Too Much Flying???

I think I would be pretty punchy after 14 hours in the air over two days. The longest I've ever been in the plane in one day is about 6 hours, and I didn't fly again for at least a few days after that. Perhaps a break from flying is in order?
 
Once did 10.1 in a AH-64 while in Bosnia during a return to Srebrenica protest as our 58D were outside gust limits to start for a while...Turbulence and mission trashed me for a few days. Longest by 4-5hours in a while although as a Cold war border pilot 5-6 hours in a Cobras was not unusually. Could not imagine much more than 5 hrs a day anymore more in my Arrow.
 
I think for the future I'm going to generally plan no more than 5-6 hours a day (roughly) and much better rest the day prior. We were on vacation so I counted on my GPS that we had biked about 15 miles in the summer heat the day before flying
 
14-17 hours tach (can't remember if it was 14 or 17) is the most I've ever done in a 24 hour period and that was in my open cockpit Flybaby. Was hot, bumpy, and pretty exhausting consider how I made 6 fuel stops during that time period.

The fuel stops are a bit of work. Have to drag it somewhere where I can tie it down, chock the mains, prop start it, remove the chocks, climb back in, put my parachute on, then the 4 point harness, etc.
 
Last month, I went on a 750nm XC with a friend, 2-300NM legs, 1-150nm leg.
(KTTA -> KCDN -> KLEX -> KTTA) We were flying the DA20 for a total of 7.2hrs on the hobbs. He is interested in flying and i let him take control of the aircraft under my supervision, but I was essentially flying the whole time.
I had to cross over the Appalachian Mountains over North Carolina/Virginia/Tennessee right by Asheville (KAVL) and the minimum safe altitude given by ATC was 9,600ft. I had never flown higher than 5,500ft before so that alone had me on my toes, slowly seeing how the airplane performance decreased as we climbed to 10,500ft, and the engine mixture control more aft than I had ever had it!
Not only was I flying higher than ever before but there was a cloud deck a few thousand feet tall and about 20nm wide right at my altitude about 5 miles in front of me, I started to fly away from the cloud deck to go around it when I spotted a "hole" literally in the middle of the cloud deck, and I could see blue skies on the other side so I made a 3 second decision to go around or go through it and I decided to go through it.. again, that was my first time flying while "inside the clouds" (YES, I WAS WITHIN CLOUD CLEARANCE!)
After we cleared the clouds/mountains, about 75nm south of Lexington (KLEX) I realized we would be landing with less than 6 gallons of fuel so a go-around was out of the question (for my personal comfort). I kept the engine leaned out as long as I could. Once I'm cleared to turn final from a long base, I'm told to keep maximum forward speed as long as practical.. once again, that meant landing with either no flaps or only t/o flaps.
Landed just fine, bounced once but nothing horrible..
After that, we do what we need to do, get fuel and I landed with 5 gallons remaining. I check the weather and the ride back was forecast for moderate turbulence below 10,000ft for 3/4 of the flight, with low clouds clouds approaching my destination airport (KTTA).
Took off from KLEX, was vectored west, then resumed own navigation.. I had a very nice tailwind that had me cruising the whole flight at 165kt in a fully loaded DA20.
I encountered ZERO turbulance, absolutely CALM and SMOOTH flight!!! forecast was wrong about clouds and turbulence so I called FSS (again, had never done this before) And I asked about weather in front of me, told them what was forecasted and what the real time conditions were. She filed a PIREP and I was happy :)
The rest of the flight was smooth as ever.

Im a fairly new pilot - Just under 80 total hours, 35 as PIC, so thats why a lot of these scenarios were "new to me".
It was only 7.2 on the hobbs but I literally felt as if I had just driven a car for a full day, or that super exhausted feeling you get when you go to a theme park or something!
I got in my car after I landed and secured the airplane and just sat there for a good 15-20 minutes with my eyes closed, resting.. It was a super fun day, and a day I will forever remember but my god, I didnt read or use my simulator for a few days after that.. hehe.

Sorry for the long story

Over the Appalachians, Tennessee/Virginia
Over Greensboro (KGSO) on our way back from Lexington
After touch down, Runway 3 at KTTA
 

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Velocity173 said:
Yep. Things like vibration, noise and workload can add to the real hours involved creating a much more fatiguing flight.
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This and altitude. I used to fly a c182 and a 2 hr flight could make me tired. Now for x country I fly a pressurized Piper Mirage and I feel fine flying 5 straight hours with the only exception of 25K with a cabin altitude of 8k which tires me if I don't take hits of O2. My longest single flight in a Malibu was 7.5hrs and I was pretty tired then.
 
We took off for OSH last year and low and behold when I hit the A/P it was inop.

I was secretly glad when ceilings forced us down in Quincy about 4.5 hours later and we had to spend the night. The next morning was a pleasant ~1.5 hour hop to OSH. If we had continued the day before, I would have been one tired puppy arriving into the OSH arena after ~6 hours of hand flying. Not good.

There's X-country, and x-country without A/P. Two different birds altogether.
 
Depends on the type of flying you are doing. Like McFly and Bill I have flown 10+ hour flights in the desert no problem. Difference was that I was able to get up, stretch, go to the bathroom, do lunges and sprints in the cargo area, and have 3 other crew members to keep me company. If I was alone, had no autopilot, had to sit in the seat the whole time, in turbulence and busy airspace, I'd probably be beat after 4-5 hours.
 
Since this is not your profession, too much is when it stops being fun. Sounds to me like you reached that point.
 
Pilawt said:
When I was young(er) and stupid(er) I once flew a Grumman Cheetah from Minneapolis MN (KFCM) to Vancouver WA (KVUO) in one day -- 14.6 tach hours, with stops at Jamestown ND, Glasgow MT, Kalispell MT and Pasco WA. No autopilot.

With the headwind that made for about a 90-knot average groundspeed.

Not recommended. :no:
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I did Philly to Denver in 12 hours air time in a Tiger, but I broke it into two days, so the 6 hours per day was just about right.
 
Anthony said:
I did Philly to Denver in 12 hours air time in a Tiger, but I broke it into two days, so the 6 hours per day was just about right.
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I just completed a cross country South Florida to Oregon, 45 hours in 2 weeks, first day was 2 four hour legs, after that I went with 1 longer (~5 hr) leg.
 
Just did 2150 miles, about 14.5 hrs flying in 206. We did 4hrs a day, but after 2nd 4 hour day... you were ready to get out of plane....
Jon
 
That's quite a haul without an AP. I've instructed 8 hours in a day and that was grueling. On average, about 5 hours is as much as I usually do in my accelerated instrument programs. Almost nailed a deer landing at Jekyll one evening...otherwise a nice visit.
 
MarcoDA40 said:
After we cleared the clouds/mountains, about 75nm south of Lexington (KLEX) I realized we would be landing with less than 6 gallons of fuel so a go-around was out of the question (for my personal comfort). I kept the engine leaned out as long as I could. Once I'm cleared to turn final from a long base, I'm told to keep maximum forward speed as long as practical.. once again, that meant landing with either no flaps or only t/o flaps.
Landed just fine, bounced once but nothing horrible..
After that, we do what we need to do, get fuel and I landed with 5 gallons remaining
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Having an hour worth of fuel and saying go around was out of the question because of that perhaps isn't the best ADM...
 
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