The regs say you need oxygen above 12,000 feet. If you end a flight exhausted, with a headache, your body is telling you it needed oxygen regardless of the altitudes you flew. “Hypoxia is getting in there and doing its job,” Robert Jamieson, of Mountain High Equipment and Supply told a news conference at AOPA Expo in San Jose. His company’s answer is Full Authority Digital Oxygen Control (FADOC) through a device the size of a deck of cards that accurately meters the precise amount of oxygen aircraft occupants need in a process called “pulse demand.”
Jamieson said the device actually measures the trachial pressure of aircraft occupants and delivers the precise amount of oxygen based on breathing rate and the volume of breaths. Jamieson said it cuts oxygen use by as much as 80 percent compared to constant flow systems and still maintains the saturation levels needed to keep the brain and other organs working properly. “It automatically profiles breathing and gives you the oxygen you need right up to 25,000 feet,” he said.
