That's very true - and it's a shame that it's even something we need to talk about.

Let's say you're working for an on-demand charter company. You wake up one lazy morning at 9am, drink a pot of coffee while dicking around on the internet, and hang out with the wife all day. At 7pm you get a call from the company. How quickly can you reposition the airplane to XXX, then take four passengers to San Jose, Costa Rica?

It takes me 1.5 hours to get the airplane in the air to XXX, another .5 to XXX, a half an hour to board my passengers, then another 5.5 to Costa Rica. That has me landing at 3am. I've been up 18 hours. How safe is this - how do I feel? I want to ***** about it, but I'm also cognizant of all those pilots that would give their left nut to fly my airplane at half the money. I have a mortgage to pay. Eff it - I'll suck it up and fly.

I know it's easy to talk about the black and white on a message board, but this is the kind of thing many 135 pilots have to deal with on a regular basis.