Originally Posted by Lewbronski

I can’t emphasize enough what a big deal this is in my experience. I am t-i-i-i-red (said with emphasis and with two syllables) after just about any trip I fly at SWA. And the being tired thing seems, for me, to function on somewhat of a Richter Scale of fatigue - a 4-day at SWA is around about twice as fatiguing as a SWA three-day, a SWA three-day is twice as fatiguing as a SWA two-day, and a SWA two-day is twice as fatiguing as a SWA turn. And most of the turns I fly are pretty fatiguing.

So, like waterski explained, when I get back from a trip, especially if it was a three-day or longer, I’m walking around like a zombie for at least the first day of my days off. Often, that period stretches into the second day off after a trip. Ergo, for me, it’s not like all of my days off are quality days off. About one-third to one-half of my days off are kinda like cotton candy in terms of nutritional value.

I’m senior and live in base, about 25 minutes from the airport. Maybe my tiredness is a function of getting older because some of the guys here on APC say their trips aren’t fatiguing at all, they haven’t flown more than a nine-hour duty day in months, and all of their overnights are at least 19 hours long.

They seem to live in a sort of Lake Wobegon, alternate reality version of SWA (where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average…).

In the parallel universe iteration of SWA that I inhabit, most days are four legs, the overwhelming majority of duty days exceed ten hours, and overnights typically hover around 13 hours or less. That’s my reality.

YMMV.