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Sleepy Captain

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5ontheglide

The years of the Eer's!
Joined
Mar 31, 2005
Posts
146
Sounds like some good bate, but it's a true story.

I'm the PNF on a flight the other day and the Captain falls asleep for about 5-10 minutes in cruise - throw me some suggestions on how you guys would have handled it! Make it as funny or serious as you want. I played the nice guy (forgiving) FO.
 
Do what I do:

Reach over behind their head, slam it into the yoke and yell...

I'M RICK JAMES B!#CH!!!!

They won't fall asleep on you anymore
 
Let the poor guy sleep! Hopefully he'll wake up when the gear goes down. If not, give him the fire bell test when you need him to taxi.
 
If its a CRJ, turn off the DCU's (those guarded switches by your right arm) and let him snooze. He'll wake-up when the gear goes down and won't be interrupted by those annoying "C-Chords," or Ice warnings.

The other idea, put on the mask and goggles, and do the fire test, I about pissed myself when he fumbled for his mask out of a dead sleep.

Good times.....
 
5ontheglide said:
Sounds like some good bate, but it's a true story.

I'm the PNF on a flight the other day and the Captain falls asleep for about 5-10 minutes in cruise - throw me some suggestions on how you guys would have handled it! Make it as funny or serious as you want. I played the nice guy (forgiving) FO.

oh my gosh, you mean a commuter pilot flying a crappy schedule actually took a nap and trusted you not to crash????

Are you serious???? First this is not the place to discuss this subject. Second you must not be very confident in your abilities to monitor the AP for a few mins alone. No wait I get it now, momma and daddy just didn't give you enough attention when you was little did they????? Does baby need constant attention from the left seat???

RF
snore snore snore snore.........
 
5ontheglide said:
Sounds like some good bate, but it's a true story.

I'm the PNF on a flight the other day and the Captain falls asleep for about 5-10 minutes in cruise - throw me some suggestions on how you guys would have handled it! Make it as funny or serious as you want. I played the nice guy (forgiving) FO.

Immediately comply with company policies and report him to management, then personally notify the FSDO who controls your 135/121 certificate in writing and via telephone.

....NOT

are you serious? let the poor guy get some shut-eye and wake him for the landing. He is not confirmed "asleep" he could be shutting his eyes and mentally reviewing for his upcoming checkride

can't believe some of you ask these questions
 
Like the others said, let him sleep. In cruise, who the F cares. I rather take or have the other guy take a 10-20 min nap as I/they wake up 100 times better than trying to stay awake for arrival/approach and landing.

I'm sure like many other guys around here if you've flown 1000 hr/yrs or anything approaching that your going to run into situations where your dead tired on the job. Relax its apart of this job no matter how healthy you are or how much sleep/rest you've had prior to show time. A 10 to 20 min "nap" at altitude is much better than fighting to stay awake during landing.

note: I'm not talking about the guy(s) who get in the cockpit and whip out the pillow and sleep from wheels up to wheels down. Thats taking it alittle far, but hey you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.
 
I couldn't agree more- I actually am a little relieved when the CA briefs me at the ouset of the month; "if you want to nap.. let me know.. no prob".. now I know I can feel comfortable requesting a little 'micro-nap' when flying the 5th leg on the 4th day of a trip w/ min. rest.
The only 'request' I would have is that the prospective napper brief the other before counting sheep (that way you're not asking an unconscious person to confirm a newly issued clearance).

-fly safe..
 
Let him be unless there is something that requires his attenetion, like changing altitudes or something like that
 
If an FO did a fire test while I was sleeping, he would be lucky to be alive after I was done with him/her.

I agree with the others, let the poor guy/gal sleep. What's the big deal?
 
I wondered about this when I was flying the Almighty Beech 1900 (no autopilot) and the CA fell asleep. If he fell asleep for a while, I was going to turn his intercom volume down, wait until ATC gave us a descent, NOT set the new altitude in the window, roll some forward trim in, then slump over the controls as if I had fallen asleep too. If the altitude horn had awakened him over 300 feet "off altitude" I'd like to see his reaction...

... but I chickened out.
 
capt. megadeth said:
If an FO did a fire test while I was sleeping, he would be lucky to be alive after I was done with him/her.



Looks like someone needs to develop a sense of humor and not take herself so seriously....loosin' up sweetpea ...you'll live longer!!


PHXFLYR:cool:
 
5ontheglide said:
Sounds like some good bate, but it's a true story.

I'm the PNF on a flight the other day and the Captain falls asleep for about 5-10 minutes in cruise - throw me some suggestions on how you guys would have handled it! Make it as funny or serious as you want. I played the nice guy (forgiving) FO.

Are you an intern or something?
 
make sure the cockpit door is shut you don't want someone in the back making a recording of the nap time.
 
and for CVR purposes have a agreed upon code for "I am gonna take a nap"

"Hey Joe, looks like a good night to be flying"

"sure does"
 
The FAA won't say it officially, but if you need to get some shut eye, just take it, but tell the other guy first. Tis isn't a huge deal, just get him up at TOD or whatever.
 
NASA did a study on this stuff a few years ago. The conclusion? It's much safer to take a little nap in cruise while the other guy watches the ship than it is for both to stay awake while tired.

Let the guy take a nap. Don't be a douche.
 
PCL_128 said:
NASA did a study on this stuff a few years ago. The conclusion? It's much safer to take a little nap in cruise while the other guy watches the ship than it is for both to stay awake while tired.

Let the guy take a nap. Don't be a douche.

I think instead the copilot should be one of the moron FO's who posted here about "activating the fire warning" and turning his headset off

now THATS professional
 
Back when I was a Brasilia FO I flew with a Capt who routinely slept most of the flight. He was actually kind of well know for it among the FOs.

It only bothered me because he had a habit of leaving his hot mic on and snoring in my ear.

One day, after actually reaching over and turning it off, I could STILL hear him snoring, and fearing so too could the passengers, I decided this time I had to wake him up.

I centered up the heading bug and made sure we were right on the airway, then dialed both of our HSIs to random courses, and switched NAV freq's on both sides. I slumped back in my seat like I was sleeping and nudged him just enough to wake him up.

Watching his face go from confusion to horror was pretty much the funniest thing I'd seen in an airplane to that point.
 

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