I can positively attest to this -

 

Some years ago my wife and I took a trip down to San Francisco, on Westjet I believe (not important).  Well, the trip came, and of course I was getting over a wicked sinus cold. The descent was horrible for me; I basically held my head in my hands and wished it were over. None of the little tricks helped to equalize the pressure, it really hurt.

 

Once on the ground I found I was nearly deaf, it lasted most of the day.  In fact, we had a airport shuttle van to our hotel, and due to space, I sat up front with the driver. A nice guy, he was talking and pointing out sights the whole trip to the hotel. Not sure, he might of thought there was something wrong with me, because I couldn't hear a darn word he said.  Once in a while, if I noticed he was gesturing particularly wildly, I'd simply smile and nod... 

 

 

Yes, flying having a sinus cold, as well as practicing scuba diving in such conditions, could be very painful even risky.

 

While the aircraft is descending the cabin air density gets ticker being closer and closer to the ground, so the outer ear pressure increases flexing the eardrum towards the interior, you typically block your nose and push air to increase your inner ear pressure to equalize the outer pressure getting the eardrum back straight and relaxed to stop the pain and get crystal clear hearing back. BUT when you are having sinus cold, your internal conducts to the ears are partially/fully blocked by mucus so no matter your are pushing air having the nose blocked, it doesn't reach the inner ear and does not build up pressure to equalize. So the eardrum keeps flexing inward which is very painful and you risk to break it.

 

If your internal conducts are obstructed but you are strong enough to push so much air to bypass the mucus you also risk to build excessive inner pressure larger than the outer pressure flexing the eardrum outwards permanently because the air gets stuck not flowing back due to mucus. This is extremely dangerous as well.

Okay I stand corrected! Interesting info though, thanks!

 

I just thought because the cabin altitude would only be up to say 8000ft (or 5000ft in a Dreamliner), so the descent rate of the cabin altitude would be a lot lower than the actual descent rate of the aircraft, descending from say 35000ft.

Okay I stand corrected! Interesting info though, thanks!

 

I just thought because the cabin altitude would only be up to say 8000ft (or 5000ft in a Dreamliner), so the descent rate of the cabin altitude would be a lot lower than the actual descent rate of the aircraft, descending from say 35000ft.

 

 

yes this is correct, the cabin pressurization descend rate will be slower than the aircraft descend rate, but still, the deeper the descend rate of the aircraft the deeper the cabin rate will accommodate and still larger than what the inner ear can sustain without feeling it. Humans were created to climb or descend by their own, not riding these beautiful beasts

I can positively attest to this -

 

Some years ago my wife and I took a trip down to San Francisco, on Westjet I believe (not important).  Well, the trip came, and of course I was getting over a wicked sinus cold. The descent was horrible for me; I basically held my head in my hands and wished it were over. None of the little tricks helped to equalize the pressure, it really hurt.

 

I feel your pain (literally) I've been on a few flights where I wish I could wash my head with salty water and continue the flight.

 

 

Yes, flying having a sinus cold, as well as practicing scuba diving in such conditions, could be very painful even risky.
 
While the aircraft is descending the cabin air density gets ticker being closer and closer to the ground, so the outer ear pressure increases flexing the eardrum towards the interior, you typically block your nose and push air to increase your inner ear pressure to equalize the outer pressure getting the eardrum back straight and relaxed to stop the pain and get crystal clear hearing back. BUT when you are having sinus cold, your internal conducts to the ears are partially/fully blocked by mucus so no matter your are pushing air having the nose blocked, it doesn't reach the inner ear and does not build up pressure to equalize. So the eardrum keeps flexing inward which is very painful and you risk to break it.
 
If your internal conducts are obstructed but you are strong enough to push so much air to bypass the mucus you also risk to build excessive inner pressure larger than the outer pressure flexing the eardrum outwards permanently because the air gets stuck not flowing back due to mucus. This is extremely dangerous as well.

 

For someone who's not real pilot like me, this is indeed very good information.

 

thanks for sharing.

After spending three nights and days pretty much awake in London, I boarded a C-54 in Mildenhall, UK.  I went to sleep at altitude and didn't wake up until just about landing at Prestwick, Scotland.  During the time between waking up and getting back to altitude, I felt as if two heated knitting needles were being pressed into my ears.  We were on the ground for nearly an hour before heading to Keflavik, Iceland and I could not relieve the pain until we regained altitude.  I had never slept on an aircraft before and surely won't do it again.  No sinus, just failure to swallow and other "tricks" to equalize the pressure.