Or I'm the kind of man Ron Burgandy dreams of.

I understand what you are saying...I may have gotten off track...my point was supposed to be that instead of skiing she should have MADE SURE she had a better schedule lined up. My issue is not so much with the skiing but the fact that she didnt make sure she got quality rest before her flight.

Instead she put fun ahead of making sure she did her job to the fullest of her ability. If I travel outside of work I always make sure I get home with 1 complete day to be at the house and get well rested. So if I go out skiing I make sure I get back to work really the day before I am supposed to be there.

In this career we are asked to put a lot of strain on our bodies outside of actual work. Such as commuting, showing up for work at 3 AM, and driving to your airplane which can be a 2 hour drive away after getting off of an airliner. Sometimes it means we have to put our recreation down earlier than most people with normal scheduled jobs. If she was a school teacher sure... knock yourself out hardcore all weekend long and just go to bed at around 9 PM Sunday Night.

I don't know about you guys but I can't stay awake on a plane if I'm just riding in the back. Every time I ride SWA to STL I get at least 1.5hrs of additional sleep. Is there anything to prove that on her commute across the US she didn't get a few hours in? That's about as much as one gets on a min rest overnight.

If I was the family or the lawyers I would use the fatigue argument as much as possible because it looks like that's all they're going to have come lawsuit time.

Would you consider it quality sleep??? I always "sleep" on an airplane and wake up to a neck cramp. Maybe pilots should start getting sedated and laid out in a pod in the cargo compartment with an oxygen hook up when commuting for more than 3 hours. :D

What a stupid post.:confused:

Yeah, when I come home for my three days off between trips I sit perfectly still the entire time. So I don’t burn any excess energy and can show up fully rested.:cool:

I watch guys that have a bunch of kids come to work exhausted just from being home with the family a few days. I think we should ban pilots from having kids. They can’t possibly get the proper amount of rest to show up properly rested for work.

IM

What an even more stupid post......

It doesnt matter why you are exhausted...even if it is because of kids, skiing, or being sick...if you are not fit for duty you shouldnt show up for work. Everyone knows that traveling on an airplane from the west coast to the east coast is not the best eviornment for getting adequate rest. Especially when it is on a red eye.

The problem with what the FO did was she chose to have fun over getting to work in a timely manner that would allow her to actually get some real rest. Face the facts...she violated Colgan policy when she decided to travel the morning of the flight and then to sleep in the crew room.

All this is moot as I am sure that fatigue played a minor role in this accident, and lack of training and competence a major one.. this whole fatigue discussion reminds of the medias focus on the "chatter" enroute before the letdown (and sterile cockpit).

I respect your opinion and I am not being sarcastic...I mean it sounds as if they truely just let the airspeed get slower and slower. If you watch the computer simulation of what happened...the airspeed continues to decrease and the Captain calls for flaps and the FO puts them in and it only accelerates the decrease in speed. It almost has nothing to do with training at Colgan but just BASIC flying 101...look at that airspeed indicator once in a while.

But we come back to...why did the 2 man crew never notice the airspeed...The captain had a less than a fair training record WITH COLGAN...and the FO was sick and tired. It almost sounds as if this accident chain was more improbable than most accidents. They both just stopped paying attention to the airspeed at the EXACT same times on about 10 specific instances...could it be that bad???

Maybe there was some kind of monitor misrepresentation of the airspeed??? That is the only thing I can think of that would lead to them not being at fault.

16 pages and nobody has spoken in defense of Air Midwest 5481. It is much easier to control an airplane when the controls are rigged properly.