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Old April 30th 05, 03:19 AM
Matt Barrow
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"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...
Sounds like the grace of God to me... Well placed bit of turbulence my
ass.... Somone was looking out for you...



Maybe...but I was over the eastern slope of the Rockies, so turbulence is
rather common that time of day. Even at 10,500 I was only about 2000 feet
AGL when roused from my slumber.


There are loads of stories about pilots that fell asleep and wound up in
farmers fields. Usually, they were several hundred miles from their
destinations when they ran out of fuel and woke up in time to deadstick it
in.

I also recall pilots that dozed off and flew out over the ocean, only to run
out far from shore. I recall one that woke up when he was maybe 300 miles
out over the Atlantic and when he woke he had enough fuel left for about 100
miles (not sure of the numbers, but a similar ratio). Even though he was in
contact with ATC for quite a few minutes, and they got a good triangulation
on him, they never found the wreckage.

I wonder how many CFIT crashes were pilots falling asleep.

OTOH, our family doctor (Dr. Shad was his name...funny the things you
remember) when I was a kid (maybe 8 or so) had a plane and disappeared over
Lake Michigan near Chicago while returning from somewhere back east. That
was the early 60's.


Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201

Gene Seibel wrote:
That's one I haven't done. Came close to sleeping when Sue was flying
the other day, but even that is difficult for me. That well placed bit
of turbulence was certainly a good thing for you.



A "Lifesaver" you could say! :~)


--
Gene Seibel
Tales of Flight - http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.