Flying Endurance

Sunday tested my flying endurance.

I got a call Saturday night from CAP saying that an aircraft was missing in western Virginia and they needed crews to help search.

I launched around 10 from Richmond for what is usually about a two hour flight to Wise, VA. Headwinds turned it in to a 2.6. After after a quick lunch we took off to relieve another plane and ended up spending another 2.6 in the air, mostly circling.

Then there was the 2 hours on the way home for a total of 7.2.

I have to tell you that's more flying than I can do in a day comfortably. I've found that I can do about 4 hours without any side effects. At about that point the headset starts to get uncomfortable. By about 6 hours I can count on a headache after the flight.

I don't really know the cause, whether it's the headset (an older David Clark), noise, or vibration. The actual flying wasn't that bad, the autopilot took us there and back.

Is this a typical pattern? What's your limit in a small plane?