for 1-2 symptoms before putting your mask back on. Most people have different symptoms. I had quick symptoms that made me put my mask on quickly, aka nausea. Most get tingling, the worst thing to get is euphoria. So, I will know if their is decression in an aircraft immediately I suppose. :) This allows you to do jump and soaring over the summer and is a pre-req for incentive rides in fighters later. </p>
<p>Last post probably for the next 3 days, cya on the other side all!</p>
<p>The worst part is the classroom work, because everyone is tired, its hot, but you ahve to pay attention to elarn aobut what's going on. There is a test that if you fail, you don't pass altitude chamber (and therefore no jukmp or soar). It's completely safe, so don't worry about that. its kinda cool too.</p>