I lived in Virginia for almost 14 years and the humidity was raising He** with my arthritis. Living in Nevada has made a world of difference, (for the good). Without medical knowledge, I think the humidity was causing my problems, (aggravation of my arthritis) in Virginia. Certainly wasn't the cold weather.
NMkid -
Howdy !
Born & raised in NE Indiana, first 55 yr of my life. Moved out West to work in North TX and NE Oklahoma, the moved back to NE Indiana after being 13yrs away.
How humid is it / can it be ?
Lemme’ tell ya, by way of a true story…..
I was a member of the Indiana Air National Guard @ Ft. Wayne for 37yr. While working on F-4C, E model jets, I discovered a problem with the Cockpit Environmental Control System. We received our -C models 4.5 yr after Vietnam was over. Come to find out….
The Air Force had made a knee jerk reaction to heavy cockpit fogging that pilot’s had encountered @ takeoff and at low level; when flying SE Asia sorties w/ the F-4 in the -60s
and early -70s. In-response, the Air Force Logistics Command hastily fielded a Water Seperator mod to address the cockpit fogging/decreased Fwd pilot’ visibility issues.
The mod incorporated a Water Seperator and associated anti-ice system into the Cockpit ECS pack. The Seperator removed entrained moisture in the air exiting the cooling turbine and headed to the cockpit….with intent to keeping the ‘seperator’s coalescer bag from freezing. The anti-ice system operated when it sensed a pressure drop across the coalescer ( i.e. coalescer bag freeezing up ). If / when the bag froze, a bypass poppet was supposed to open, to maintain airflow to the cockpit.
Engineers unfortunately located the pressure drop sensing line ports in a location where
WHEN the bag started to freeze and the system responded by opening the water separator’s anti-ice valve…the ECS pack Bleed Air Pressure regulator read that as a drop in over-all pack pressure. And while the anti-ice valve was open, the coalescer did de-ice… BUT ALSO…the BAPR reacted with a large compensating boost in ECS pack’ pressure. *** The aircrew experienced the pressure spike in Cockpit Pressure as an unpleasant “ Waaaa Waaaa Waaa “ on their eardrums… as Cockpit Pressure made excursions of plus / minus 2,000ft in “Cabin Altitude “. This went on as long fornas the Pilot has selected a cold cockpit air setting from the ECS, and aircraft altitude was around 10,000ft and below. ***
Why do I tell you all that !?
I fought for 8.5yr to get the Air Force to “ de-mod “ the water Seperator & associated anti-ice system. I got them to include my proposed “ Water Seperator De-activation mod in a series of flight TESTS at Ft. Wayne, IN… Reno NV ( to test on RF-4Cs )…Meridian MS…and some flights out of New Orleans.
Prior to each unit’s test flights of my mod and a competing mod designed by Air Force and civilian engineers, I called the local Weather Service @ each base; and logged the temp & humidity present @ time of aircraft launches. And of course, most days all test units had planes flying; quite often in the air at the same time. This went on for many weeks.
The Air Force powers that be were astounded when I presented data showing that
Ft. Wane, IN had multiple days in the Summer where it registered higher “ wet bulb temperature “ ( humidity + ambient air temp ) than all other test locations.
That’s the point I wanted to get across.
Air Force finally sent an F-4 “ Systems Manager “ and also a responsible “ Systems Engineer “ to Ft. Wayne, to try and prove that basically….I didn’t know what I was talking about. BUT… instead of coming in the humid Summer time problem zone…. they elected to come to NE Indiana in January ! On test day, despite OAT being zero, the crew chief in the cockpit was asked to select “ Full Cold “ on the ECS temp control knob; during the double engine run. Lo and behold…. the cockpit pressure surged repeatedly… with the ECS pack’s water seperator anti-ice bellows tubing pushing outward past the outer mold line of the aircraft’ skin !
The 2 Logistics Command dude’s stood there in disbelief.
My point:
Indiana is humid in the winter time, too.
When looking out over the fields in Summer, one will often note a blue-ish haze aspect to the the air. It is not uncommon for ambient air temp and humidity to both be high at the same time. Example: 86* w/ 86% humidity rating. Many times, the humidity value will exceed the temperature reading. Under the right circumstances of course, it is possible for the atmosphere to be rated @ 100% humidity…and it still not rain.
We have what I call “ partly scattered weather “, or….did George Carlin say that on
“ Wonderful WINO “ first ?
Not to worry…. just cut out a window in the air, and shoot through that !
And when it gets really oppressive, just sip your air.
With regards,
357Mag