Driving a car, I get drowsy now and then. So far, in about 500 hours of flying, I haven't gotten drowsy in the air.

Maybe it's because I'm a relative new pilot, and the excitement hasn't worn off?

Maybe it's because flying is more fun? I can get pretty engrossed in the scenery flowing by.

At least for me, it's not the time in the saddle. I can get sleepy in a car in less than an hour. Some of my flights last 2 or 3 hours between stops.

It's not the level of attention while driving or flying. In the car I have to keep it between the fence posts, but in the plane I can wander all over and it doesn't matter.

What do you think?

tom

Tom,
You need to be very careful with flight fatigue. I say this because of your automobile drowziness. I flew in the military as a crew member in an open door Huey. I was awake one minute while going into the LZ and as we departed the LZ , got to altitude I relaxed and that is the last thing I remembered until one of the crew shook me awake. Believe when I tell you this was not my MO!

If you feel fatigued then land, wash your face get a coke / coffee. Believe me when I tell you lights out will happen fast! KEEP THE EDGE by trying new stuff.
I am no expert but I am sure others have things they do to avoid this from happening.

At this point I don't think you have to much to worry about but if worry keeps you awake then stay worried!
FlySafe
Bill

When I'm driving my big rig down those long and lonely highways at night/early morning, I get a little drowsy sometimes. But, I usually get a good nap before my driving shift. If I'm going west, I'll usually stop and take a nap right around the time of day when the sun just starts to shine through the windshield. Get up after sunset or by 9 pm and get rolling again. I'm furtionate in the way that 95% of the time I'm in no hurry to get to the next destination, so I usually get plenty of rest!!

But, during those drowsy times, rolling down the windows, cranking up the tunes, A/C on high, and/or talking on the CB helps with passing time and keeping it rolling safely down the highway works for me. Stop and stretch the body and legs, too.

One other note (I know, some of you are probably telling me to shut up already ). In the states that have speed limits of 65-75 for semi's, I find myself a lot more alert and and eyes wide open, just for safety and the unexcpected!! But man, when your rolling west from AZ to CA, the speed limit goes from 75 down to 55 (for semi's)!! Now that makes for a long, boring, drowsy trip from Needles to Barstow (150 miles)!!

When I'm flying I don't get drowsy. If I'm a passenger and a buddy is flying, I am out like a light.

I read an AOPA article several years ago where the author was flying from Las Vegas to LA after a long day of meetings. It was late at night, the air was calm, and he set his autopilot. Next thing he knew LA center was frantically yelling at him on the radio. Turns out they had been frantically yelling for about 15 minutes or so. He was over the Pacific and still headed westerly -- sound asleep. Fatigue can be a killer.

When a tank goes dry it wakes you in a hurry

Thanks, guys for all the advice. I figured out why I don't get sleepy in the plane: It must be the cold beer between my knees that keeps me awake!

tom

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When a tank goes dry it wakes you in a hurry

Yea they say dead quite can be the loudest noise in the world

I think anxiety keeps us awake, and I know I've always got a nominal amount while flying. In the car it's different. Behind the wheel, I'll be lulled to sleep by the soothing sound of road noise. My girlfriend plays a game with me, where if she sees me getting heavy eyelids, she backhands me in the face. Usually that just makes me laugh, which helps.

7853H wrote:When a tank goes dry it wakes you in a hurry

Or some heavy turbies!!

I just have another beer. The cool glass keeps me awake and I can fly a lot better

Savannah-Tom wrote:So far, in about 500 hours of flying, I haven't gotten drowsy in the air.
What do you think?

tom

So, suppose you've owned a couple vehicles over the years, and run each of them up to around 100,000 miles before retiring them... 200,000 miles divided by, say, an average of 45 miles per hour- equals 4444 hours of driving. I guess there's a few of us that can claim more flying hours that driving hours, but for most, I'll guess it's nowhere close. Just a thought.

When I notice fatigue creeping up is during long days, or multiple hops with lots of radio and airspace and traffic and turbulence. It's supposed to be eight hour duty days for the commercial crowd, if I remember right. When I've exceeded that by very much, I know that I am seldom as sharp as when I started the day.

-DP

Sometimes on the 6 plus hour nonstop patrols I get sleepy. Makes me wonder about carbon monoxide and I will open the window for a while, even in the winter. That usually peps me up. jg

Your girlfriend plays with you in the car ?? Don't get pulled over by the police

I've talked to some cargo pilots that fly through the night and they claim that chewing ice will always keep them awake. They take a large cup full on each flight just in case.

Not what your dentist recommends but it may keep you awake...

Set your destination's AWOS or ATIS freq in the radio and turn it up. When you're close enough for the squelch to break its time to wake up.

Get Low, if ya can't, Barrel Rolls usually work for awhile.

