Oxygen usage with camera helmets

[billvon 2,379]

Open question - has anyone used bailout oxygen with camera helmets? If so, what has worked for you?

I'm looking at systems that will allow bailout oxygen usage for camera flyers above 25,000 feet. The systems that come to mind are:

-Mask. A good mask (w/demand valves) is going to be the best possible option for good supply of oxygen, but may not be compatible with open face camera helmets, especially rigid-face ones.

-Nasal cannula. This is the 'default' for oxygen delivery but has serious problems when your nose is in 120mph of wind. The wind can both unseat the cannula and can interfere with oxygen delivery. It would work well with fullface helmets, but those seem few and far between in the freefall photography world.

-Oral delivery. Basically a tube in your mouth. Used correctly this is pretty effective, but requires you to hold it in your mouth, breathe "correctly" (i.e. your pharynx open and your mouth closed) and can interfere with some sorts of shutter releases (bite switches, blow switches.) I've considered a combined blow switch/O2 hose where either blowing or just momentarily blocking the O2 fires the shutter.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[VectorBoy 0]

Maybe a customized skysystems type helmet. With either a simple aluminum universal plate or some elaborate composite top platform.

I wouldn't rely on triggering stills with an O2 flow back pressure switch, maybe a remote finger switch instead. I have concerns of this style of helmet rotating forward and off on deployment if the fit isn't perfect. But I'm pretty sure you have thought of all of this already Bill and you are looking for some other angle.

[diablopilot 2]

Bill you probably know Ralf Stinson. He has done a few of the 30,000 ft jumps at Davis with his camera set up. It's an open face type Bonehead (I think it's a BatRak) but I imagine any front entry chin cup helmet will work. He added a set of the connectors that a standard military type mask integrates with. Chris over a BH should have plenty of tips on how to get this done with the amount of work he does with the military.

I would absolutely NOT do a jump over 25,000 with anything other than the proper breathing equipment, i.e. a specific bailout style mask. This does not include the medical style masks.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[PharmerPhil 0]

Quote

...The wind can both unseat the cannula...

I have never jumped with bailout O2, but I routinely jump with on-board and use a short canula tube that stays in my helmet, looped over my ears. I leave it in and disconnect it at the back of my helmet right before climbout, and have never had the wind in freefall "unseat" the canula from my nostrils. That being said, I would NEVER trust it to give positive O2 delivery at the altitudes you're looking at.

During the Everest jumps they used open face helmets and real, positive pressure masks with open face helmets. There are some photos of the camera helmet set-ups on Wendy Smith's web site.

[billvon 2,379]

>I wouldn't rely on triggering stills with an O2 flow back pressure switch . . .

Well, I don't see it as much different than a blow switch. Provided the tubing diameter is chosen such that the normal flow doesn't fire the switch, it should work the same as any other blow switch. I'll have to try it and see how it works.

>I have concerns of this style of helmet rotating forward and off on deployment . . .

Yep, I've almost lost a very expensive camera that way.

[billvon 2,379]

>I would absolutely NOT do a jump over 25,000 with anything other
>than the proper breathing equipment, i.e. a specific bailout style mask.

Well, a whole lot of people have gone to 26,000 feet with no bailout O2 at all, so my first thought would be that any bailout system at 26,000 feet would be better than nothing.

A mask would probably be ideal, but the next question is - what kind of mask? The Gentex mask that I've used is one option (the sort Superior Skydiving uses for their 30,000 foot jumps) but that requires a lot of hardware (like a two stage demand regulator and in some cases an additional anti-suffocation valve.) My first thought there would be that the operation and complexity of that would lead to more problems than it would solve; any such system would have to be very easy to use and not require you take it off to deal with a problem.

However, there are other masks out there (like the Carleton GA mask) that might work better, and be more suited to supplemental oxygen as opposed to the 100% demand or overpressure systems that the military systems use.

As other people have mentioned, you could add the mask receivers an Optik style helmet and almost use the mask as an additional stabilizer to help with helmet stability (in addition to a chin cup.)

[diablopilot 2]

Quote

Well, a whole lot of people have gone to 26,000 feet with no bailout O2 at all, so my first thought would be that any bailout system at 26,000 feet would be better than nothing.

As we all know that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.