Narrative:

Made radio call departing hospital stating intentions to overfly the field enroute to ZZZ1 because the airfield is in close proximity to the city and the departing helipad. Received no reply. During climbout; passing airfield approximately 1 NM to the west; I observed a bright red flashing light from the control tower. I again made a radio call to ZZZ tower; but received no reply. I consulted my AFD for ZZZ and compared the listed tower frequency to the frequency on my navigation/communication and realized I had entered XXX.55 instead of the correct XXX.50 for the tower. Immediately corrected the frequency and called the tower. I explained my mistake; apologized profusely and was cleared through the remainder of the class D airspace. The rest of the story; as paul harvey used to say; started the night before. This reported event occurred the morning after the second night of a set of 3 all-night XA30-XK30 shifts. My habit for night shifts is to slew my sleep cycle several hours later in order to sleep a little more in the morning and stay up a little later at night in order to avoid fatigue. The first night I laid down to rest at XC30 and was woken for a flight at XD30. This flight lasted till XG00. Paperwork involving a maintenance issue; preflighting a second aircraft; consulting the duty mechanic; briefing the oncoming XI00 early shift pilot; and an operational standby kept me from getting any further rest. I barely avoided the dreaded sleep monster on the 30 minute drive home and I fell into bed and slept 3 hours. After arising; I read a little; watched some tv and generally took it easy; napping about 1 hour in the later afternoon. I arrived back at work for my second night shift with less than 5 hours total sleep in the past 24 hours but feeling well enough rested for my shift. I discovered that the maintenance discrepancy from the prior night on the primary aircraft kept it from the line-up and I was assigned the back-up helicopter; one I had less than 20 total hours in. Additionally; a check of my logbook revealed that I was not current in that aircraft; having last flown it 4 months ago. I preflighted the helicopter and took it out for a 0.3 flight to the local hospital helipad and conducted 3 touch-and-go landings before returning to home field. This aircraft has nothing in common with the primary aircraft. The airframe; engines; power train; rotor system; electronics; avionics; switch gear; dashboard; controls configuration and sight picture are all different. It was difficult at best to mentally switch gears into the back-up; especially at night. The weather was MVFR but within company limits with little ambient light and gusty winds. I laid down to rest again at XC30 and was woken at XG30 for the flight to ZZZ; normally about 45-50 minutes duration. I added extra fuel for a possible weather divert because the weather hadn't improved at all; in fact the wind was gusting worse. We took off into a 30 KT headwind with no stars or moonlight; dodging rain and snow showers on night vision goggles (nvgs) and enough turbulence to sicken my crew within the first 15 minutes of a 1.2 hour flight in an unfamiliar aircraft I hadn't flown but for 15 minutes in the past 120 days. By the time we landed at the destination hospital; I was feeling the effects of little sleep and a long stressful flight under nvgs in an unfamiliar aircraft. After about 20 minutes on the ground we were ready to begin the patient transport back to ZZZ1. I used the full length checklist instead of the abbreviated one in order to ensure nothing was missed; set up my navigation/communication and GPS; made my radio call and took off; without clearance; into controlled airspace. None of the events leading up to my inadvertent violation of controlled airspace by themselves were unusual enough or serious enough to; by themselves; account for my mistake. But the combined effects of an interrupted sleep cycle; unfamiliar equipment; challenging flight conditions;

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An EMS helicopter pilot describes a Class D airspace violation caused by fatigue from sleep deprivation because his schedule switched from working days to working graveyard and weather conditions made his situation worse.

Narrative: Made radio call departing hospital stating intentions to overfly the field enroute to ZZZ1 because the airfield is in close proximity to the city and the departing helipad. Received no reply. During climbout; passing airfield approximately 1 NM to the west; I observed a bright red flashing light from the Control Tower. I again made a radio call to ZZZ Tower; but received no reply. I consulted my AFD for ZZZ and compared the listed Tower frequency to the frequency on my navigation/communication and realized I had entered XXX.55 instead of the correct XXX.50 for the Tower. Immediately corrected the frequency and called the Tower. I explained my mistake; apologized profusely and was cleared through the remainder of the Class D airspace. The rest of the story; as Paul Harvey used to say; started the night before. This reported event occurred the morning after the second night of a set of 3 all-night XA30-XK30 shifts. My habit for night shifts is to slew my sleep cycle several hours later in order to sleep a little more in the morning and stay up a little later at night in order to avoid fatigue. The first night I laid down to rest at XC30 and was woken for a flight at XD30. This flight lasted till XG00. Paperwork involving a maintenance issue; preflighting a second aircraft; consulting the Duty Mechanic; briefing the oncoming XI00 early shift pilot; and an operational standby kept me from getting any further rest. I barely avoided the dreaded sleep monster on the 30 minute drive home and I fell into bed and slept 3 hours. After arising; I read a little; watched some TV and generally took it easy; napping about 1 hour in the later afternoon. I arrived back at work for my second night shift with less than 5 hours total sleep in the past 24 hours but feeling well enough rested for my shift. I discovered that the maintenance discrepancy from the prior night on the primary aircraft kept it from the line-up and I was assigned the back-up helicopter; one I had less than 20 total hours in. Additionally; a check of my logbook revealed that I was not current in that aircraft; having last flown it 4 months ago. I preflighted the helicopter and took it out for a 0.3 flight to the local hospital helipad and conducted 3 touch-and-go landings before returning to home field. This aircraft has nothing in common with the primary aircraft. The airframe; engines; power train; rotor system; electronics; avionics; switch gear; dashboard; controls configuration and sight picture are all different. It was difficult at best to mentally switch gears into the back-up; especially at night. The weather was MVFR but within company limits with little ambient light and gusty winds. I laid down to rest again at XC30 and was woken at XG30 for the flight to ZZZ; normally about 45-50 minutes duration. I added extra fuel for a possible weather divert because the weather hadn't improved at all; in fact the wind was gusting worse. We took off into a 30 KT headwind with no stars or moonlight; dodging rain and snow showers on night vision goggles (NVGs) and enough turbulence to sicken my crew within the first 15 minutes of a 1.2 hour flight in an unfamiliar aircraft I hadn't flown but for 15 minutes in the past 120 days. By the time we landed at the destination hospital; I was feeling the effects of little sleep and a long stressful flight under NVGs in an unfamiliar aircraft. After about 20 minutes on the ground we were ready to begin the patient transport back to ZZZ1. I used the full length checklist instead of the abbreviated one in order to ensure nothing was missed; set up my navigation/communication and GPS; made my radio call and took off; without clearance; into controlled airspace. None of the events leading up to my inadvertent violation of controlled airspace by themselves were unusual enough or serious enough to; by themselves; account for my mistake. But the combined effects of an interrupted sleep cycle; unfamiliar equipment; challenging flight conditions;

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.