I have occassionally noticed how easily one could just fall asleep when flying on autopilot above this kind of stuff
I wonder if anybody has actually done it?
It is one reason why flying with somebody else is so much better.
You really think someone’s going to admit to this ?!?!? 
I have though many times coming back to the UK at night, solo, on a 200nm direct leg with a quiet Maastricht fequency how easy it would be. Hence I always try to keep active – checking things. reading POH going through emergency checklists etc.
I know a JetProp pilot with decades of experience who regularly takes a nap enroute.
I have read several stories of ferry pilots falling asleep. I myself don’t have an autopilot and never fallen asleep in an aircrfat, when I have controls in front of me. And I usually don’t fly legs that exceed 4 hours.
I do not think I have so far, but my PPL instructor has a reputation for doing so when flying with students that he was comfortable with…
Jason,
You should get yourself a Handpresso. Take the manual version, the 30 pumping motions you need to do before pouring are good for your health too :-)
I’ve found the thermos bottle keeps water adequately hot for a few hours. I don’t like Starbucks-style boiling coffee anyway (they just serve it that way to avoid disinfecting their machines).
Full disclosure: I have a (very small) holding in Handpresso.
This makes for an interesting discussion with solo yachtsmen. Big sky, big sea. I do sometimes wind the seat back on a long trip and have a snooze, with my dear (rated) wife beside me of course. You have control dear. The trouble is, I am on hair-trigger for each ATC instruction. Like a mother with a baby.
Many years ago my primary flight instructor was flying bank checks (sic.) in NW Texas. Eric woke up in a wheat field and all was quiet. He had fallen asleep in his Baron on a/p with no alt hold. He was exonerated as a result of a leak in the Janitrol heater, The verdict was CO poisoning.
I have often thought about that when I feel tired in the air.
I personally know a pilot who flew his (homebuilt) plane to FL180, no oxygen, and woke up in some trees on the side of a mountain. It was the only spot in the area which had trees on it.
He had a lot of surgery, and his family won’t fly with him anymore.
I don’t want to say any more because it is possible it was not widely reported…
You really think someone’s going to admit to this ?!?!?
Why not? For some time, I did ad-hoc cargo flying with the Cessna 404 and a Metroliner, mostly at night. Especially with the slow C404 the flights were endless (my record is 8:20 block time EDDS-LPPT with a headwind, all in the dark and not enogh oxygen for both pilots all the time). Usually we took turns at taking a little nap, but on some occasions, we both fell asleep. In the middle of the night across Europe, you often get “direct 10 miles final runway 07 at destination” right after takeoff so for three or four hours you follow one straight line. What else can you do then but sleep?
