by Tim Kern

All pilots have experienced it: that heavy, slow-reacting feeling they get when they’re tired. It’s a good thing they have done this so many times, that they are so familiar with their cockpits, that the weather was good, that the copilot was such a go-getter...

How dangerous is it to count on all those factors lining up, just to compensate for a lack of rest? Well, as they always say, that depends. Although everyone has a “feeling” for just how much rest and sleep he needs individually, are there some general guidelines that can be drawn from a top-performing sample of well-trained, well-regulated pilots? Would it be useful to…