As an instructor to airmen, these young people are not generally full fledged adults, no matter how much they would like to think so. It's very difficult for them because they believe they are completely mature, as I did at their age (if only I knew the truth), but Thursday was a good example of why we need us instructors around to watch out for these young people.
I am responsible for keeping my students awake, so I told him to wake up. When he did, i noticed he poured a pouch of powder into some water and slammed it down. I asked him what the heck it was. He showed me the box. It was a product called "Power Edge" Energy Drink Mix. It sounds ok on the front because it is suger free, but then on the back it says 80 mg of caffeine per serving and serving is 1/2 of a packet. I asked my student if that was the first one he had that day. It was the fourth. Holy crap.
I am responsible for keeping my students awake, so I told him to wake up. When he did, i noticed he poured a pouch of powder into some water and slammed it down. I asked him what the heck it was. He showed me the box. It was a product called "Power Edge" Energy Drink Mix. It sounds ok on the front because it is suger free, but then on the back it says 80 mg of caffeine per serving and serving is 1/2 of a packet. I asked my student if that was the first one he had that day. It was the fourth. Holy crap.
Essentially he was having 640 mg of caffeine before 9 am. Scared the crap out of me, but it didn't really get through to him until I showed him on two websites where it said that a normal days max caffeine is 300mg and the Power Edge is equivalent to 2 Red Bulls.
Supposedly my student has promised me that he isn't going to pull this again, so one can only hope because he was shaking the rest of the day, and some the next day. I wanted to send him to the hospital, but he didn't want to go, and you can't force a student to go.
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