Stress, is the body’s response to physical and psychological demands placed on it. The body’s reaction to stress includes releasing chemical hormones such as adrenaline into the blood and increasing metabolism, to provide more energy to the muscles blood, sugar, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and perspiration. All increase stress falls into two broad categories: acute and chronic. Acute stress involves an immediate threat that is perceived as danger. This is the type of stress that triggers a fight-or-flight response in an individual whether the threat is real or imagined.

Normally, a healthy person can cope with acute stress and prevent stress overload, however, ongoing acute stress can develop into chronic stress. Chronic stress can be defined as a level of stress that presents an intolerable burden, exceeds the ability of an individual to cope and causes individual performance. To fall sharply unrelenting psychological pressures such as loneliness financial worries and relationship or work problems can produce a cumulative level of stress that exceeds a person’s ability to cope with the situation. When stress reaches these levels, performance falls off rapidly. Pilots experiencing this level of stress are not safe and should not exercise their Airmen privileges.

Pilots, who suspect they’re suffering from chronic stress, should consult a physician fatigue. Fatigue is frequently associated with pilot error. Some of the effects of fatigue include degradation of attention and concentration. Impaired coordination and decreased ability to communicate these factors seriously influence the ability to make effective decisions. Physical fatigue results from sleep loss exercise or physical work.

Factors such as stress and prolonged performance of cognitive work result in mental fatigue. Alcohol alcohol impairs the efficiency of the human body. Studies have proved that drinking and performance deterioration are closely linked. Pilots must make hundreds of decisions some of them time critical during the course of a flight. The safe outcome of any flight depends on the ability to make the correct decisions and take the appropriate actions during routine occurrences as well as abnormal situations.

The influence of alcohol drastically reduces the chances of completing a flight without incident. Even in small amounts. Alcohol can impair judgment, decrease sense of responsibility, affect coordination, constrict, a visual field, diminish memory, reduce reasoning, power and lower attention span as little as one ounce of alcohol can decrease. The speed and strength of muscular reflexes lessen the efficiency of eye movements while reading and increase the frequency at which errors are committed, impairments in vision and hearing occur at alcohol blood levels due to as little as one drink intoxication is determined by the amount of alcohol. In the bloodstream, this is usually measured as a percentage by weight in the blood 14 CFR.

Part 91 requires that blood alcohol level be less than point zero, 4 percent and that eight hours pass between drinking alcohol and piloting an airplane. A pilot with a blood-alcohol level of point – zero, four percent or greater after eight hours – cannot fly until the blood alcohol falls below that amount. Even though blood alcohol may be well below point zero, four percent, a pilot cannot fly sooner than eight hours after drinking alcohol. Although the regulations are quite specific, it is a good idea to be more conservative than the regulations hyperventilation, the excessive rate and depth of respiration, leading to abnormal loss of carbon dioxide from the blood. This condition occurs more often among pilots than is generally recognized it seldom in capacities completely, but it causes disturbing symptoms that can alarm the uninformed pilot.

In such cases, increased breathing rate and anxiety further aggravate the problem. Hyperventilation can lead to unconsciousness due to the respiratory systems. Overriding mechanism to regain control of breathing pilots encountering an unexpected stressful situation may subconsciously, increase their breathing rate. Common symptoms of hyperventilation include visual impairment, unconsciousness lightheaded or dizzy sensation, tingling, sensations, hot and cold, sensations muscle spasms. The treatment for hyperventilation involves restoring the proper carbon dioxide level in the body.

Breathing normally is both the best prevention and the best cure for hyperventilation. In addition to slowing the breathing rate breathing into a paper bag or talking aloud, helps to overcome. Hyperventilation recovery is usually rapid once the breathing rate is returned to normal. This concludes your introduction to aeromedical factors. We hope you learned a lot.

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