I understand what the goal of this topic is. But you guys are embarrassing. I take October off to work a harvest, either running a tractor or driving truck. During this time I will work up to twenty hours a day with little sleep and love it. It's only for 4-6 weeks but nobody gets killed. If ya can't get up and watch the plane fly you should fatigue forever.
What the heck does this have to do with anything being discussed here?
Harvests, tractors, and airplanes? Oh yeah, I can see the similarity. NOT!
"Oh, I'm sleepy while driving my tractor. Look! I'm off course and harvesting the wheat instead of the corn! AHHHHH!!!!"
So, what? You have your farming certificate pulled? You'll face legal action? You'll be killed?
There are many things in life I can do while fatigued, and even enjoy doing them. That doesn't mean they're good comparisons to operating aircraft while fatigued.
By the way, there have been many accidents in the farming industry where folks have lost limbs, or their lives, around the farm equipment. But maybe not so many studies done on the relationship between operating farm machinery fatigued and corresponding accidents. Same as there weren't a lot of correlations made between aircraft accidents and fatigue until people started actually looking into it. And even if it doesn't involve damage to humans, how much farm equipment has been damaged because a sleepy farmer wasn't paying as close attention as he should have been to the operation of his equipment? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this stuff isn't tracked in the farming industry the way it is in the aviation industry.
For all of the reasons mentioned above, your sarcastic comparison holds no water.
On a slightly different note, I agree with Glasspilot that perhaps the trouble with this thread is no one has adequately defined "a little tired". I've listened to people on our union boards complain about how hard the company is running them, and that they are completely exhausted when reaching the hotel. Well, if they're that tired when reaching the hotel, then I'll bet everything I own that they were at least "a little tired" when flying that last leg. And some of those folks are the same ones here on this thread saying they won't fly "a little tired".
I don't think flying "a little tired" is a problem in itself. I think finishing a leg "a little tired", and then facing another, perhaps longer, flight where you would then finish "a lot tired" is the real problem. Starting a flight "a little tired" without thinking about what you'll feel like at the end of that flight is where the real danger lies. IMHO.