THE CHINA MAIL" THURSDAY SUPPLEMENT, DECEMBER 31, 1936-
HOW FIT ARE YOU?
Can You Pass These Tests In Aviation Medicine? If So, You'll Avoid Crack-ups In Marriage And Business
3. Now long can you hold your breath? Exhale deeply and then fill
your lungs comfortably. Bold your breath as long as possible with a pinch clothespin on your nose. Time your self and see how near you can approach the record of 69 seconds for British pilots.
"1. How ft:are you? You can find out yourself by carrying out these simple tests. First, stand on one foot, then on the other for 15 seconds with your eyes closed. Use your arms for balancing but do not support one knee against the other. It looks quite simple, but try it for yourself.
YAN you stand on one foot with your eyes Do your suffer from migraine, nail-biting, sleepwalk- ing or nightmares? Do you take a long time to wake up in the morning?
Closed for afteen seconds?
These are only a few of the abilities and failings probed by that new specialty, avia- tion medicine, in its tests for pilots. And they are important in everyday life as well as in flying. You can crash with a marriage, a business or a career just as disastrously as with a plane. Unless there are strong, ex- ber tenuating circumstances, no girl in senses ought to marry a man who could not pass the so-called "physical" examination for cist pilots. And a man should think twice before marching to the altar with a girl who could not qualify. Parents, likewise, might well consider how far their children fall short of the requirements. With flivver planes just around the corner, the youngsters will be flying-if they can-before we know it.
According to the chief of the Medical Division of the American Army Air Corps, Lieut. Col. Jones, "a majority of individuals otherwise physically qualified show defects in- neuro-psychic make-up which should definite- ly exclude them from fiying as a sport or vocation." If your children show these de fects, you should unquestionably take steps to correct them even if they never intend to fly except as passengers. If you have them yourself, the same advice applies. For the people who are not equipped to meet the stresses and strains of aviation will be the first to bog down under the stresses and strains of day-to-day living.
sun.
Despite the Scriptural maxim, aviation medicine is definitely a new thing under the It isn't a pill or tonic, or something that an aviator rubs on his bruises. It's a physical and psychological test to determine fitness. It has mushroomed up out of sheer" necessity. In the US, Army, it has yet to cele- brate its twentieth anniversary; in civilian aviation it is less than ten years old. Yet within this brief time it has saved thousands of lives, both of pilots and passengers.
2 Another test is to walk forward and backward along a line on the Soor, and having done that, try again, with your eyes closed. Then walk the same line, heel to toe first with your eyes open, then closed.
4 Stand with your arms extended, fingers spread but relaxed. If your hand trembies it shows that you are suffer. ing from "functional nervous disturbances."
The mere mechanics of flying is relative- ly simple. Glenn Curtiss used to say that anybody who could ride a bicycle could fly a plane. The majority of accidents are now known to be due to "cockpit trouble"-that is, to some human weakness or inadequacy exhibiting itself at the wrong moment To reduce the human hazard, aviation medicine now spreads an invisible cordon about every airport in the land
It is amazing what fools people can be. There is an officially noted case of an in- dividual who confessed to an examiner that he wanted to be a pilot in order to "cure" his nervousness! He is by no means unique. Rarely, if ever, do such misfits get by. Avia- tion medicine stands at the barrier and says, "They shall not pass." It has been urged that similar examinations be required for motorists. Ultimately they will have to
come.
However that may be, you cannot take a single lesson in flying without first passing under the scrutiny of one or more specialists in aviation medicine, known in the Army as Aight surgeons. The Army scrutiny may last for two or three days. It is based on exten- sive researches constantly conducted at the School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field, Texas. The civil tests are less strin- gent and take not more than two or three. bours. The would-be flyer must present himself or herself to one of the official medical examiners (authorised by the Bureau. of Air Commerce) who are practising
5. The above is an eye test. You must be able to read with either of your eyes, letters of an inch high, 20 feet away. If you want a transport pilot's licence you mast;pass this text. --
physicians specialising in this field. At least two are women-one in New York and one in Los Angeles--indicating the modern woman's growing interest in aviation.
Women flyers, by the way, are creating special problems--somewhat to the con- sternation of Dr. R. E. Whitehead, who is in charge of medical supervision of civil avia- tion. He tells of one, Mrs., who, late in 1934, obtained permission to take a test flight (This in- for a transport pilot's license.
One
volves solo spins that are no joke) year later, on appearing for a re-examina- tion, she disclosed to the astonished examiner that she had given birth to an infant in June. She had been "expectant" for two months when she took the previous examina- tion; more than that, in March, just three months before her confinement, she had taken the projected flying test-and passed! -with (shall we say?) flying colours!
