Sleeping passengers ?

Indiana_Pilot

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Flying "B"
So how many of you had someone fall asleep on you (literally) while flying?

My wife and I went on about a 300 mile round trip and on the way back at 6,500' over Central Kentucky I noticed this weight on my shoulder.... (I swear this woman could fall asleep anywhere, she always does this to me on road trips)

Does this mean she trusts me or just tired? :D
 

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My son, then 13 or so, fell asleep both to Sun'n'Fun and on the trip back to Miami. He was in the back of the Arrow.
 
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For a passenger, it's boring and noisy. Most of my passengers end up falling asleep at some point on a long trip and for the most part I take that as a compliment.
 
So how many of you had someone fall asleep on you (literally) while flying?

My wife and I went on about a 300 mile round trip and on the way back at 6,500' over Central Kentucky I noticed this weight on my shoulder.... (I swear this woman could fall asleep anywhere, she always does this to me on road trips)

Does this mean she trusts me or just tired? :D

My wife slept part of the way to the FL Keys when we went. It was smooth at 5500/4500 feet.

The one that amazed me is my then 20 yo son sleeping on the way back from Cedar Key while I white knuckled bouncing around in the summer bumpies at 2500 feet to stay out of the puff balls. But he was just back from Basic Training and AIT so he was probably tired.

John
 
Last time Mrs. 6PC fell asleep on a 20 min flight home from breakfast.
Just for grins, I did a TnG on the way back and she never woke up.
 
Common for my son to sleep the entire flight,for long flights he plans ahead so he will be asleep. I have a regular pax for breakfast flights ,who falls asleep occasionally,he has mild sleep apnea.
 
I would be more concerned if they didn't fall asleep on a long XC flight. The droning engine noise and vibration is very effective at putting one to sleep absent anything else to do. Even I will be out like a light if I'm not at the controls. I've been right seat in my friend's plane for many long XC flights and gotten a nice nap. But I will be out like a light in any moving vehicle that I'm not actively driving.
 
My wife usually has some project to keep her busy in the plane, she may fall asleep on 2 hour trips. My 25 year old daughter could fall asleep in a hurricane, she sleeps on just about any flight over 20 minutes! :D
 
Reduce subject's oxygen level below usual level.
Apply a steady drone.
Strap subject into a tight space with nothing to do.
 
So how many of you had someone fall asleep on you (literally) while flying?

My wife and I went on about a 300 mile round trip and on the way back at 6,500' over Central Kentucky I noticed this weight on my shoulder.... (I swear this woman could fall asleep anywhere, she always does this to me on road trips)

Does this mean she trusts me or just tired? :D

This floored me….

During CAP G1000 transition training, we had a new senior member in the back seat. She slept through stalls and steep turns. Don't ask me how. That FN 182T has a helluva loud stall horn.

If we hadn't been at 4000 MSL, I would have turned back suspecting hypoxia.
 
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Mrs. Steingar usually falls asleep. She slept through the scariest moments I ever had in the aircraft.
 
My daughter was in the right seat and dosed off slumped towards the control yoke once.
 
I like it when the passengers fall asleep in the back, then they don't come up front to bother us and disturb our naps.
 

Man, I knew 6PC would chime in on this one. I have a longtime history of dozing off in any moving vehicle -not when I'm driving/flying it though, thankfully. I try to fight it, but it just lulls me right to sleep . . . I tell Bryan it's because he's such a smooth pilot.
 
Last winter, flying home from Ponca City in the 172, probably 10:30 at night. Dad's asleep in the right seat, brother and mom asleep in the back...made for a nice, quiet 30 minutes back to Benton;)
 
I'll look over and it looks to me like my wife has fallen asleep. Then she'll jerk awake, claim she was never asleep and to prove her point put her finger in the sectional in her lap where she thinks we are. Usually dead on. I think that's because she knows the route too well when we are traveling across the state. Doesn't bother me at all if she nods off. It means I'm not scaring her. :yes:
 
I took a buddy on his first flight. He fell asleep on the night flight back home.
 
My wife and daughter fall asleep at rotate and wake up at flair.......
 
Happens all the time to me, especially on night flights. The passengers love to sleep
 
I used to wonder if the Bonanza's landing gear up-locks were somehow wired directly into my wife's sleep center. She would argue that she stayed awake until we leveled for cruise. Eventually she learned to follow along on the chart and slept less frequently. Either way, I was glad when she came along.

Scott

p.s. I was always smart enough to not take pictures of her sleeping and had I broken that rule I am just certain I wouldn't post pictures of her sleeping on the Internet for nothing.
 
I used to wonder if the Bonanza's landing gear up-locks were somehow wired directly into my wife's sleep center. She would argue that she stayed awake until we leveled for cruise. Eventually she learned to follow along on the chart and slept less frequently. Either way, I was glad when she came along.

Scott

p.s. I was always smart enough to not take pictures of her sleeping and had I broken that rule I am just certain I wouldn't post pictures of her sleeping on the Internet for nothing.

I've thought about re-plaquering the alt-hold button 'goto sleep' seems nearly 100% effective...
 
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I took a buddy on his first flight. He fell asleep on the night flight back home.

Hahaha the exact same thing happened to me a few nights ago.
My friend let his wife sit up front on our return trip. She was more excited about the flight than he was (she wants to become a pilot), so I was showing her the amazing G1000.

Said something to him. No response, so I look over my shoulder and he's out like a light:lol:.

He woke up after we landed.

My wife slept on our way home from lunch a few weeks ago (got her on video, lol).
 
I have had passengers sleep, a few pass out from too much alcohol, and sadly, a couple passengers have died in the back.
 
Yep, all the time! Got the airplane pushed back into the hangar once!


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-VanDy
 
I have brought my daughter along many times when I'm teaching a lesson. I remember one time when she was younger, she fell asleep on the taxi out, made it through an hour and a half lesson, and woke up while we were tying the plane down. She cried when I told her was time to go home. "Dad, you said we were going flying today"
 
I know what you mean there... I have been a volunteer Firefighter/EMT since 2008 and the children are the hardest to deal with :(
 
My kids and my girlfriend have all done that. They are the ones that fly with me regularly so they are used to it. Everyone else is too mesmerized by the experience.
 
Are you kidding? Our joke is that my wife is often slumped over hanging in the seat belts before takeoff. She leaves it all on the ground. The plane just gets us to the next adventure.

However, the radio must be on... I know when she's really sleep when I can switch the audio to pilot only. But when stuff is happening, she's awake and the best copilot around. It's all about judgement in the end and she knows when mine is going south.
 
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