Wouldn't it have been rich if the auto-land had brought the plane down with the two still asleep at the stick? Has anyone else read Clouddancer's 2nd volume yet, with the chapter on automated flight? He relates an industry joke that one of these days the two-person flight crew will be reduced to just a pilot and a dog- the pilot's job is to feed the dog, and the dog's job... is to bight the damn pilot if he/she tries to touch anything

Didn't the same thing happen in Hawaii a few months ago ?

Anybody here ever fall asleep while on autopilot ?

Happened to me one time south of Vegas headed to Scottsdale in a C-206. I was asleep less than a minute (I think) but woke up and knew I had nodded off. Scared me enough that it never happened again.

Friend was VFR at night coming from southern oregon to olympia
in his new Archer...... auto pilot on, guess is he was asleep and strayed off course Nailed the top 40 ft. of a hill in cruise........

Died in his sleep, guess there are worst ways to go ?

This wasn't flying but about 25 years ago I decided to visit some friends in Tennesee. I drove from Plano to Pigeon Forge non-stop. Right at sun up I woke up from a sound sleep to a thunk thunk thunk sound. I thought it might be a flat. It was actually the right front bumper hitting the edge of those construction barrels.

They were putting a new rail on the edge of the road to keep people from going over the cliff on the right side of the road. I looked down and it was at least 75 to 100 feet down where I was.

I jerked the car back into traffic and stopped at the first station and got a Coke and walked around for a few minutes. Scared me so much that I didn't fall asleep again.

I can't imagine falling asleep flying near any mountains or anywhere else for that matter.

My dad and I were eating breakfast in Northway Ak. one morning after a particularly hairy landing the night before and overheard a RCMP, a US Customs officer and a state trooper giving this poor bastard the once over.

He had been flying from Fairbanks to Whitehorse YT and had fallen asleep. He figured he had circled around in the huge basin that Nortway lays in for several hours. He woke up in the middle of a very dark night without any fuel left and no idea where he was.

Just as he was really beginning to figure he was well and truly screwed he saw a set of blue runway lights come on below him. He lost no time in dropping right down and landing and really didn't seem to mind the ass chewing as he was just damn happy to be on the ground in one piece.

On the other hand my wife's dog will fall asleep while begging for food and fall over, then he gets this funny look like "how the hell did that happen"

For those who aren't airline pilots: The airline pilots association has been trying for years to get the feds to wake up (no pun intended) to the fact that the rules allow extremely abusive scheduling practices. Some progress has been made. However, sleep deprivation and circadian disruption is a very real fact of life. The airlines counter the argument by showing a schedule that allows for sleep between duty cycles. What they hope you don't notice is that the sleep periods are all over the clock. I don't know about you folks but I find it difficult to get a "normal" 8 hours one night, have to stay awake all night the next, sleep another 8 during the following day, etc. etc. I have done 6 day trips (5 nights) that have three rest periods built in. What happened to my other two nights? Scheduling magic. You were suppose to sleep twice on the layover to catch up. Probably not going to happen. I've done 6 day trips where I was only able to log 14 hours sleep. You try, but it just doesn't happen because the sleep cycles are "scheduled" where it is convenient for the company, not where it fits with the pilots home time zone. The only recourse is to call in fatigued. The airline management does not like this at all. Nether do the passengers, especially when they announce in the boarding area that the flight is delayed or cancelled because of crew rest issues.

Occasionally a crew falls asleep while working which is unfortunate and could end up tragically. However, it is probably the result of company scheduling practices and not due to crew laziness or all night partying on the layover.

Asleep at the wheel?? I do it all the time! I drive a big rig for a living and on those long lonely streches of highways I'll drive by brail. I'll get 30-60 second naps in before the truck hits the rumble strips ! Hey, c'mon, I'm just kidding!!! I have seen plenty of interesting looking tire tracks in the highway medians over the last 15 years driving the open road. The most amazing one (and I wish I went back to take a picture) was on I-5 going south before Buttonwillow, CA. The highway curves the the left and saw tire tracks going straight out into a field and amazingly right between the legs of those huge power line towers.

I concur what Mr. Ed says, too. When your travelling between diferrant time zones and working a demanding work schedule, it's hard to get a good nights sleep. But, I'm kind of furtionate in a way that most of the time I'm in no hurry to get the rig from point A to point B. So when I feel a tired, I find the next place to park and take a nap! Plus I have a hard time sleeping at a few of the hotels our company puts us up in.

Anyway, safe flying and driving to all!!

I think its funnier than shit,(Is funnier a word?)

Hey denalipilot.

Contrary to conventional wisdom.....autolands require pilot input to program and engage the systems for landing. Additionally someone has to configure the aircraft for landing. Stuff like selecting nav. frequencies, approach speeds, flaps, speedbrakes, autobraking, landing gear extention and reverse thrust upon touchdown.

So the "autoland system" landing the airplane while the pilots are asleep ain't gonna happen. At least not in current generation airplanes. Pilots really do still command their airplanes .

Of course you knew that.

Bob