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second wife, died seven years ago I have not flown the Baron much because it doesn't make sense in that expensive airplane to fly alone. While she was alive we made 18 trips to California in it, plus a trip to Alaska and a number of Ft Lauderdale where we kept a Mobile home. So, I fly around now in my V-35A Bonanza.

Last year (July 1997) I had quite an experience in my former Bonanza, a G-35 with 225 HP engine. I was flying to Jackson Hole Airport at Jackson, Wyo. I was unable to get over the 12000' ridge to get into the valley, due to a solid mass of thunderstorms on the ridge, so turned around and landed at a small farming town, Worland, Wyo. I'd had nothing to eat since leaving Spearfish SD early in the day. it was late when I landed at Worland and by the time I got into town in a courtesy car I could not find a restaurant with good food, so settled for food that was so bad I could not finish it. I went to bed hungry and got up before daylight on Sunday to get an early start to beat the thunderstorms over the mountains, but again, could not find a restaurant open at that early hour. I took off hungry and climbed to 12500' to get over the 12000 ft. ridge. The weather was perfect but I felt "woozy". I had very frequently flown at that altitude without oxygen and without any sign of trouble. However, I tried to turn on the oxygen valve, but did not have the strength in my hand to turn the valve, ordinarily easy to turn. My hand and whole body was weak. I finally gave up exhausted right over the 12000' ridge and concentrated on trying to fly and navigate, feeling weaker and woozier all the time. I was in a sort of dream world but managed to fly down the valley to Jackson Hole Airport which itself is at 6445'. I was barely in control and having difficulty, even talking on the radio. On final approach I was aware of undershooting and tried to get the throttle open but my hand and arm were too weak. I used both hands to get it open, barely in time but the uncontrolled airplane slammed down on the runway by itself successfully. With the throttle open and the prop still in high pitch the airplane just kept going 45 degrees to the left across the taxiway and off the airport into the brush. I was barely conscious and wondering why it did not slow down, with no incentive to do anything. The nose wheel finally hit a ditch and the airplane went over on its back at fairly high speed. The cabin roof was crushed and I was trapped inside, hanging upside down and expecting a fire at any moment. The Flying Physicians Convention was just starting and several doctors rushed over to get me out of the wreck. I had become fully conscious due to the blood rushing to my head and I heard them say that they could tell that I was hypoxic by my voice on the radio. I was in the hospital a week recovering from a combination of hypoxia and hypoglycemia (the latter due to having practically nothing to eat for some 28 hours, and a slightly cracked sternum.

I have attended many forums and classes on the subject of flying at altitude and the use of oxygen but never had heard any mention of hypoglycemia due to lack of food in any of them. The physicians at the hospital and some of those physician pilots attending the conference told me that the dual combination of hypoxia and hypoglycemia is absolutely deadly and that I was extremely fortunate to get the airplane to the runway in the nick of time. I know full well that a few seconds later I would not have been able to get the throttle open at all for that effort took the last bit of strength I had. I would have crashed violently into the sharp embankment at the threshold of the runway. I had frequently flown all day without food without feeling the need for it. Only two days before this incident I had flown almost all day, including nine straight hours on instruments, without eating. But the combination of lack of food and lack of 

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