Falling asleep at the controls?

[Pace]

Probably never covered in this forum but has anyone fallen asleep while flying?

A few years back I was flying a Seneca Five for a non pilot owner back from Dublin.

He the only other occupant was up front with me the sole pilot.
In the airway FL110 heading south East on autopilot I was very aware of the humming of the engines.

My eyes got heavier and heavier and I struglled to keep them open.
Next second I felt a sharp dig in the ribs with the concerned comment that the owner had thought i had died :E

Oh well had I not woken up we would have arrived near Paris ;)

As a slightly different topic anyone else fallen asleep at the controls ? ;)

Pace

[Ryan5252]

No. But, I spoke to Cirus pilot the other day concerning a recent 3.5 hour trip he completed setting out early morning. Before the flight he got all his Notams, weather, PPR etc etc and programmed the various waypoints in the GPS. The auto pilot flew the flight after setting climb rate and before landing.

The only physical act required on his part was switching fuel tanks every 30ish minutes and talking to ATC. Considering a large portion of the flight was over water ATC discussions were 'minimal' until he arrived closer to the destination and thus into more complex airspace. He remarked that he felt sleep creaping in at several points.

I suppose my view would be that while efforts are made to relieve pilot work load and as aircraft become more 'capable' one should always be aware of the potential dangers of flying when slightly tired, which is further exasberated in a monotonous enviromnet. I fully appreciate how easy it is to happen. I know I can't be the only one to feel my eyes closing when driving down a long motorway in the dead of night.

To me, the salient parts of my friend's flight was; An early morning departure, lack of a full nights sleep i.e. getting up extra early for pre-flights, a computer flying the plan from waypoint to waypoint, a single crew enviroment - not helped by being the sole occupant on board and a tedious route (over water).

Very good subject though Pace and I would be interested to hear other stories; of which I am sure there are many.

Ryan

[Fuji Abound]

Reminds me of the delivery flight story.

Aircraft small comuter jet, single pilot op, the pilot with too many hours from the day before.

So fl 350, auto pilot in control and our friend decides there is time enough for 30 winks on the couch out back, for sure his iphone alarm will wake him.

Back he goes but as the cockpit door clicks shut he realises he hadnt set the latch and there was no way back into the cockpit.

Suddenly you guessed it his sleep problem is resolved wide eyed with panic.

A busy hour with a screw driver and fortunately it all ends happily.

[IO540]

Fuji that is the most amazing aviation story I have ever heard :ok:

I especially like the Iphone bit. Kind of sounds very plausible, whereas a Blackberry wouldn't.

I have never fallen asleep but it can be very sleep-inducing to do long legs (hohoho) on autopilot, above a solid overcast. I tend to turn the oxygen way up (have a huge BOC cylinder of it at home) and it is good to have something to nibble as well.

[1800ed]

Hopefully that wasn't at the time when iPhones were suffering the alarm clock bug :}

Thinking about it, with an autopilot and a comfy seat, falling asleep is probably quite a realistic problem with the endurance of a lot of aircraft being greater than that of the pilot!

[vanHorck]

And then there is the added risk of oxygen shortage, which i presume is a sliding scale.....
Meaning: Are we more likely to become drowsy with sleep at 9000 ft than at 2500 ft?

As we fly further we tend to fly a little higher (it's more worthwhile climbing on longer trips?), perhaps also because we undertake longer trips in better weather, so climbing is more likely in CAVOK weather?

So everything conspires to generate drowsiness....

[AfricanEagle]

A gentleman I knew, an ex WWII pilot, often told me that when ferrying twins to Australia, over the longer legs, he would engage autopilot, set the portable alarm clock he carried and take an occasional nap. :ooh:

[vee-tail-1]

Back in 1970s there was a case where all three crew of a BOAC B707 fell asleep on route to Bermuda. The aircraft did a gentle 180 to head back east, but an alert cabin steward noticed the sun was on the wrong side of the aircraft and woke up the crew. Strong coffee was administered frequently until arrival!

Later in BA during crew fatigue trials we had a B747 Classic flying with an egg timer fitted under the mag compass. It was supposed to be set at 30 mins, and rewound as soon as it went off. If I remember rightly the egg timer ended up in the trash bin! ;)

[Dawdler]

Certainly quite feasible to fall asleep at the controls. I once fell asleep at the wheel of my car and subsequently crashed. It was 4.30pm (and I hadn't been in the pub) on a fairly leisurely day (Sunday) with no early start, no work committments. I am at a loss as to how it happened. I was only half a mile from home, so perhaps the prospect of journey's end looming gave me a false sense of security.

I certainly sympathise with someone in the same position, but may be I should have recognised the signs of tiredness approaching more readily.

[Opsbeatch]

Teaching a student on a hot summers afternoon, on circuits so very repetitive... Comfy seat, head back and watch what he does (Close to solo). I remember the top of the launch when he released the cable...the next thing was the airbrakes opening and we were on finals. Now that wakes you up!

Sent him solo soon after...didn't think he needed the useless tub of lard in the back!

OB

[mrmum]

Did it many years ago while teaching the MoD Flying Scholarships (before it was all done at Tayside). Hot sunny afternoon at the end of a long month, had a little inadvertent snooze behind my Ray-Bans on a nav. flight, not sure if the cadet noticed or not!

[Genghis the Engineer]

There used to be a very well known microlight instructor called Tony Wells (sadly taken by cancer in 2004), who was well known for falling asleep whilst teaching students - apparently he even snored.

I always suspected that it was an act to encourage students to think for themselves, since he always woke up in time for landing. But, I don't think anybody ever really knew.

G