Do you wear sunscreen?

[Chewbacca]

I wear sunscreen everyday, not just for flying, but when I am on the ground. The AZ sun is bloddy hot!

The FAA had this come out a while back, has very good info to make yourself feel better about the profession.

http://ntl.bts.gov/DOCS/Ac12052.html

Pretty much over a 30 year span of flying, 6 out of 100,000 pilots will die of cancer from flying. I think thats pretty good odds.

 

[AV1ATRX]

We may not be getting UV rays while inflight, but how many walk-arounds do you do a day? I am polar-bear white (thanks to my Swedish ancesters) and very prone to burning, so I wear it every day. Daily exposure adds up.

 

[FN FAL]

If you fly unpressurized planes, the plexiglass windows don't screen anything...if anything, you get more of the UV rays than a person on the ground.

 

[tomgoodman]

Nanook is doomed

...how many walk-arounds do you do a day? I am polar-bear white .....

A friend who lives in the high latitudes just phoned me in a panic. He does constant walk-arounds and he IS a polar bear!

 

[AV1ATRX]

Is he dating a Panda?

(That one's for all the Jim Gaffigan fans out there!! You know who you are!)

 

[Prof. ATP]

Do any of you wear sunblock on a regular basis when you're flying?

Funny: I cannot remember ever wearing sunblock in an airplane, but I will not get into a glider without it, because there is no place to hide from the Sun under that canopy. Yesterday (3+ hours of ridge soaring) I did a double application before takeoff.

Today, I got a sunburn on a long road bike ride, despite the sunscreen.

 

[mcjohn]

Most likely you sweated it off.

 

[Burt Reynolds]

http://www0.gsf.de/epcard/eng_fluginput.php

 

[Gorilla]

To continue along the dork fork, cosmic rays are both accelerated particles and EM radiation.

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/cosmic_rays.html

The different nuclei, nucleotides, and other itty bitty missiles have different abilities to penetrate and cause damage. I honestly have no idea what danger particles pose to an aircrew as opposed to EM radiation like X and gamma rays; probably not a lot.

Anyway, dosimeters carried by pilots reveal that indeed, we are getting whacked with significant radiation.

 

[Catbert]

To continue along the dork fork, cosmic rays are both accelerated particles and EM radiation.

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/cosmic_rays.html

The different nuclei, nucleotides, and other itty bitty missiles have different abilities to penetrate and cause damage. I honestly have no idea what danger particles pose to an aircrew as opposed to EM radiation like X and gamma rays; probably not a lot.

Anyway, dosimeters carried by pilots reveal that indeed, we are getting whacked with significant radiation.

Good point.