Sleepy Captain

[Thedude]

Well, there is one thing worse. Waking up to find out the FO and FE are sleeping too.

No kidding, and I have had it happen

 

[Ill Mitch]

No kidding, and I have had it happen

It sucks. I was right seat on a Citation one evening and we are at cruise. We were flying all day and I ask the left seater if it is ok if I take a short nap. He said "Sure, when would you like me wake you?", I said about 20 minutes or so.

I wake up 40 minutes later and he is snoring and Center is yelling at us on the radio (that's what woke me up). I remember having a weird dream about someone yelling something about copies.

 

[Sam Snead]

I wonder... On a 2 or 3 pilot airplane, what's the record for longest duration of all flightdeck crew asleep simultaneously?

I suppose with automation the way it has been for quite a while, the duration could be surprisingly long.

 

[pilotyip]

When you fly shifting schedules, you have to plan sleeping otherwise it is uncontrollable. Having one guy rest his eyes for 20 minutes, when other one knows it is going on does wonders for your ability to make that tight approach at the end of the night. However when everyone in the cockpit is asleep, that is scary. We used to fly these night and day patrols around Vietnam, terrible schedule, 12 hr flights, fly a day flight 12 hours off fly a night flight, 36 hrs off fly a day flight. 10 days in a row. One night off the south end of the country, at 0300, nothing is going on, no contacts, no chatter on the intercom, I am fighting off sleep and loosing, I finally nod off. I wake up, you do not know if it has been 30 seconds or 30 minutes, we are on the autopilot' at 1,500’, #4 engine in the bag, and everyone in the airplane is asleep. Talk about being wide-awake, Where TF are we? Now how do you wake up the PPC without letting him know you nodded off also? The F/E was also in the bag. So I called for "Coffee around for my friends" The point is the worse thing about sleeping in the cockpit is letting it sneak up on you, You know it might happen, plan on when it is going to happen, control it.

 

[cxcap]

And you're still employed? I call bull$hit on that story!!

Actually it just happened last week at the end of a four day and when I got back to work today, there was a note in my file to see the Chief Pilot. He wasn't in the office but I'm suspecting thats what its about.

 

[cxcap]

ICEMAN - cough cough BS

CLE to LGA is 362 straight line, so you are telling me with you and the "F/O", denoting a likely 121 airline, you flew 200 miles PAST LGA, then 200 BACK, a total of 400 extra miles (the U-turn was longer than the actual trip?) and you had fuel to make it back, and you ask if the passengers "noticed"

whatever, chock this up as Post #48 in your 4 years as an FI member

go back to your cave

First of all we dont fly striaght line at my airline. For some reason ATC gets mad whenever we file direct. Second of all, we were tankering a lot of fuel.

 

[Hovernut]

Was in a DAL 757 'highchair' last week and CA tells me in so many words to stay awake 'for safety reasons.' For once, I wasn't sleepy after an 0500 w/u, so it wasn't a problem, but found it humorous he let his FO hammer nails for a while. Who in their right mind keeps the poor j/s'er awake?! Sheesh!

 

[satpak77]

First of all we dont fly striaght line at my airline. For some reason ATC gets mad whenever we file direct. Second of all, we were tankering a lot of fuel.

ok then 450 miles one way then, via airway

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