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Subject: Re: ?X Hours, Bottle to Throttle
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Craig Beaty wrote:

> What's crazy IMHO (I'm no AME by the way) is (1) that you can legally > fly with a BAC of up to .04!  Eight hours after that means if you are > more than .04 BAC then you have been doing some serious drinking, 
> which means a hangover, and definite effects which linger (although 
> not quantified well from studies). 

I don't want to get into this too much, I think it's a little off
topic, but...

Actually there are several studies of performance impairment the 
morning after serious drinking.  I don't recall the blood alcohol
levels during the tests, but the conclusion was that wll after blood
alcohol goes down, several alcohol metabolites (in concentration)
which also interfere with performance linger.  This is quite well
quantified.  I'm just not aware of any studies which show these
sort of effects lingering for a *week*.  24 hrs is more like it.

These studies were after drinking well more than one drink (I 
believe the equivalent of 4-5 drinks).  I'm not aware of any
studies of performance, say, 4 hrs after drinking 1 drink.  I
agree with you it would be interesting.

> Why can't they just make it simple: .00 BAC, you're safe,
> .01 BAC, you're busted. 

Possibly because it's not quite that simple; I'm not sure that
all the effects of a real drinking bout are gone by the time the 
BAC is .00

IMO the real issue is performance and judgement, which actually
can be quantified objectively.  For example, some mountain climbers
learn a number of simple tests (counting backwards by 7s is one
example) which they self-administer, and track, as a means of
assessing their thinking ability.  There are several simple computer
games also which require judgement, reflexes, and abstract thinking
ability.

Part of my own personal analysis before flying is first, "do I feel
good? right? healthy?" and second, how do I do on several of these
numerical tests or a session of some simple game like minesweeper
or blockout?  The morning after I've had a couple beers with dinner, 
the answer may be "Great!".  Two days later, with the mold spore count 
high as can be or a really bad day at work/family issues, the answer 
may be "wheel is spinning, but the hamster's dead" and I stay on the
ground.

Just my own take on the issue--I'm worried about how I feel, and
how well I'm able to reason and react, not whether some set time
of 12 or 24 or 48 or 72 hrs has passed since alcohol touched my
lips.

Snowbird

