New guy here

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Sorry if I was little late and a little behind the power curve on my reply. I only made it to the second page before replying ....

I should learn to go all the way to the end first.

OMMOHY

[GuppyDRV]

The Philips Dreamstation is a good unit that is also easy to travel with, going by the photo of the Resmed unit that Sleeprider posted the Dreamstation would be about 1/3 less again in cubic space in its carry bag [can't do a photo until I get home later today, sorry]

Make sure your CPAP goes with you as carry on luggage.

If you don't need to use the humidifier the Dreamstation splits in half and can be used without the humidifier, thus cutting the machine size in half... you could then pack it in a smaller bag along with the power supply, hose and mask.

I hope it all goes well for getting your pilot licence reinstated.. it took me five and a half months of specialists, medical tests, and sleep trials, and $6,000 AU before my professional driving licence was reinstated.
I fell asleep after my fourth long day of work and crashed my bus.. fortunately a very low speed accident with no passengers on board, and no physical injuries to me or my volunteer on the bus [worked in aged care/community transport]
It was an automatic trip to hospital for me, and an instant 6 month mandatory driving suspension, or until medically cleared by the cardio/neuro/respiratory specialists.

My situation could have been worse if loaded with passengers... I'm sure the last thing you need is to fall out of the sky because you "fell asleep at the wheel".

Keep us informed with how you get on with it all.

I never thought of the data issue.  Do I get to choose where the data goes or does it go to a 3rd party that I have to contact/log on to extract the data?

As far as international/augmented ops, I don't intend to do that for a while, if ever.  I did enough of that in the military!  you bring up great points on that though.  Thanks.

You are going to have to demonstrate compliance, probably minimum of 6 hours nightly, 80% of the time.  No question about that so you will always need  fully data capable machine.  And since bouncing between machines may make that more difficult, you may want to use only one and carry it with you rather than having a second, dedicated travel machine.

But I damn sure would never have any of my data going to anyone automatically.  Ever.  Especially anyone that may share it with OKC without your specific knowledge of what is being shared, when it is being shared, and only with your full consent.  

You want that control yourself, with it recorded ONLY on a card.  Of course, it has to be fully disclosed, but you and your doctor need to control how, when and what is disclosed.  Sometimes it is HOW something is said, not WHAT is said.

I think I once posted a link re: CPAP supplied by AOPA that described the requirements.  I don't know if it was only for Class 3 medicals of it also applied to Class 1.  The link is at:

https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/medical-reso...-disorders 

I assume that you are covered under a union contract.  If so, your union may also be able to help steer you in the right direction, particularly if they have loss of medical coverage.

Good luck - 

OMMOHY

Great info, I'm trying to figure out if two machines might make sense. I purposely paid cash to take insurance compliance out of the loop. The fullsize DreamStation is just to big to travel with so I'm looking at the GO version. ALPA Aeromedical has been a good resource but they lack the user side knowledge that people from this forum have. I'm only 4 weeks into this process and technically meeting the usage requirements but feel worse than before starting CPAP. There is no way I could function as PIC on many mornings after waking. Duece how long did it take you until you felt you were ready for work again. Our job has such unique requirements!

GuppyDRV

[bfmccarthy]

I got my diagnosis July 10th and started with APAP therapy on the 17th.  The first night I kept the mask on all night and dropped my AHI from 40.2 to 0.8!!  My provider had several bedrooms set up so you could lie down and try different masks, pillows, and nasal mask before taking them home for a 30 day trial.  I know my mouth falls open when sleeping on my back ( I sleep left, right, back) so I went for the F20 mask.  I was sent home with the silicone air fit AND the memory foam air touch.  My machine is a ResMed Airsense 10 AutoSet.   SO I flew from Montreal to Vancouver and then on to SeaTac.  The Resmed machine came with a laptop type bag and is considered a carry on device that does not add to the number of bags carried on because it is a medical device.  TSA knew what it was and how to handle it.(Still I had the actual device in a zip lock bag to keep grubby fingers and gloves off of my device.)  The complete unit weighs NOTHING!!  Then I spent 2 nights in a hotel in Seattle using coffee maker heated water for the humidifier.  Then onto a cruise ship for a 15 day Alaskan cruise.  The cruise line supplied my distilled water.  I slept soundly each and every night and my wife has stopped nudging me in the ribs to wake up so she got a better nights sleep out of the machine too.  On the red eye flight home I actually plugged the machine into the 120 volt outlet and placed the unit on my tray table.  For the first time in my life I actually slept on a flight.  I wish i had been diagnosed before the 14hour Atlanta Joberg flight!!!

SO in conclusion this modern machine is so light, quite, intelligent, that living with it is a breeze.  I get fantastic sleep now.  I am not falling asleep in chairs in the afternoon.  I think I have eliminated my sleep deficit.  I am way more alert all day.   The Air mini is seriously cute BUT it is first generation so reliability has yet to be proved.  And your equipment provider might have rental units so you can try different things before committing to a purchase.   Welcome to our club and this forum, you are among friends!