Navy Rules Out Suspected Physiological Episodes Cause While Super Hornet Rates Grow in 201904 Apr 2019 Megan Eckstein"CAPITOL HILL — The Navy has ruled out breathing air contamination as a cause of physiological episodes, but a complex set of conditions – including both cabin pressure issues and human factors – has led to the rates of pilots experiencing PEs this current fiscal year being back on the rise.
Though the service has not yet pinpointed a cause – and likely won’t ever find a single root cause – other gases or contaminants have not been found in breathing air coming from the jets’ Onboard Oxygen Generation System (OBOGS), the Navy said in a little-publicized news release this week.
Despite that progress in ruling out a major factor – and one that was widely blamed for PEs early on when rates among pilots began increasing sharply – two admirals today told lawmakers that there is still much work to be done in stopping the episodes, which can lead to pilots experiencing symptoms of tingly fingers and toes to headaches to passing out in the cockpit....
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As for the Joint Strike Fighter, “F-35 has experienced on average the same or slightly less rate of physiological events that other aircraft have,” Vice Adm. Mathias Winter, the program executive officer for F-35 Lightning II, said at the hearing. Winter described three technology areas the PEO is pursuing to get ahead of any potential increases in PE events in F-35 pilots.First, on OBOGS, “we found that it was providing the appropriate concentration of oxygen to our pilots, but there was a variation in it that, if we reduced that variation, would eliminate a potential causal factor,”
Winter said, and added that the program was working to eliminate that variation so they could focus on other potential causal factors.
Second, the F-35 has a sensor in the seat that measures cockpit pressure and immediately initiates emergency oxygen if it senses the pressure is too low. “It was too sensitive, so we’ve gone back and looked at that based upon pilot input, and we’re doing a seat portion assembly upgrade,” he said.
And lastly, the F-35 program is adding a more sophisticated carbon monoxide filter, despite gas contaminants not being an issue on the Super Hornet and T-45 jets.
All three will be included in new jets starting with the next contract, Lot 12, and will be retrofitted into all jets already built starting next quarter,
Winter added.... [more on USN jets @ URL]
Source: https://news.usni.org/2019/04/04/navy-r ... still-high