![Fatigue is an occupational hazard for pilots. [FLYING Archive]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/httpswww.flyingmag.comsitesflyingmag.comfilesimport2012sitesallfiles_images201201fatigue-1.jpg?width=300&height=202)
“I looked over and he was sound asleep.”
That’s how an instrument candidate described an experience he had during a training flight at night. He was under the hood, and they were on an IFR flight plan and going in and out of the clouds. The candidate was confused by a radio call, and when he looked over at his CFI, he saw the man was asleep, so he quickly nudged him to wake him up. The CFI regained consciousness, but the event still rattled the student, who wondered how long the CFI had been “out.”
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I related to the candidate’s concerns because as a pre-solo student pilot I had a similar experience when I was flying with an older gentleman. When I looked over and saw his head down and eyes closed, I thought for a moment he’d gone west – until I held my watch under his nose, and the face of it fogged up, indicating he was still breathing. In both instances the postflight discussions included addressing the dangers of flying when tired and what could have happened since in both instances the CFI was supposed to be the PIC.
Fatigue and the Pilot
Fatigue is an occupational hazard for pilots, especially CFIs, many of whom work six to seven days per week driving to build experience hours so they can move on to the next (better paying) job. FAR 61.195 states: “In any 24-consecutive-hour period, a flight instructor may not conduct more than eight hours of flight training.” But the brutal fact is your workday will likely be longer than eight hours.
- READ MORE: Pilots Can’t Ignore Postflight Inspections
It is not uncommon for a full-time CFI to have a workday that consists of eight hours of flying followed by two to three hours of teaching a ground school, then turn around and have another long day of flying the next day.
When there has been an accident or incident, the pilot’s physical state, including fatigue level, are scrutinized. The FAA has done multiple studies on fatigue that show it reduces a pilot’s reaction time, and more insidiously, reduces their situational awareness, which can lead to poor decision making.
Research has shown that fatigue has the same effect on cognitive capabilities as alcohol, and your performance can be impaired before you realize what is happening. You can try to fight fatigue or at least mask its symptoms by drinking coffee or energy drinks, but this is a short-term solution at best. Your body needs sleep to recover.
Circadian Rhythm Disruption
Our need for sleep is dictated by circadian rhythm, which is sort of an internal body clock that tells us when to be awake and when it is time to sleep. Simply speaking, exposure to light is what activates this as it tells the body when to secrete the wake-up hormones, and darkness tells the body when to secrete the sleep hormone melatonin.
When this rhythm is interrupted—for example, when you take a job that requires you to work on the “backside of the clock” (roughly 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.)—your circadian rhythm is put under stress. This is what jet lag is. It usually takes the body several days to adjust to the new time zone or sleeping pattern.
The Occupational Safety Health Administration has documented that long work hours and irregular shifts can increase the risk of injuries and accidents. The FAA has noticed this as well. A paper written by J.R. Brown and Melchor J. Antuñano for the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute details the impact of this stress and the sleep deprivation.
According to the paper, “too-frequent shifts in circadian patterns, such as several transoceanic flights a month, can lead to mental and physical fatigue. Preflight or postflight adaptation can be achieved by gradually changing one’s sleeping patterns to simulate those that will be necessary in the new environment.”
While most hobbyist pilots don’t fly across the ocean on a regular basis, many do traverse multiple time zones on some flights, often pushing themselves to “stay ahead of the weather” or simply to get home quicker.
The Dubroff Crash
“Get-there-itis” coupled with fatigue is a killer of pilots. One of the most publicized accidents attributed (in part) to this was the 1996 crash of a Cessna 177B Cardinal in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It involved a 7-year-old Jessica Dubroff, her father, Lloyd Dubroff, and part-time flight instructor Joe Reid.
The girl was allegedly trying to set a record for being the youngest person to fly across the United States. Lloyd Dubroff came up with the idea of the flight, dubbed “From Sea to Shining Sea,” and made arrangements with ABC News to videotape parts of the flight to be broadcast as a feature on Good Morning America. The network supplied them with a case of videotapes and a camera that were carried aboard the Cardinal along with branded souvenirs, such as baseball caps and T-shirts to be handed out along the trip.
The airplane belonged to Reid, who worked full-time in the financial industry and taught flying on the side. Reid learned to fly in the 1970s, and according to his friends, he was described as a “by-the-book” pilot. He had been giving the Dubroff girl flight lessons for about a year, despite the fact she did not hold a medical certificate and was nine years too young to legally solo a powered aircraft. She had logged 66 hours of dual instruction when they launched on the flight. Reid allegedly told his wife the cross-country flight was a “nonevent for aviation” as he was being paid to fly across the country with a 7-year-old sitting next to him.
The nonaviation media—both local and national—absolutely lapped up the story, and there were multiple planned publicity stops along the way thanks to the elder Dubroff’s insistence on an aggressive schedule.
At the time, I was a private pilot and working as a television producer in Seattle, and frankly I was one of those pilots who shook their head in dismay at the obvious publicity stunt. This wasn’t a “record-setting attempt” as the Guinness Book of World Records stopped validating events like this years earlier.
The blue-and-white Cessna launched from Half Moon Bay, California, on April 10, 1996. That night the feed from the network contained multiple stories about the flight contributed from different affiliates along the route. The content of the stories was identical: The little girl was asked why she was doing this, did she want to be a pilot when she grew up, etc. The image of her in a baseball cap and oversized leather flight jacket was cute, but there was no way she was the PIC on this trip.
Sadly the story ended just 24 hours after it began, as the airplane crashed just after takeoff on April 11.
The report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) contains multiple references to Reid and the Dubroffs expressing how tired they were when they arrived in Wyoming. The morning of the accident there were thunderstorms in the vicinity and Lloyd Dubroff was eager to depart in order to make the next media appointments.
Per the NTSB report, that morning Reid had difficulty with radio communications, asking for special IFR, then correcting himself to special VFR as the weather had deteriorated. The report also contains remarks from cargo pilots on the ramp who had decided to delay their departure because of the heavy rain.
Witnesses said the Cessna appeared to be struggling to climb out. It crashed while attempting a turn shortly after takeoff, killing the Dubroffs and Reid on impact. The autopsy indicated that Reid, not the girl, was on the controls at the time of the accident. Additionally, NTSB investigators determined the aircraft was overloaded by 95 pounds, which resulted in an increased stall speed. The aircraft also encountered wind shear on takeoff.
The NTSB blamed the crash on the flight instructor’s improper decision to take off in poor weather conditions, his overloading the aircraft, and his failure to maintain airspeed, which resulted in a stall. The report also stated that “contributing to the instructor’s decision to take off was a desire to adhere to an overly ambitious itinerary, in part, because of media commitments.”
The only good to come of the accident is that it is used as a teaching tool in flight schools because you can clearly see the ”holes” that lead to the crash, with fatigue and the reduction in aeronautical decision making skills being the largest. So the next time you are supposed to make a flight and find yourself asking if you’re too tired, you probably are. Stay on the ground and live to fly another day.
This column first appeared in the July Issue 960 of the FLYING print edition.
