Health / Food / Blood Pressure (merged)

The a380 wing failed about 3% short. I still find it astounding that it can be predicted so accurately.

It certainly is a major feat of engineering – but it would be worrying if it were otherwise. These test do not only (obviously) test the actual wing construction, but also the calculation methodologies that predict when and how it will fail. Feeding back exactly what failed at which load then is used to make the models more accurate. This model calibration is at least as important as testing the specific wing; subsequent alterations of the aircraft such as MTOW increases etc. are often only based on calculations.

As I understand it, when the Airbus A380 test wing broke at less than 150pc, the changes required to strengthen the wing were made without the test being repeated and certified based calculations alone.

Alpha_Floor wrote:

But I believe this picture is VASTLY incomplete to tell whether somebody is healthy or not.

There are plenty of TOFI people around: Thin on the Outside, Fat on the Inside, which is a much bigger risk than just being overweight but otherwise healthy.

That is one bit I found strange with some rather sportive people I know who ended up with heart attacks and worse. They had model BMI’s of course and were as fit as it goes. Yet, they had massive cardiovascular problems.

One slender guy I know complained to me about his BP of usually well in the 180/100 and other such stuff, whereas I, with a BMI of currently 33 (yes it is coming down further) have 120/80 and 60 pulse every morning and almost at every doc’s visit. He is being given a pat on the head to do something about it and sent away, while BMI deficient people get threatening letters and are ordered to visit expensive cardiology assessments based on BMI alone. I also know a person who has problems with a high morning sugar (6.1) but who is normal all day (around 7 to 8) , yet he gets hell every time he needs a medical. And so on.

Nobody denies that being obese is unhealthy, but what is sometimes a bit strange is that sometimes things simply don’t match the BMI in question. I guess we might end up with safer medical assessments in general if all factors were taken into account and a general picture is developed instead of simply looking at single figures.

gallois wrote:

The resurgence of cycling amongst adults could provide a welcome balance, but amongst many of these adults cycling is an elitist fad and may not last. Just look at how much people spend on buying a new bicycle or all that lycra gear and now added electric power. What’s wrong with the old vicars bike €50 from the local junk shop and why the lycra, you are unlikely to be going 100km on a Sunday morning averaging 25km hour.

I can partially agree.

Certainly with the lycra: I make a point of NOT wearing it. 99.9% of my riding is for utillity, and I just wear normal clothes. I like to encourage people to ride for utility more, and most people are conformists, and want to wear what “cyclists wear”, so I want to demonstrate utility riding is not some extreme sport that requires special clothing and equipment. It requires just one piece of equipment: a bicycle. The people who need to ride more and drive less would often feel very self-conscious if they thought there was an expectation to wear figure revealing clothing. If I’m in the office, I don’t even bother getting changed to ride home (on the way in, I’ll change my shirt) and then do the hilly 20km home.

If you’re going to ride a lot though it is worth getting a decent bike (and it’ll last you for years). We think almost nothing of spending 5 figures on a car – but in my case, I do more km per year on my bike (6300km last year) than in my car, and spend a lot more time on my bike, so I want a good bike! (My car was free, I inherited it from my grandfather, and drive it about as much as he did). I rode my Trek 470 for over 20 years (bought in Houston for around $600), but recently I upgraded to a high end Fairlight steel bike – given I ride for utility, steel is really the only material I want the frame made from – and it makes a tremendous difference. The most noticeable improvement is having good hydraulic disc brakes that are completely consistent whether it’s wet or dry. Even though it’s a high end bike, it’s about half the cost of one of those Cube e-bikes (and probably has better components!)

The other thing worth spending a bit on if you ride for utility is a decent rack and panniers. Ortliebs are the gold standard in this respect. I use the Backroller Classic bags – more capacious than an elephant’s scrotum, and properly waterproof. You can use a backpack of course, but riding a reasonable distance with stuff to carry is infinitely more comfortable with a set of panniers.

If you’re doing mostly short rides of <5km then any bike will do of course so long as it’s basically mechanically sound.

One of the huge benefits I find from utility riding is it gives me a great deal of excellent quality “thinking time”. I’ve solved a ton of problems while riding to the office. You don’t get that quality thinking time in a car, because the speed and insulation from the environment of a car is enough that you can’t really let your mind wander. But you can on a bike, even when working hard up a hill.

You can be too fit for the system as well.

For much of my adult life I have been very fit. Eventually I reached the age where the CAA thought it was a good idea to have a ECG at every medical.

The nurse wired my up, and started the machine. It beeped excitedly and said that I had heart disease. The nurse thought it was because my resting heart rate was in the low 40s, so had me do sit ups until my heart rate was in the 50s. The machine was then happy for a short while, but my heart rate dropped below 50 while she took the trace, and started complaining again. The AME looked at the trace and said not to worry about it. A couple of other things caused some issues on the new online system they were using (I am a very non-standard size), which caused more warning flags. The AME said “whoever wrote this system obviously never had to use it”, said he would issue my medical and write a letter to the CAA to explain.

Next medical was performed by a younger AME who was taking over the practice from the retiring AME. He looked at the trace and said it was out of parameters, it had to be sent to cardiology (he showed me what he said were significant overshoot and undershoots, I don’t know the medical term) . He said he thought it was likely because of a combination of fitness level and my height to width ratio. He could issue my medical, and he was sure cardiology could pass it, but it needed to be raised and verified.

A couple of years later I got a herniated disc. Had to stop running and everything equestrian, could only ride my MTB. Fitness declined, heart rate up 10bpm. Next 2 medicals, ECG normal. Machine happy and doc happy, trace completely within parameters.

Anybody here medical who can comment?

Alioth, your views on bikes are identical to mine (except that I go for steel frame recumbents, and now my aluminium velomobile). Peter, if you are amused that people think you are mad for riding a bike, you would enjoy riding a recumbent

gallois wrote:

The resurgence of cycling amongst adults could provide a welcome balance, but amongst many of these adults cycling is an elitist fad and may not last. Just look at how much people spend on buying a new bicycle or all that lycra gear and now added electric power. What’s wrong with the old vicars bike €50 from the local junk shop and why the lycra, you are unlikely to be going 100km on a Sunday morning averaging 25km hour.

Well, if some green politicians have their way, we won’t have much of a choice. I recall that China used to be an all cycling country.

Joking aside, I fully agree. Apart from the fact that I would probably not find a cycling gear in my size anyway, it’s way over the top. I am quite happy with the bike I own, bought at a local store a few years back. Actually, what I look for are tyre valves which can be pumped up by a normal automotive compressor.

I’ve been thinking of taking up biking to work, but am hesitant on the grounds that I have to cross the very busy cargo area at ZRH airport, where quite a few cyclists have come to grief in recent years. But for training it is quite nice indeed.

I ride my bike every day, used to be to get to the office and back, now, it’s just to keep some level of activity, since I’m working from home. I do have dedicated clothes for biking, that’s because I need to take a shower afterwards and change clothes (although in the current situation, if I were to bike to the office and stay in the same clothes, I would be certain that everyone would keep a very safe distance from me :-)).
What is really good in my case when working from the office is that we have a place to attach bikes in the indoor garage an changing room with lockers and showers. That makes it very good for commuting by bike.
Going to the airport by bike would be a bit too long, 40 km one way… But we are discussing relocating the C185 to a private strip about 20km from my home, so maybe I’ll be able to bike when going flying, would be cool. I’ve done that back when I started flying seaplane and the C180 at the time was based on the lake about 10km away from where I lived.