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

[T-REX]

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.

EXACTLY!! Crank up the volume and put your leg against the elevator trim (if you may be in icing) and nap away.

A fun prank we use to always play on a co-worker that always fell asleep was to test the engine fire warnings over company freq. (which we used to monitor in the #2 radio)....ahhh the good ol' days.

 

[fokkers&beer]

Yeah, I've done it. One night in a Beech, no autopilot (it had probably been removed in the 70's), over Terre Haught. The last thing I remember was the DME was 20 to the east. The next thing I know I have a headache, and I am 10 to the west. Thank god it was in a Beech, they are so stable.

 

[BeachBummer]

Play Boy, Hustler, Club, and a handful of windshield wipes.... That'll getcha from CVG to CLE and BNA and back in a C210.

 

[Trout]

Play Boy, Hustler, Club, and a handful of windshield wipes.... That'll getcha from CVG to CLE and BNA and back in a C210.

A fellow member of the 'solo' Mile High Club.

 

[Glacialfury1906]

I tell you what, there were many a nights when I almost lost it. Some days are better than others, but even after a year of doing it, I never seemed to get completely used to the late nights. I dosed off inadvertantly numerous times for very brief intervals. Thankfully I was always okay when it mattered (to save my @ss when I iced up.....). As freightdawgs know, being sleepy up there by yourself at 4am is a very unsettling feeling.......

 

[urflyingme?!]

...not as unsettling as knowing the 'solo' mile high club had a meeting in that very seat the night before!

Once I turned off the radios and stared into space for 25 minutes without realizing what I'd done.. But I wasn't technically asleep.

 

[jaybird]

I have never attempted this nor do I advise it. But if your really tired, and you fly an aircraft with fuel tanks that can be switched, put one engine on the lowest tank and when it starts to sputter you'll definatly wake up.

 

[uscpilot]

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.

Yes that does work for IFR. However I remember those times I was coming back to DAL from HOU and I didnt want to get that lousy routing over College Station so I would go VFR, and they would turn me loose pretty quick. I would try to stay awake with my game boy, or a good book, but just in case I would tune the ATIS in the #2 and crank up the volume, that way I got my wake up call 40 nm out.
Also if I was getting tired would sit up with the seat layed back, so I had to support my on weight. That way if I fell asleep I would fall forward or back, theoretically waking me up.
usc

 

[staledog]

man, a couple years ago i used to haul night frieght in a baron. going to chicago dupage (DPA) i fell asleep somewhere south of springfield, IL. woke up about 140 miles later and for a second didn't know what huge city was right underneath me. of course it was chicago and i was almost over o'hare at 5000 ft.... mind you this aircraft had only a heading bug as an autopilot and no altitude hold whatsoever. i could not believe i was still at EXACTLY five thousand feet on the altimeter. after quickly crapping my pants, i called chicago approach and made some comment about "missing the frequency change"....i guess they bought it (or at least acted like they did) and i made the turn to land at dupage which was now about 5 miles off to my left side. they had to know what was really going on. but thank god i woke up when i did because another 5 or 10 minutes and i would have been over the middle of lake michigan. I NEVER FELL ASLEEP AGAIN.

 

[hawkerjet]

I fell asleep on a MKE to STP leg at 0330am in a 402. minny woke me up before i got to gopher.