The Anonymous Widower

Pilots Will Fall Asleep

There has been a lot of publicity about pilots failing asleep in the media in the last few days, including this report from the BBC.

In my twenty or so years of flying, in which I amassed about 1,200 hours in command, I only dropped off once.

i was flying my Cessna 340a to the South of France, with C and a couple of others in the back. I must have dropped off, because I remember awaking as we hit a bit of turbulence.

My plane had a very good avionics system and was flying happily on the auto-pilot.

Nothing untoward happened and after that I always made sure that someone was sitting alongside me to hand me the occasional drink. But not too many, as the plane didn’t have a toilet.

i do wonder if I fell asleep because my Cessna was too comfortable for the pilot. The seat was very comfortable and could be adjusted in virtually every direction. I was also wearing headphones, which cut all the noise out, so I was very much isolated from what was happening around me, using just my eyes to scan the skies and read the instruments.

The sky can be very hypnotic as it speeds pas you and I do wonder if the whole experience was far too relaxing and on that trip it induced me to sleep.

But we’ve all dropped asleep haven’t we! But usually it’s in front of something somnolent on the television or on the back seat of a car.

Incidentally, my basset hound, Lucy, used to love the aircraft and would just spread herself on the floor of the plane and go to sleep, as we flew around.

So should we make the pilot’s seat and job in an aircraft, a little less comfortable?

Many years ago, before terrorism raised its ugly head, I managed to get into the cockpit of several airliners. On a British Caledonian DC-10, I actually made up the fourth in a hand of cards.  The engineer on that flight actually introduced me to the guy, who sold me my first aircraft; a Piper Arrow. I also was invited onto the flight deck of a British Airways Concorde, as we flew across the Atlantic.

But perhaps the most unusual was when C and I flew to Australia, where we hired a Piper Arrow and flew round Australia. We were in First and everybody in that class who wanted to, was invited in turn, to visit the flight deck of a new British Airways 747-400. This was the first Jumbo, with a glass cockpit of computer screens rather than mechanical instruments. We were given the grand tour for about half an hour and the Captain was very pleased to show us, how his avionics worked. Then he asked C what she thought of it all, she answered honestly, by saying it was just like bigger versions of what was in my Cessna. He was not amused! My avionics then were probably about two years old and in those days, they were much similar in style to those on airliners, than they probably are now!

Long haul flying is probably pretty boring for the crew, as it is certainly is for the passengers. So did the trips to the flight deck, that many of us used to enjoy, help to relieve that boredom and keep the pilots on top form?

September 28, 2013 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Flying