My 1st Airline Travel with Cpap

Geez, that hasn't happened for a long time, I got guested. That was me above!

HappyHoser,

Yep, I'm in Missoula. Are you in and out of town for business or do you live near here. Looks like a fairly major storm on tap for Thanksgiving.

The Everest was handy on the trip but it seems to flucutuate pressures a bit which takes some getting used to. I sets up a wierd dance with my activa.

Chris

Sleepy-eyes wrote:Okay, I read it....................but don't see how taking a copy of it would be of any help in getting our CPAP machines through security. I think security people know what these are and will check them. If I've missed something, let me know.

The main reason for having the Rx is in case your equipment is lost/damaged/broken while you travel. It may help in getting replacement equipment while out of town if you choose to do so.

John

Seems I am always getting guested. That was me.

I'm a frequent traveler and I always bring my CPAP with me where ever I go. I travel up and down the eastern seaboard and I have had no problem with TSA at all. I don't require a prescription for bringing my CPAP with me. In fact TSA is VERY careful with the machine and all the accessories. I have the REMSTAR Pro 2 C-Flex. Hope this helps

I have seen many threads about bringing an xPAP with you on planes when travelling. My question is this: Has anyone actually used their xPAP on a plane? I travel very frequently and always carry my APAP with me for use at my destination. However, since being diagnosed in June '06, I have avoided long haul flights where I would need to sleep on the plane. Soon, I will have to take a transAtlantic flight, and it would be nice to be able to sleep on the plane, but I now refuse to sleep without my APAP. I have never seen anyone actually use one on a plane.

TIA

KenS wrote:My question is this: Has anyone actually used their xPAP on a plane? I travel very frequently and always carry my APAP with me for use at my destination. However, since being diagnosed in June '06, I have avoided long haul flights where I would need to sleep on the plane. Soon, I will have to take a transAtlantic flight, and it would be nice to be able to sleep on the plane, but I now refuse to sleep without my APAP.

I've used mine on the long hauls from Sydney to Frankfurt and London. How practical it is to use a CPAP machine depends on the airline involved and what sort of power they can supply, as well as which classes of travel they supply power to.

My specific experiences (see below) are with British Airways and QANTAS, so you will definitely need to speak with the "Special Assistance" folks at your chosen airline to see what facilities are available on their aircraft for the sectors you intend to fly. I recommend that you make initial contact with them well in advance of travelling, and then again once you have confirmed specific flights.

If you are likley to be peaking to a higher delivery pressure (I'm using fixed CPAP at 14cm H2O), and set the altititude setting to 2400m (which is around the normal cabin atmosphere equivalent level when in normal flight), even the newest xPAP machine may draw more power than the airline seat power supply is happy to deliver. I found that my Resmed S8 worked fine at its sea level setting but the Empower seat power (this is the common low voltage seat power system across all airlines) on British Airways was not up to delivering enough power when I set the S8 to a 2400m altitude setting. It turned out that I managed to get a reasonable sleep (for being on an aircraft) on the sea level setting anyway, so I can't really say if it would have been better on the 2400m setting for that sector.

British Airways only provides Empower on World Traveller Plus and up seating levels, so ordinary World Traveller (economy) travellers miss out.

On the other hand QANTAS was able to provide me with a seat in the cabin near a 240V wall outlet and I had no trouble running my S8 on the 2400m setting from that. I did have a better sleep on QANTAS, but I suspect that may well have been mostly because of the physical seat configuration rather than solely because of the altitude setting on the S8.

Also, I have had one sector on which the Empower was not available for some reson (no airline will guarantee that it will be available), so had to go without CPAP, which wasn't good at all! It was on the last sector of a flight back to Sydney, so I just stayed awake as much as I could and put off sleeping until I was home and could plug into a wall outlet again.

Cheers,

Bill

My experience with a few flights per year for the past several years had been that sometimes the machine would go through the X-ray without comment and sometimes my bag would get pulled out for inspection. Invariably the inspector would comment something to the effect of, "Oh, a breathing machine," often with a tone that suggested, "Why did he/she bother to flag this." We flew from O'Hare on Wednesday, the morning before Thanksgiving. At security, TSAer who was giving instructions as we approached the metal detector, ran through the list I am familiar with: Coats off, laptops out, shoes off, ... Then she added that all breathing machines were to be taken out of their bags. The first word of this came when I was next in line, with the CPAP at the bottom of my little knapsack. I asked her to reaffirm the instruction. "Yes, it's a new rule." As I dug the machine out, the TSAer on the other side of the counter told me that I didn't need to remove it; he could recognize a CPAP on the X-ray. We'll see what they say on our way back this evening.

Hey again Chris. Trying not to hijack this thread. I live in Missoula but don't get to see it as much as I would like. Sitting in a hotel in Helena tonight and didn't make it home for T-day. Oh well, maybe I can get a side job travel testing machines! Perhaps I can catch up to you sometime for a cup of coffee somewhere. Take care.

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Doug, Sorry to hear you had to be in Helena for the weekend. I work downtown so just PM me. I'd like to hear firsthand what you think about the Everest/Aura. My impression so far is very loud (compared to Remstar) and weird pressure fluctuations (for a couple hours) that make my Activa inflate and deflate each breath cycle.

Its going to be nasty on the highways this week. Drive safely!

Chris