Women aren't supposed to fly when they're expecting babies, or at times of the periodical function. Many women flyers pay little heed to these warnings and some have crashed. In general, however, there is no flying. occasion for sex discrimination in Contrary to common report. women's "nerves" are as good as men's-
But, man or woman, fiyer or not, it really would be a good idea if everybody could take the medical examination for civil pilots- say, in lieu of the annual physical examina. tion that many doctors recommend. It would be more thorough and illuminating, more
6. Bring right index finger to nose, then left, then tips of the fingers together: touch left knee with right heel and vice versa. Try to do this quickly, with you eyes closed, or better still ask a friend to do so at the next party you attend. The result is guaranteed to provide amusement in no small degree.
scientific.
Next best to taking the examination is to try out some tests at home on yourself and your friends. The tests aren't complete, of course certain ones must be given by a doc- tar but there are enough of them to give yon a fair idea of your eligibility for aviation and more important-your fitness for mar- riage, business, life. Why not have an avia- tion party and make these tests one of the games? I've seen it done, and everybody seemed to have a grand time finding out about themselves and each other.
Begin with the first test (Illustration Number 1) following the directions under the pictures.
1. Self-Balancing Test. This was in- vented by the British and is used all over the world. Three trials are given each person and findings are recorded as Steady. Fairly Steady, Unsteady or Failed.
If you fail they won't let you fly-and that's final. This little stunt tests equilibrium, the con- dition of the inner ear, the ability to inter- pret sensations from bones, joints, muscles and internal organs. It's harder to do when your nerves are on edge, so keep calm and collected.
2. Standing and Gait Tests. Part two of this test is described under picture Number Two. The frst part, called the Romberg Modified, consists in standing with one foot in front of the other, heel to toe. The arms hanging loosely, eyes closed.
- "Manual" says laconically: "The normal may exhibit slight unsteadiness." Well, try it and see! (Hint: It's easier to keep from swaying if you relax.) Now go on to the second part Two tendencies, one towards "ataxia" (loss of sensation), the other to- wards "asynergy" (loss of motor control), may interfere with good locomotion. After five or six cocktails almost anyone will ex- hibit a combination of both disabilities.
3. Respiration. After you've taken this test, the examiner asks why you finally stopped holding your breath. You're expect- ed to answer "Because I had to breathe" or "Because I felt I'd burst.” If you say. “I got dizzy" or "Things went blurred,” it's very bad. Dizziness doesn't do in high altitudes. This and Number Five are routine British tests; similar ones are used by American examiners.
4. Trembling Hand Test. Don't try this when you haven't had enough sleep.
5. Vision Test. Cut -inch letters from a newspaper or magazine and paste them on a card. If you pass this one your vision is 20/20-which is required for a transport pilot license. The eye require- «
ments for private flying, however, are less stringent.
6. Coordination. It's hard to do this one quickly.
7. Heart Muscle Test. First count the victim's pulse: then have him hop 50 times on one foot. Take the pulse rate immediately. Wait two minutes and take it y again. Count the beats each time for 15 seconds only and multiply by 4 to get the rate per minute. According to the "Manual,” “s heart muscle may be said to be efficient if the. pulse rate taken two minutes after the above exercise approximates "the initial rate." Example of normal response: Before exer- cise, 80; immediately after, 120; two minutes later, 34 Most heart tests must be made by physicians.
8. Memory and Speech Tests. It's surprising, the number of people who find it difficult to remember three simple words such as "chair, bed, table,” for three minutes. Hand to your guests individually a slip of paper with any combination of three simple words. Tell them to read it and return the slip to you. Announce that three minutes” later you are going to ask them what the words are, and in the meantime divert their attention by subjecting them to the speech tests which consist of repeating various tongue-twisters such as we have all known from our nursery days. Taking a cue from the "Manual," ask them to try these: "Round and round the rough and rugged rock the ragged rascal ran"; or "The third riding artillery brigade rode rough shod over the wily wahoos.”
As for mannerisms some were noted at the beginning of this article-Capt. Walter S. Jensen, M.D. of the School of Aviation Medicine says, "I have been asked, "What difference does it make if the applicant walk- ed or does walk in his sleep? What does it matter whether he chews his finger nails when he is excited? What of it if we note spells of drowsiness, stubbornness, slow hesitant speech, slow movement, cruelty, and stinginess? The answer is, you are spotting Łazardous men."
An investigation of 25 crashes showed that in 23 instances the pilots had given pre- vious evidence of idiosyncrasies of this kind. It is now believed that such, mannerisms— sometimes called "epileptoid, equivalents”... are often signs of a mental twist or quirk. It is felt that a person who stutters verbally may stutter at the controls in an emergency. But here is a note of encouragement: civil examiners disregard stuttering if it has been But phobias (morbid dreads and hates) of any kind are disqualifying.
overcome.
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