Page 26 - March 18 TNT

From the Flight Deck
by Kevin R. Dingman
Vascular Time Bomb
A pilot’s blood pressure,
hypertension and the FAA Form 8500-9
Vas·cu·lar [adjective] Latin: Hollow container; a vessel or vessels, especially those that carry blood.
Time Bomb: [noun] A potentially detrimental, dangerous or catastrophic delayed reaction.
They say many people don’t realize that they have high blood pressure. This isn’t true for us pilots because we get it checked all the time. We should know ours. What we may not know, however, is what BP reading is “too” high. After a half-century of uneventful civilian and military flight
physicals, about a year ago my blood pressure inexplicably started to climb.
But why fret? High BP is simply caused by stress and we can control stress, right? After all, we’re Twin & Turbine pilots: steely eyed, cool, calm and collected. Poised and unflappable. Fighter pilots, astronauts, airline pilots, physicians, attorneys, business moguls, authors, artists, stock brokers and engineers. We eat stress for breakfast. And we don’t notice the strain because we tactfully handle stress like a dog: if we can’t eat it, play with it, or fix it, we pee on it and walk away.
We Could Die...or Worse
Blood pressure was never an issue in past flight physicals, so my first “recheck” at 153/91 was a wake-up call. It turns out that BP is influenced by different things for different folks. And for any one individual, the things that had no influence in the past may have an influence as we age. BP is something that we must actively monitor and if necessary, modify any contributory behaviors. There’s no peeing on this one and walking away. You’ve written me asking for pearls of wisdom from my 23,000-plus hours of flying. This pearl is about getting our BP where it belongs. Because if we lose control of it, we could die. Or worse, we could lose our medical and ability to act as PIC.
I’m not a physician, I don’t play one on TV and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But I did learn interesting things about blood pressure and how easy it can be for most of us to lower it. I had some time away from flying due to rotator cuff surgery, so I took the time to read all about hypertension. I started reading food labels and dropped my sodium intake to near zero. I even stopped drinking softened (salty) tap water. Hold your nose if you must, as you swallow
24 • TWIN & TURBINE March 2018