Squeely,
Mr Ed actually said the announcement would occur in "3-4 weeks", the meeting was 18th Dec. He also said that the rostering barriers that would have to be implemented in expanding the opeartion beyond 900 hours meant that it was unlikely to happen.
I for one feel that I am already on the limit. Any increase would lead just lead to more long term sickness and consequent rostering problems. Most of us have tried to keep the operation on the go, my loyalty to the company sits way behind preventing digging my own grave. All the overtime in the world is as much use as tits on a frog , if you can't spend it!
The management claims to have been there and got the tee-shirt; they haven't. The last time AS and Ed flew, long haul was not mixed with short haul duties and crews flew very few trips a month which enabled them to avoid or at least mitigate long term fatigue. To see how out of touch they are you only have to see the latest newsletter that quotes easy-jets fatigue management programme. What on earth does a short haul european opeartion's fatigue management have to do with our ULR ops.
We have these wonderful guides on how to plan for flights but they do not allow for guys that can't sleep in the bunk or find it difficult to go to work when not aclimatised. In theory it might be possible to shift your circadian rythm a little; but 5 times a month in different directions, I think not. The management pilots fly 1 ULR trip every blue moon and don't see the problem. That is the point occasional long range flying is fine, 100 hours a month definitely is not.
Bottom line is that if we are fatigued we shouldn't go to work. Those that do will just shoot us all in the foot; I am not pre-pared to do it. The company would not even have thought of increasing the limits if they had the true picture on fatigue and watched a ULR error trapping exercise with their own eyes.
Off to fall asleep in front of the TV after another night flight.
Ghost