Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

2 Answers

A flight instructor with a head cold

Asked by: 3364 views Flight Instructor

Planning on doing steep spirals with my commercial student in a Cessna 172RG tomorrow morning.  Will be starting at approximately 4,000 ft. MSL.  Problem is I have a bit of a cold right now.  I'm not EXTREMELY congested but let's just say I'm not exactly clear right now.  What do you think?  Weathers been garbage for days and I really need to take advantage of the absence of cloud cover.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

2 Answers



  1. Bob Watson on Dec 11, 2012

    I can’t say this will happen to you, but I did some steep spirals from 9500 to 3500 with (what I thought was) a slight head cold and by the time I got to 3500, I thought my eye was going to pop right out of my socket. I eased off on the descent to land in excruciating pain (and with only one eye functional). It took about a half an hour at the airport for the sinus pressure to equalize. I’d never felt such pain in my head. I literally expected to see my eye pop out, it was that bad.

    It might not happen to you and it might never happen to me again (I sincerely hope), but that once was enough to make me a believer. After that, 1,000+FPM descents with a head cold sounds like asking for trouble (or at least severe discomfort) to me.

    +3 Votes Thumb up 3 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Matthew Waugh on Dec 11, 2012

    If you are careful and follow the guidelines from AOPA et. al. you can medicate away some of the issues with colds and altitudes. But be VERY careful with this – you do NOT want to take the wrong drug and then go flying….

    In the end though – you have to determine if IMSAFE – and only YOU can really figure that out.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.