Fess Up... Who's Fallen Asleep Flying Single-Pilot?

[tsky]

It only happened to me that one time-it was pretty creepy!

 

[Lead Sled]

How many of you have fell asleep while flying single-pilot?

I've come close once or twice and it's frightening when it happens. I've learned my lesson however, and even though I fly airplanes that require a crew I always ask center for a wakeup call about 30 minutes out, just to be on the safe side.

'Sled

 

[414Flyer]

I think I was in that zone between being awake and asleeep for much of my first morning leg. I would be in a state of lucid dreaming, just listening for my N number from center.

And yes I would have that occurance where I thought the engines would stutter, when it was just me nodding off

 

[Tina Fey's Scar]

I learned something interesting that day, though. Apparently, the brain shuts itself down in stages. On that particular occasion, my brain decided to shut down the hearing portion of my brain before it actually shut down my awareness. So basically, I couldn't hear anymore (for about 1 second), but I was still awake enough to realize it! Very strange.

LAXSaabdude.

That's the way it works. Hearing is the first thing to shut off when falling asleep. I find this to be most noticable when drifting off in the car (as a passenger!) when the road noise suddenly disappears.

Google it if you don't believe me!

 

[HMR]

I used to fly a BE20 single pilot in the middle of the night. I can honestly say I never fell asleep but I have been so tired that I've landed, taxied to the ramp, shut it down and passed out before I could open the cabin door. I'd saw logs for a few hours until dispatch would call wondering where the plane was.

 

[BortaS]

Going down to MIA in a lear 35 it was my turn to take a nap. When I woke up 45 minutes later I saw the captain hanging in his straps drooling in his lap. I had visions of being over Cuba with MIGs on the wings. The other thing that scared me is you were never quite too sure if the POS autopilot would stay on. Thankfuly JAX was passing by and no harm was done.

I can tell you one thing. Some of the hardest sleeps I ever had were in the back of that old lear. After a few months most people could sleep through storms, landings and about anything else. I learned more about flying and staying alive in the one year of hauling checks than I have in the 9 years since.

 

[Freight Dog]

I learned more about flying and staying alive in the one year of hauling checks than I have in the 9 years since.

AMEN BROTHER!!

I'd take catnaps flying checks. I'd crank up the volume if the Center freq was quiet so when the call "Freight Trash 121, contact Oakland Center on 132.8" came, it was loud enough to wake the dead.

 

[cforst513]

not flying related, but i have fallen asleep driving more than i care to remember. driving up route 71 i fell asleep in the right lane, drifted across the center lane, and woke up by the sound of those rumble strips in the left lane. granted, it was 4:30 am and i was on my way to work, but still! another time i was driving home from dayton eeeearly one morning for the fifth time in 2 days and fell asleep. when i woke up i was staring right at the rear tires of a big rig. i coulda reached out and touched them.

 

[speedbird1974]

I asked the copilot if it was ok to close my eyes for a minute. He said he felt fine and to go ahead. Some minutes later I wake up because my ears were popping! I looked at the fo and he was sleeping and the airplane was on a descent. That is what happen when you start the day at 22:00 and it's 13:00 and you still not home yet. I guess the fact that my airplane was unpressurized, probably saved my life.

 

[Coolhans]

Taking a "nap" with an autopilot-airplane is easy; has anyone ever taken cat naps while flying single pilot with no autopilot?!

Also, I heard a story that quite a while back a Frontier crew overflew DEN (they were westbound, coming from somewhere) because they both fell asleep.
Don't know if that story is true, though.