Kirksville: duty cycle and professionalism

In article .com,
wrote:

I'm sure that the report is very sobering to currently active
pilots who read it. One hopes that it is sobering to the people who
schedule air crews, also.

As one who works for a commuter airline flying 19-seaters, I assure you
it won't be. These people truly care only about what's legal -- what
they can get away with -- rather than what's safe. If I'm legal to
start work at 10pm, fly an hour and a half, get five hours of
still-on-duty "sleep" from 11 to 4 in the break room at the airport (no
hotel), and then fly six legs from 4am to 2pm, then they'll assign it.


As long as I don't exceed 8 hours of scheduled flight time between my
8-hour "rest" periods, then it's perfectly legal. And after my 8
hours, another 16 hour ballbuster -- I just need a couple of extra
hours of "compensatory rest," for all it's worth.

And if I delay my showtime because I'm exhausted, I'm legitimately in
fear of my job. If I show up late twice in a 12-month period, I get
three days off without pay. A third time and I'm fired. Things like
that are why airline pilots unionize -- pay is just a small part of it.

This is the kind of "safety culture" these pilots were dealing with.
Yeah, they screwed up. But the FAA is *not* helping things by clinging
to rest rules that have KILLED PEOPLE. Remember the American flight
into Little Rock? On duty over 15 hours. Very unsafe.


I'm looking at leaving the airlines altogether, to work for one of the
fractional jet operators. Interestingly enough, they're covered under
FAR 91 Subpart K, and they have different rest rules. The big part
121 carriers can reduce rest (which *includes* the ride to and from the
hotel) to just 8 hours. Fractional jet operators? 10 hours rest, bare
minimum.

Ironic that flights carrying five executives require better-rested
pilots than airliners with a couple hundred people, don't you think?



Rant over. I'm on a break before my last leg of a "short" 14-hour,
7-leg day of hand-flying, and I need a nap. Thanks for reading.

[...]
This is the kind of "safety culture" these pilots were dealing with.
Yeah, they screwed up. But the FAA is *not* helping things by clinging
to rest rules that have KILLED PEOPLE. Remember the American flight
into Little Rock? On duty over 15 hours. Very unsafe.

The value of reports such as this is that they can provide the basis of
action to improve the regulations; IIRC, the Washington Times article
on this noted that planned improvements in the rest rules were tabled
because the airline industry didn't reach a consensus [and the FAA
didn't force one].

Rest rule problems are present throughout the transportation
sector...railroad crews have the same issue of having to count the taxi
time to the hotel as rest time. Truck driver rules were changed for
the worse just a few years ago (something like no longer having to
allow for x seperately but with the understanding that schedulers would
compensate by doing y, which they didn't).

Rant over. I'm on a break before my last leg of a "short" 14-hour,
7-leg day of hand-flying, and I need a nap. Thanks for reading.

Sometimes we need those rants so that we can get the naps.

Best wishes.

/dps

wrote:
Truck driver rules were changed for
the worse just a few years ago (something like no longer having to
allow for x seperately but with the understanding that schedulers would
compensate by doing y, which they didn't).

Happily, I found a reference that explains things better than my recall
circuits did...an improvement was offset by a dis-improveent, as
described by Rep. James L. Oberstar of Minnesota:

"hours gave every driver the opportunity for 8 consecutive hours
of uninterrupted sleep every day, the scientifically-determined
amount of rest needed to promote alertness behind the wheel.

The new rules also provided drivers with adequate time off
at the end of the work week to achieve restorative sleep. The
34-hour restart gave them time for two periods of uninterrupted
recovery sleep before the beginning of the next work week.

On the other hand, I was concerned by the FMCSA's decision
to increase allowable driving time from 10 hours to 11 hours
each day. More time behind the wheel does not reduce fatigue
or advance highway safety."

in the article "Fighting Fatigue" from "NTSB JOURNAL OF ACCIDENT
INVESTIGATION, WINTER 2005; VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1" (pg 11).

Some studies have shown that the 11th hour of duty has a
disproportionate number of accidents. See
http://www.engr.psu.edu/NewsEvents/n...ate=11/15/2005,
for instance.

"[11/15/2005] Risk higher for truckers in eleventh hour
University Park, PA-The crash risk for truck drivers in the last
hour of a now legal 11-hour day behind the wheel is more than three
times higher than during the first hour, a Penn State research team has
found."

/dps