I gotta pee !

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I gotta pee !

Postby gracecab » Fri Oct 30, 2015 3:20 pm

After talking with Aaron (cracka) about his flight last weekend, I thought about mentioning the need to have a pee tube ready, if you are thinking of flying far, and may not get the safe opportunity to top-land, pee, and continue flying.

Aaron was having an epic flight from EJ, to Ojai, and got up White Ledge... and ended up gliding down to Lake Casitas because he had to go... like go bad. :lol: I forget why, doesn't matter, why he didn't have it hooked up, or ready, but I'm guessing he would have gone to Magic Mountain if he did... it was a really good day, and he's a really good pilot.

He had come down once and top landed at EJ after about 30 minutes, to PEE... but went up again and started downrange for the big push... (Sorry, Aaron if I'm revealing too much but this is an attempt to help all pilots think about if they need to procure a urine-release-method at the beginning of the Mountain flying season... )

To back this up, below is a quote from an Incident report that Sundowner wrote about an ankle break that happened in large part because he had to pee, but didn't have the good weather conditions in the Skyport area in order to put down safely, and relaunch. He didn't want to stop flying, pushed beyond his intuition telling him to find the safe landing... so ended up with a pretty gnarly break... you should read the whole report, it may be enough to warn you off from trying something really stupid this season... gnarly. :shock:

Anyhoo... I'm open to suggestions on what's working for y'all. Something about medical-grade catheter?

It's worth having something everytime you are thinking of going far I believe...or even if you are going to fly for a couple hours or just have had a bunch of morning Joe and will probably be needing relief soon... And a warning to not push it when you have to pee... And to prepare beforehand so you don't have to interrupt an epic flight.

"Incident

The pilot had been in the air about 4 hours total, and about 3 hours since his last top landing elsewhere along the range. He had been pressing all day, pushing up and down the range low, connecting on low last chance points numerous times. Although he hadn't flown in 7 weeks, his confidence was high as the day aged. He had returned to the launch area and wanted to top land. His motivation for landing was a pressing bladder and fatigue. His options were to fly out and land in the main LZ next to his car, effectively ending the day. Try and top land near the Skyport in conditions that would be difficult and hazardous. Try and get to the Alternator, a more open top landing spot about 800 feet higher and several miles away."
Chris Ballmer aka gracecab
Ventura, CA
UP Kantega XC2 / Gin Verso
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Re: I gotta pee !

Postby NMERider » Sun Nov 01, 2015 10:24 pm

Around 1980, a good friend of mine was nearly killed on his motorcycle because he had to pee really badly and the distraction resulted in his getting broadsided by a side of broads. Actually, it was a car full of co-eds who ran a stop sign. Richie would have avoided the accident had he stopped to pee as he'd have been more alert.

What might have been an SB OnR HG record last year for me was cut short by sub-freezing temperature-induced bladder shrinkage and accompanying pain. Once I got lower and warmer the pain went away but it was already game over by this time.

Anyhow, here is some good intel on external catheters and other options for bladder relief....
http://aviation.derosaweb.net/relief/
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4846
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Re: I gotta pee !

Postby gracecab » Mon Nov 02, 2015 7:18 pm

thanks jd for the info and data... may we have to use these on long flights this season!
Chris Ballmer aka gracecab
Ventura, CA
UP Kantega XC2 / Gin Verso
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