tributetoalanded
9th September 2006, 15:39
Now here's an idea that might fix EK's current under crewing situation.
Take any flight deck crew member who's flown more than 830 hours in the last 11 months and roster him for 20 hours Simulator Support in his 12th month of duty and then roster him for up to 69 hours of flying duties as well.
This could get an extra 20 hours of monthly duty out of any high houred crew member. But to make sure that the guys don't get overloaded the sim sessions shoudn't be rostered at nightime.
If there's any doubt about the legality of this then why not publish the policy in the Fleet Update newsletter? Better than announcing it in the FCI's or FOM where the Regulatory Authority might get sight of it.
This policy would ensure that the poor buggers who have worked their backsides off in the last year will have no letup. 5 x 4 hour sessions of non stop abnormals and emergencies in the simulator on top of their flight duties should keep them up to speed.
As the company is just as short staffed in the crew scheduling office as it is in flight crew why not help out by agreeing that all roster swaps requested by crew be made at least 48 hours before the flight? Obviously the company would retain the right to change a crew members roster at any time up to and even after the duty report time.
On another subject and to encourage the crews to carry less fuel why not announce in the Fuel Update newsletter that in the last 3 months there have been no low fuel reports submitted and therefore it appears that too much fuel is being carried. A low fuel report is made after an aircraft lands with less than Company Minimum Reserve fuel (a very low amount) and having declared a Mayday in accordance with the FOM.
Clearly EK is not having enough emergencies and this could be rectified easily just by carrying a bit less fuel.
And whilst on the subject of fuel do make sure that when refuelling is completed there's no more than flight plan fuel in the tanks. This will ensure that when the engineer completes the tech log about 10 minutes later the entries will show at least 200 kg less than the required flight plan fuel. This may be of interest to the investigator of any reportable incident when they take a close look at the flight documentation at a later date.
Just some ideas, throw them in the air etc.
Take any flight deck crew member who's flown more than 830 hours in the last 11 months and roster him for 20 hours Simulator Support in his 12th month of duty and then roster him for up to 69 hours of flying duties as well.
This could get an extra 20 hours of monthly duty out of any high houred crew member. But to make sure that the guys don't get overloaded the sim sessions shoudn't be rostered at nightime.
If there's any doubt about the legality of this then why not publish the policy in the Fleet Update newsletter? Better than announcing it in the FCI's or FOM where the Regulatory Authority might get sight of it.
This policy would ensure that the poor buggers who have worked their backsides off in the last year will have no letup. 5 x 4 hour sessions of non stop abnormals and emergencies in the simulator on top of their flight duties should keep them up to speed.
As the company is just as short staffed in the crew scheduling office as it is in flight crew why not help out by agreeing that all roster swaps requested by crew be made at least 48 hours before the flight? Obviously the company would retain the right to change a crew members roster at any time up to and even after the duty report time.
On another subject and to encourage the crews to carry less fuel why not announce in the Fuel Update newsletter that in the last 3 months there have been no low fuel reports submitted and therefore it appears that too much fuel is being carried. A low fuel report is made after an aircraft lands with less than Company Minimum Reserve fuel (a very low amount) and having declared a Mayday in accordance with the FOM.
Clearly EK is not having enough emergencies and this could be rectified easily just by carrying a bit less fuel.
And whilst on the subject of fuel do make sure that when refuelling is completed there's no more than flight plan fuel in the tanks. This will ensure that when the engineer completes the tech log about 10 minutes later the entries will show at least 200 kg less than the required flight plan fuel. This may be of interest to the investigator of any reportable incident when they take a close look at the flight documentation at a later date.
Just some ideas, throw them in the air etc.