Originally Posted by
Rated De
It would be a brave person to stand before a judge and say that commuting across a continent before a long TOD meets the rest requirements.
In the UK, British Airways have banned the use of staff travel on day of operation. Naturally, there are numerous ways around this, however the UK CAA is now looking through not only staff travel but commute times more broadly. The intent is to investigate whether sign on times and rest periods are adequate given, among other things housing costs pushing people further away from the base. Suffice to say the onus presently remains is on the pilot. that BA have acted the way they have may give an insight to the way this responsibility will be handled in the future; joint liability.
Rest assured being fit for duty will be heavily scrutinised in the years to come. It would be an extremely precarious position to explain to His Honour that flying across a continent and then operating a night TOD around 20 hours had as little impact on the performance of one's duties as a short 30 minute drive to sign on.
Sorry RD but you have absolutely no idea what you’re on about. Don’t know if you’ve ever been a long haul pilot, as you seem to keep your cards close to your chest, but this, to me, seems a lot like someone heckling from the cheap seats.
I actually fly this PER-LHR sector. I’ve tried lots of different options including coming over the day before. For this particular sector, which departs early evening, it works best, for me, to spend a night in my own bed. Get up when I wake up, catch the early afternoon flight to Perth, have a couple of hours to iron a shirt and grab a bite to eat, then go to work. I don’t care if I have the first break, or second. It doesn’t matter as I either have first break and doze, or second break and have a solid four hour sleep. I actually find that I’m arriving in London ready to start the day. I don’t even feel like I need to sleep immediately after getting to the hotel.
What seems to escape some people is that this aircraft flies for 18 hours before arriving in London. You should plan to rest on board. Get a solid four hours sleep in the crew rest and I feel I’m arriving in London relatively fresh. The mindset here is that people should be as fresh as they would be when your average office worker arrives at there desk at 9am after 9 hours sleep in their own bed. This is not possible when your flying back of the clock. What office worker spends 18 solid hours at their desk without sleep? If they do then they’d be in absolutely no state to drive home, let alone land an aeroplane. Add to that a back of the clock roster and it’s imperative that you plan a sleep on board. The best way to achieve that is to plan to sleep, as best you can, when your body clock wants you to sleep. That means being ready to sleep 4-8 hours into this 18 hour sector. By flying over on the day of the flight I find I can achieve this. Fly over on the day before and I can’t. I’d be more than happy explaining this to “His Honour”.
Some airlines, Emirates is one, have an operating crew and a relief crew. The relief crew are actually encouraged to turn up tired. They are expected to take the first break so it would be pointless turning up fresh as a daisy and not be able to sleep. Qantas has Second Officers so this won’t work. So some latitude must be allowed to achieve your own balance.
I guess the takeout from this is that crew rest is individual. What works for some, might not work for others. By taking BAs cookie cutter approach by banning staff travel on the day of operating would actually make matters a lot more stressful for everyone, especially those who find paxing on the day works best for them. The best way is undoubtedly what Qantas presently does. Leave it up to the individual to make up their own mind on what works best for them. Unfortunately, rules will probably be forced upon us because desk bound self appointed experts think they know better.