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SoCalJumper

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Skydiving

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No personal experience.
I worry about hypoxia as the airplane climbs into thinner air above 5,000 feet above sea level.
Used to be that the only skydivers breathing through nasal canulas were those climbing to 18,000 feet for large formation record attempts.
As our skydiving population ages (baby boomers) maybe the new fashion will be continuous-wear nasal canulas. Will we grow fancier moustaches to conceal our nasal canulas?
Will canula tubing become standard in full-face skydiving helmets?
Will knitted nose-toques become fashionable?
Will lace veil become fashionable for skydiving ladies?
Will rubber, fighter pilot masks become fashionable for skydivers?
Will rigid face guards (as worn by military helicopter door gunners) become fashionable among skydivers?
Lots of new markets for start-up skydiving entrepreneurs .....

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considering your jump numbers being 2725 I am assuming it has just now began to interfere with your jumping?

Apart from stating the obvious (quit smoking!), you can buy a cheap O2 sat meter at a walgreens and compare you O2 at altitude to other jumpers, which can easily be placed back into any regular sized pocket in a standard jumpsuit before jumping.

I think it's normal to go under 90% w/o COPD(?) But if you find you're down to under 80% or you are significant less oxygen saturated than other jumpers on the load (like >10% difference) then it's probably getting to be not safe.

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