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-   -   How did fighter pilots cope with excretions (urine & excrement) on VLR missions? (http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=57844)

Richard Aigner 13th July 2020 09:52

How did fighter pilots cope with excretions (urine & excrement) on VLR missions?
 
as in A6Ms on escort mission from Formosa to the Philippines, or P51s from Iwo Jima to Japan. Can not have been fun sitting for hours with a wet bottom in a freezing cockpit.
As an aside, on hikes in the Himalayas we were told to drink a lot at altitude to compensate or increased evaporation. Did this also apply to high altitude missions in unpressurized cockpits, thus increasing the urgency of coping with excretions?
TIA, Richard

RSwank 13th July 2020 22:19

Re: How did fighter pilots cope with excretions (urine & excrement) on VLR missions?
 
The P-51 has a relief tube. A description of its use is here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=rB...20tube&f=false


A drawing here, item 67: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5d/5b...23d17fd345.jpg


There is some information on the VLR flights from IWO here, along with mention of the relief tube. Such flights were 7 to 8 hours long:

http://www.506thfightergroup.org/mustangsofiwo.asp

Dan O'Connell 14th July 2020 03:51

Re: How did fighter pilots cope with excretions (urine & excrement) on VLR missions?
 
Excellent article re: the 506th. I normally concentrate on the European airwar, so I learned a great deal. Thank you for posting it.

ClinA-78 14th July 2020 19:19

Re: How did fighter pilots cope with excretions (urine & excrement) on VLR missions?
 
My good friend, the late Max W. of 364th FG wrote to me how uncomfortable it was to make a 6 hrs-trip to Berlin with a cold and diarrhea at 30.000ft in a P-38. The relief tube was of no use in this case... His Sqn Doc said something like that "cork your a... and fly".
Those bad physiological 'mood' explained partly why the P-38 performed rather poorly at high altitude.

ClinA-78

edwest2 19th July 2020 01:26

Re: How did fighter pilots cope with excretions (urine & excrement) on VLR missions?
 
In some cases a bucket had to be brought along. With a cover and tightly secured when not in use. That was the case with some bomber missions.


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