Originally Posted by
4468
yellowtriumph
Having spent forty years as a professional pilot, I can assure you, these days, the performance of your pilot is infinitely more likely to be adversely affected by fatigue, than alcohol. Particularly at the intoxication levels specified by the law!
The effects of fatigue are serious. They were vastly underestimated/ignored when politicians (between boozy lunches!) brought in the much less restrictive EASA flight time limitations. Totally ignoring the science in the process!
I can't be breathalysed for fatigue, and it's problematic to self diagnose! Not least because companies don't want to be forced to employ more 'expensive' pilots, and many customers buy their tickets on the basis of only one criteria. Price.
But don't let a mere professional get in the way of your condescending grandstanding! Just continue as you are in blissful ignorance, while great professionals keep your soft squidgy bag of flesh and organs in one piece!
If you want to know who might REALLY be compromising your safety, you need to look way beyond pilots!
The thread is about the consequences of alcohol misuse in particular, not fatigue so if you want to start another thread about that go ahead.
My perspective is that of Joe Public, one you appear not to understand. Your mere 40 years as a professional pilot (and you accuse me of condescending grandstanding) appears to have blinded you to the simplistic view the public have of your job. From our perspective your job is complicated, you require extensive initial training and subsequent on-going training. That, together with your subsequent experience, means that we - the general public - believe you and your colleagues will get us safely from a to b.
For that we expect you to be well remunerated in your job, we pay for that, and in return we expect, we require, we
demand that you take no deliberate action to reduce your ability to perform your role to the best of your ability and that includes not breaking whatever the legal safety limits are with regard to alcohol consumption during your careers.
If you choose to break those limits, note the word ‘choose’, then as far as I’m concerned you’re out. And I’m quite sure Joe public would agree.
I’m quite sure the other points you raise are pertinent and justifiable to the overall safety of the commercial aviation industry, but they are not pertinent to this thread.