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line-driver
26th Dec 2007, 08:08
there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding FDP extension, and a definitive answer w.r.t. this is required.

Is it legal or not, on a multi sector day, to depart your home base, to a away or nightstop destination and needing to use Captains FDP exceedance discretion to be able to complete this last leg of a multi sector day.

There are differing opinions on this with many saying that FDP extension can only be utilized to be able to return to home base, and is not legal to use to depart from home base to an away or nightstop destination.

Can a F/O refuse this imposed FDP extension so authorized by the Captain.

Your thoughts please.

Gyro Nut
26th Dec 2007, 08:50
From the CATS OPS PART 121. "In these circumstances the maximum normally permitted is calculated according to what actually happens, not on what was planned to happen."

This interpretation seems to be very vague, but generally concensus is that knowing that one is going to leave base and go into Capt's discretion to get back is illegal. I wish this could be spelt out more clearly by the CAA. I think the intention of captain's discretion is to get back to base when stuck out an outstation after some type of delay, be it technical or wx related.

If I had a co-pilot that wanted to get off, I would ask him to give me his reasons, and I might remind him that it is the captains discretion alone to exercise discretion. The captain has to consult with his crew, but no where does it says he has to reach a consensus. If he still wanted to get off, and I felt it wasn't appropriate, then he would have to explain on the captains report to the fleet captain why he wanted to get off.

Avi8tor
26th Dec 2007, 08:59
Yeah, it IS legal to depart from home base. Just inform your OCC you will be out of duty during the day. Remember then its about what ACTUALLY happens.

Maybe you manage to catch up the schedule. If not, get off when your duty limit is reached or use discretion to finish the day. They can then pax another crew in to take over if you don't finish the day.

gen3
26th Dec 2007, 09:31
Yes, it's the Capt.'s discretion to complete the flight if the delay is due to unforseen circumstances and a report of this must be filed with the CAA on return to base (as I recall).
I do not believe that this matter comes in at the planning stage of a trip(?):confused:
I also think that some consideration (current location, economic and commercial decision, situation on the ground, etc) goes into arriving at this decision and the F/O and other crew members can contribute to this decision making process, even though the wording in the law is Captain's Discretion - CRM is what it's called today, i believe?:confused: