FTL - Consecutive Earlies/Lates/Nights.

[stop, stop, stop]

Can someone please help me.....

I am trying to wrap my head around the following paragraphs of CAP 371.....

'Acclimatised'

When a crew member has spent 3 consecutive local nights on the ground within a time zone which is 2 hours wide, and is able to take uninterrupted nights sleep. The crew member will remain acclimatised thereafter until a duty period finishes at a place where local time differs by more than 2 hours from that at the point of departure.

7 Additional Limits on Flying

7.1 Late Finishes/Early Starts

7.1.1 The conditions set in this paragraph only apply when a crew member is acclimatised.

7.2 Sleep deprivation, leading to the onset of fatigue, can arise if a crew member is required to report early for duty, or finishes a duty late, on a number of consecutive days. Therefore, not more than 3 consecutive duties that occur in any part of the period 0100 to 0659 hours local time can be undertaken, nor may there be more than 4 such duties in any 7 consecutive days. Any run of consecutive duties (Late Finishes or Nights or Early Starts) can only be broken by a period of not less than 34 consecutive hours free from such duties. This 34 consecutive hours may include a duty that is not an Early, Late or Night duty


My question relates to time zones, and what happens if you are not acclimatised.

For example:

I am rostered 7 days in a row, and start off acclimatised to my Home base.

I operate a night flight and end up in a different time zone which pushes me out of the 'Acclimatised' definition above...I am no longer 'Acclimatised.'

The following day (24 hrs rest) I report at 08:45L....which is 06:15 (Local to Home base) and fly back to base. (really trying hard not to give the game away here!!!)

Is this flight classed as an early...or a day flight?

I jump right back in the seat that night and do the whole rotation a second time. :uhoh:

There are more duties too...but the return flight to home base is the one I am worried about.

My concern is that Local time can't be used after a 24hr Layover because I am not acclimatised to that local time.....Anyone?

Complicated?.....oh, boy! My head is spinning.....:\

[tehya]

The flight in question is a day flight.

Also bear in mind that after your first flight and being unacclimatised you will remain so until you achieve the 3 consecutive nights off. That means all flights will be based on the unacclimatised table and max FDP will be based on the appropriate achieved rest period and sectors to be flown.

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Thanks Tehya,

What do you think it would mean if the sentance;

"7.1.1 The conditions set in this paragraph only apply when a crew member is acclimatised."

was removed from the manual....?

sss

[Big Tudor]

The flight would still be classed as a day flight as report time is 08:45 local. The only way it could be classed as an early is if you judge it on the last time zone you were acclimatised to. In that case it would be an 06:15 local report which is an early.

[tehya]

Any change you wish to make to your Ops Manual in respect of FTL apart from the usual NPA route will also cost you money to have your FTL approval re-issued.

That aside my opinion is that you will struggle to get that removed by FTL Policy unless you can demonstrate to them that your entire operation is an all 'acclimatised' operation, which from the info you have provided is not.

[Mr Angry from Purley]

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Presume we're making an assumption it's a UK AOC your on about as some overseas airlines have copied extracts of 371.
By taking the para out the whole FTL scheme has to be re-issued by the CAA so the dates of the whole section change. As teyha says taking it out would take some effort with the CAA although i must admit it's one of the para's in 371 I've occasionally struggled with as well as the dreaded early/late/night rules and factorisation.
The only good news is EASA FTL manages it in a different way, you would stay acclimatised for 30hrs to your dep point, then go into the unknown state of acclimatisation!....

[stop, stop, stop]

Thanks guys.....

It has answered my question...though perhaps not the answer I wanted to hear!

Cheers

SSS