On Friday, February 28, 2014 9:27:22 AM UTC-6, Papa3 wrote:

I think back to the one time when I dinged an airplane.

Great story P3.

The insidious part: if you are tired, stressed, getting more and more behind the curve in your decisions, losing situational awareness, you are very unlikely to recognize this mental state and its dangers in the air. In my mishaps -- no damage so far thank goodness -- I have been amazed on reviewing the flight to see myself getting further behind the curve, and not noticing it.

On one flight, 600 miles at Mifflin ending with a difficult transition and final glide, I literally couldn't get out of the cockpit I was so exhausted at the end. But did not recognize that state when doing the last glide.

I'm trying to build in an alarm bell that notices this mental state and jogs me in to a "do something NOW" to cut off the inevitable. Something like, in your situation, stopping and doing a pattern to a good field from 1000 feet.

John Cochrane