Page 27 - April 2015 Volume19 Number 4

and site visits so you fly at the times that best fit your lifestyle.For example, I’ve always been a morning person (hate me if you wish). When I was flying a Beech Baron over 300 hours a year, I found that I was far fresher getting wheels up at 5amthanIwasifItookoffat7pm. It also helped that an early morning departure meant I was flying toward daylight conditions – everything gets better when it’s easier to see. Like most people, I also tend to slow down in the middle of the afternoon, during “siesta time.” From a flying standpoint, that tells me to avoid flights over the roughly 2 o’clock to 3:30 period. Take a good look at your personal sleep and drowsiness patterns, and see if you can arrange your schedule to avoid flying during your awareness downtimes.Any good strategy requires flexibility, and flying is no different. You have to be flexible because of weather and equipment failures.Allow yourself to be as flexible about your fatigue state as well. That may mean that you finish your last meeting at 4 pm but stay overnight to fly home early the next morning, if that matches your personal rest patterns. The good news is that most airport hotels have low aircrew rates (just ask), and modern interconnectivity means you can work from just about anywhere. In fact, I’m about to email this article to Twin and Turbine’s editor from an airport. With cell phones and wireless access, most people will never know you’re in Allentown instead of Albany or Atlanta.Awareness ReservesIn flying, as well as business, there is a strong culture of rewarding those who push on for long hours and denigrating those who get tired and give up. Another word for fatigue is “weakness,” and no pilot or business-person wants to appear to be weak. Instead, we should thinkabout fatigue (or lack of fatigue) as a resource. We need to plan about the fatigue reserve in our bodies the same way we strategize about fuel in the airplane’s tanks – establish a maximum duty day limit and an even healthier personal – minimum “awareness reserve” that you’ll want to have at the end of every flight.Being tired in the cockpit makes it far more likely you’ll make the kinds of mistakes found in most NTSB reports. To reduce your risk by as much as 25%, according to the NTSB, it’s time to get real about fatigue. T&TSMARTech Industries, LLC15935 Assembly Loop, Suite D, Jupiter, FL 33478 P 734.277.5759 • F 561.624.2900SMARTug Full Page 4/C Adwww.SMARTug.com• Safe, Secure and Under Control• Precision wireless remote control• Walk the wings or tail to watch for clearances• Electric winch for loading and securing your aircraft – no hand cranking• Low profile for single engine prop clearance• Electric hydraulic lift for easy loading and added ground clearanceAPRIL 2015TWIN & TURBINE • 25•