A change to flying daytimes to see if that would help

Reasoning that changing to day-time flying would help he switched and moved his work closer to where he lived, as well as taking a pay cut.

But the more civilised hours of work didn't lead to improvements in his health.  

"I still had slurred speech and all of the previous problems but worse.

"I also knew that my character had changed totally. I was no longer confident, articulate and cheerful but slightly depressed, bumbling and withdrawn but always with a background glimpse of how I used to be."

He'd by then had heard about the oil fumes problem on the type of planes he was flying, but for some reason hadn't connected it with his ill health.

He now believes his ability to reason was also damaged:

"I was aware by now that people were making allowances for me, my family and friends. I think that any problems were instantly put down to the job."

As airlines competed ever harder for business, work conditions and rostering changed to allow for low-cost solutions and pilots' quality of life was increasingly being undermined.

He says: "There is absolutely no sympathy or help due to well known pilot prejudices, just an expectation to get on with it – because it’s ‘legal’?"

But within a few years of changing to day flying: "My family identified that my character had changed to the point of becoming a very strange person, which was true! But I had no control over my actions and found it very frustrating when they encouraged me to keep flying."

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