Originally Posted by roulishollandais
Who worried about Machinbird's safety flying his F-4 , and micronaps during alert5 in his cockpit in the war zone?
All the pilots know that error is paid with life, not with blame, and we chosed that. The best protection is to know how YOUR body is working with fatigue and sleep.
roulishollandais
I have to correct a small mis-perception.
USN Fighter crews were assigned to 5 minute alert status for 4 hour watches during a ship's non-flying hours in the operating area while we were in combat. This was in addition to your regular flying assignments although some scheduling accommodations were made to allow additional rest.
Although my back seater could nap on the wing, I considered it vital to stay strapped in in order to meet the 5 minute launch criterea. It was possible to sleep in the cockpit that way (Shoulder harness unlocked, helmet on stick, kneeboard on helmet, head on kneeboard) but I was extremely concerned about sleep inertia (before it had even been given a name) and I set up every switch in the cockpit so as to have the minimum steps before launch. I was very thankful that I never had a night launch under those conditions.
So during non-flying cycle, night 5 minute alerts, sleep inertia was the hazard, not microsleeps.
Originally Posted by J.T.
My view is that anyone who doesn't believe the reality of microsleep .. just hasn't yet had (or realised he/she has had) the experience.
Thank you for the example John. I would hope everyone who flies and drives learns the reality of microsleep susceptibility and the difficulty of its recognition. Perhaps this information needs to make it into driver education courses since that is a larger, more inclusive class of individuals than pilots.