Peter wrote:
How fast does it work i.e. how long before the flight would you take it?
It’s available as tablet and nasal spray. The nasal spray is very fast acting, after 10 minutes you already have an effect which lasts for about 12 to 20 hours. The tablets take slightly longer to work, about 30 minutes afaik.
This is not available OTC, so getting it might be a problem, and it’s quite expensive.
In the UK at least all you need is a physician prepared to prescribe it off-label and the wherewithal to pay for it.
Graham wrote:
In the UK at least all you need is a physician prepared to prescribe it off-label and the wherewithal to pay for it.
Same here. One price I found online was 64.31€, for a 5 ml nasal spray, which will last for quite a while. Some cheaply made variants need to be cooled (below 8°C), while the original (“Minirin”) cam be stored at up to 25°C.
From personal experience, exposure to more than 25°C is not problematic either.
The question whether it is safe to use depends on individual health factors and should be discussed with a GP or endocrinologist before use (which, since it’s not available OCT, one will have to do anyways to get the off-label prescription).
Usually, unless you suffer from low blood sodium levels or severe impairment of kidney function, or already take diuretics due to heart problems, one should be safe to use it. Another contraindication is von Willebrand Syndrome, a (usually genetic) disposition for blood clotting problems. In anaesthesia, we use the same substance to reduce intraoperative bleeding in patients with emergency surgery who took aspirin before the surgery.
Well, assuming we’re still talking about the topic title, I can’t imagine that trying to persuade your female (or male for that matter) passengers to take prescription medication in order to come flying with you, would be an easier task than asking them to come flying without a comfort break.
My initial thought looking at this from the first post
I wondered, without getting to personel how they manage it, my wife is ok for a couple of hours but then we have to stop for a comfort break, with SIDS, STARS climbs and descents it just adds so much more time to the trip.
was “so you don’t want the inconvenience of having to to make a stop, but you expect your wife to have the inconvenience of having to hold it for 4+ hours or try to pee in flight, and you still want her to come with you!”
If you don’t want your wife to come with you, then fine. But if you want her to come with you, then you need to make it a pleasurable experience for her. Don’t expect her to endure something that she isn’t comfortable with, and to still want to come along!
My wife hates the pressure changes in her ears. (She’s very sensitive to those changes.) So all climbs and descents are done at 250fpm. (Some exceptions have to be made but most are this slow). It’s a right pain in the as* for me, but I do it with a smile, because that’s what makes her comfortable and makes her happy to come along.
If your wife is only happy being in the air for 2 hours before needing a comfort break, then either be happy to fly without her, or plan a comfort break every two hours.
Being desperate to go for a pee and being being able to go, is not a nice experience! I can’t imagine going in the air to be a comfortable or dignified experience for a lady.
I had to use a solution (Travel John) on a 3.5 hr flight to LFMT and it wasn’t dignified at all even when alone in the cockpit.
I know it is a hassle but I would rather plan accordingly and take a break somewhere with quick turnaround.
Crikey!! This thread highlights the UK/European issues. PPR in a the UK, all the preplanning and such for longer flights…
In Canada or the US, an unexpected landing is no big deal, and maybe even pleasantly surprising. In most cases you can’t help but fly over quite a few airfields. No big deal to change your plans or get a new clearance, no fees at 99.9 percent of fields! Sure you loose a bit of time, but my wife and I would go to the toilet before take-off and then role with the punches. It is supposed to be fun! Sure, maybe have a travel John for back-up.
To be honest, I consider flying in North America to be more like driving. You wouldn’t hesitate to pull over and take care of business if you need too!
If you want to go really long, then you are going to need buy in from an amenable partner!
If I get the IR, I’ll invest in one if these.
There are several options.
If with anyone other than the wife aboard you could set it up before flying and use it without anyone having a clue, and empty it at a regular cubicle later.
For others including the ladies, we carry these.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Travel-John-66918B-TravelJohn-Disposable/dp/B0019M7VE6
For touring I usually have a seat removed which creates room to use one relatively conveniently
I think it’s a wide UK/European problem, only exception I know of being France where I had landed in some places on a simple “coup de coeur” just to pee and takeoff 5min later (Aigle StMichel) or when it looked interesting not to miss and stay for the night (LeMans), I had that feeling in US and Bahamas trip, everywhere in Europe you are slightly tight on what one would call “100% freedom” and you need bit of planning here and there, you can just launch out of the blue and stop as you wish
I have one grass strip in UK where I can have that freedom (land and takeoff when I wish without PPR as I know the owner/manager), even with lockdown I visited 5 times this year, in all cases it was on days where the “flying window” is random 1h/24h or bumpy/windy to go anywhere else, like today or last weekend !
“C’est la vie” and how things work here!
Arun wrote:
I had to use a solution (Travel John) on a 3.5 hr flight to LFMT and it wasn’t dignified at all even when alone in the cockpit.
I used a Travel John once, at the beginning of my flight “career”. It was messy. I find that the plastic bottle works better
There are adaptors for women for that bottle.
While I did land “right now, closest aerodrome serendipiously just under the wing” for nausea (and that, too became our final destination that day), that was in France, where there are many of them. When it was “need to pee” (happened once), it was over the Netherlands, and closest aerodrome was… in a slow plane, quite some time away on the scale of the urgency. We placed a towel over the seat, I held a paper chart/map as privacy curtain and she used… I don’t remember if it was the disposable bag or the bottle with adapter. I think the disposable bag.
While I did the “real long” (5h) flights only alone, for the females usually peeing just before flight and not drinking in the 30min before the flight makes the trick. Worked up to 3h30, with a female as passenger, but she is used to managing the issue, being a regional airline captain (she tries to avoid the need for it on the job). I don’t think I ever took any other passenger on a flight of more than about 2h30.
I just use a plastic bottle. The above one by Lionel is the more robust version, and works well for women* with the adapter, although it creates two issues
* women find it easier to pee while turned around in the seat i.e. with knees on the seat and facing backwards… can’t do this in a Cirrus as you will do damage to the honeycomb insert; women often use the silica gel option which works in the normal sitting position
Those who think they can just do shorter flights / pop down somewhere / etc are one of
You absolutely must have a provision for peeing in-flight. I know a guy who had a lucky escape by peeing into a thermos flask, which had just enough room in it…
Two identical threads merged There’s a lot of really funny posts further back.