Back when I used to lug paying passengers around in the Cessnas or Ho's, falling asleep was never the problem. It was way too busy, noisy, you name it. The big problem was having to pee, with some big fat lady sitting next to me up in the co-pilot seat, and I couldn't use my bottle for the long legs. Probably closest I've ever come to wrecking airplanes is from whacking the ground and jumping out as the prop's still turning so I can make the run to the backside of the Conex box to go pee before I wet myself.

Now flying cargo was a different story... If any piece of junk I ever flew had ever had an autopilot, I'd still be in a Siberian jail, or dead. Carharts and several layers of warm clothes... Sun shining in at the end of a long duty day. 8 plus on the hours in the air moving. Music on the ADF from KOTZ AM... I'd be out like a light until things got real noisy or real quiet, with the airplane heading for the unusual attitude of the day. Not fun.

Gump

Gump,

Dang, you and Jeremy are bringing back all sorts of memories.... Thank God for Conex's. Otherwise, we'd have been peeing in public.

I was coming back from Old Crow one afternoon in the late spring. C-185 on wheel skis. Ice was crappy on all the lakes. I'm still 130 out of FAI, and I need to pee. Looking around, and there lies CIK--Chalkyitsik. Not exactly a haven for non Natives, actually....but a runway.

I swing over the runway, and as I'm entering the downwind to land, I see three guys on three wheelers headed up to the airport from the village.....DANG IT!!!

I land the thing, and roll up onto the ramp, and as I do, one of these young hostile looking guys rolls his three wheeler right in front of my propeller. Obviously, he thinks I'm not leaving till he's done with me.

I shut down and jump out the door of the plane. The guy who parked his three wheeler in front of the prop gets right in my face, and pronounces "What are jyouu doing in my billage, Cop???"

To which I replied, in my most official voice: "I came here to pee, and if you don't get out of my way, I'll do it on your leg".

His companions dang near split a gut laughing, and started yelling "Hey--get out of his way--he really looks serious".

After I got done with my business behind the Conex, I had a nice long and very friendly chat with those three guys. Henceforth, I was one of the few Fish and Wildlife types who got along pretty well with the Chalkyitsik villagers.

MTV

mtv wrote:Gump,

Dang, you and Jeremy are bringing back all sorts of memories.... Thank God for Conex's. Otherwise, we'd have been peeing in public.

I was coming back from Old Crow one afternoon in the late spring. C-185 on wheel skis. Ice was crappy on all the lakes. I'm still 130 out of FAI, and I need to pee. Looking around, and there lies CIK--Chalkyitsik. Not exactly a haven for non Natives, actually....but a runway.

I swing over the runway, and as I'm entering the downwind to land, I see three guys on three wheelers headed up to the airport from the village.....DANG IT!!!

I land the thing, and roll up onto the ramp, and as I do, one of these young hostile looking guys rolls his three wheeler right in front of my propeller. Obviously, he thinks I'm not leaving till he's done with me.

I shut down and jump out the door of the plane. The guy who parked his three wheeler in front of the prop gets right in my face, and pronounces "What are jyouu doing in my billage, Cop???"

To which I replied, in my most official voice: "I came here to pee, and if you don't get out of my way, I'll do it on your leg".

His companions dang near split a gut laughing, and started yelling "Hey--get out of his way--he really looks serious".

After I got done with my business behind the Conex, I had a nice long and very friendly chat with those three guys. Henceforth, I was one of the few Fish and Wildlife types who got along pretty well with the Chalkyitsik villagers.

MTV

I was in in Nikolai just last week, enjoying the fall color and visiting for the first time. Same ATV scene, similar reception. The first guy was pretty sure I was an undercover game warden, but he also really wanted a ride upriver on the Kuskokwim to look for moose near his river camp. (moose season opened on the 1st here). I had the fuel, and I figured it was a good way to make inroads, so why not? We had a good flight, but he was still pretty certain I was an undercover game warden looking to "bust" somebody.

However, I ended up meeting a lot of friendly people and getting invited into several homes and driven around on ATV's. Only problem was, everyone wanted to share a pepsi or a cup of coffee, and I didn't want to be rude by declining. By the time I took off four hours later, I knew there was no way I was going to make it home direct without busting a kidney. Telida has 2' deep sand dunes right in the middle of their 1900' runway, but luckily things weren't yet desperate enough for that option to look good. By the time Minchumina came in range, 75 miles out of Nikolai, it was about all I could do to put it down on the runway in time

-DP

Chalkyitsik reminds me of 600lbs of moose meat that broke loose in the back when lifting of a bar on the Black River. AFT cg. I could climb with power at 85mph and dive at 145mph but anything in between set up a horrible elevater vibration, so it was a roller coaster ride to Chalkyitsik.

To the point of the thread though, of sleep, when doing long distance Maule deliveries there is an amazing difference between the 2 and 3 blade prop. 8 hours behind a 2 blade and I did not want anything but food and sleep, however, same engine but with 3 blade prop and I could handle 12 hours and still make conversation.
If the wear and tear on my brain is so different, what of the rivets, welds, electric connections etc etc
Jeremy