5 ms·

I flew about 14 years out of my career and I had 2800 hours flying fighters, and was anywhere from surface to 50,000+ feet. This is low-time compared to the pe

by thrill 4y ago

I flew about 14 years out of my career and I had 2800 hours flying fighters, and was anywhere from surface to 50,000+ feet. This is low-time compared to the people who flew heavies (tankers and transport). My cancer was not diagnosed until shortly after I left the service by the first doctor I visited, but I'd began getting increasingly unpleasant symptoms 5 years prior (about the time I quit flying and went to a non-flying duty "for career progression").

the__alchemist 4y ago
I wonder how the rates compare with heavies v fighters. The heavies fly a lot longer, but aren't sitting 6-9 ft behind a radar, or breathing MSOGS.
- docandrew 4y ago
  Heavies have radars too - and instead of O2 from a tank they breathe bleed air from the engines.
- warner25 4y ago
  I'm wondering about helicopters too. I was a helicopter pilot for a few years. We rarely flew much higher than 1,000 feet AGL, but we crawled all over the aircraft during pre-flight, drew fuel samples, etc. While deployed in a flying position, we'd log 50-100 hours per month. It would be a quarter of that when not deployed. Over a 20-year career, 5,000 hours seemed typical for Army warrant officers; commissioned officers (who spend a lot of time on "non-flying duty 'for career progression'") would get more like 1,000-2,000 hours. I'm pretty sure that civilian commercial pilots fly a lot more than that.
- XorNot 4y ago
  Microwave band radar isn't ionizing radiation. It's not causing cancer (whereas the boatload of combustion products you're likely regularly exposed to is a much bigger worry).
  - zarzavat 4y ago
    High powered microwave sources can kill you. It’s a reasonable assumption that anything that can kill you can also give you cancer.
    - nerdponx 4y ago
      For all we know, induced electrical currents can trigger some kind of local cancer-promoting inflammatory reaction.
      - zarzavat 4y ago
        Or just chronic inflammation. I’m not an expert so take all of this with a grain of salt, but the danger of high powered long wavelength radiation sources is not that they damage DNA directly via ionization, but they deliver heat energy deeper inside the body than e.g. a laser (which will just give you skin burns), the same way that a microwave oven heats food on the inside not just on the skin. Clearly if you are standing next to a high enough power transmitter, you will be cooked and die. At lower power you may survive but with severe burns. The effect of sub-acute doses is not clear, but it’s certainly not solid reasoning that just because your cell phone is not causing cancer that there isn’t a higher chronic dose that will. There is a space of power between “cell phone” and “admitted to hospital with burns”.
    - XorNot 4y ago
      So can water.

by thrill 4y ago

the__alchemist 4y ago

I wonder how the rates compare with heavies v fighters. The heavies fly a lot longer, but aren't sitting 6-9 ft behind a radar, or breathing MSOGS.

docandrew 4y ago
Heavies have radars too - and instead of O2 from a tank they breathe bleed air from the engines.
warner25 4y ago
I'm wondering about helicopters too. I was a helicopter pilot for a few years. We rarely flew much higher than 1,000 feet AGL, but we crawled all over the aircraft during pre-flight, drew fuel samples, etc. While deployed in a flying position, we'd log 50-100 hours per month. It would be a quarter of that when not deployed. Over a 20-year career, 5,000 hours seemed typical for Army warrant officers; commissioned officers (who spend a lot of time on "non-flying duty 'for career progression'") would get more like 1,000-2,000 hours. I'm pretty sure that civilian commercial pilots fly a lot more than that.
XorNot 4y ago
Microwave band radar isn't ionizing radiation. It's not causing cancer (whereas the boatload of combustion products you're likely regularly exposed to is a much bigger worry).
- zarzavat 4y ago
  High powered microwave sources can kill you. It’s a reasonable assumption that anything that can kill you can also give you cancer.
  - nerdponx 4y ago
    For all we know, induced electrical currents can trigger some kind of local cancer-promoting inflammatory reaction.
    - zarzavat 4y ago
      Or just chronic inflammation. I’m not an expert so take all of this with a grain of salt, but the danger of high powered long wavelength radiation sources is not that they damage DNA directly via ionization, but they deliver heat energy deeper inside the body than e.g. a laser (which will just give you skin burns), the same way that a microwave oven heats food on the inside not just on the skin. Clearly if you are standing next to a high enough power transmitter, you will be cooked and die. At lower power you may survive but with severe burns. The effect of sub-acute doses is not clear, but it’s certainly not solid reasoning that just because your cell phone is not causing cancer that there isn’t a higher chronic dose that will. There is a space of power between “cell phone” and “admitted to hospital with burns”.
  - XorNot 4y ago
    So can water.