PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Pilots falling asleep BEFORE they report.
Old 13th May 2004, 04:51
  #43 (permalink)  
cactusbusdrvr
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: phoenix, AZ, USA
Posts: 245
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Commuting is a fact of life in the USA. Almost half our pilots commute from outside Phoenix - 900 pilots. We fly on a percentage basis more "redeye" or all night flights than most freight airlines. We have one domicile so we position crews from PHX to LAS every night, sometimes with a 3 hour sit in LAS before operating LAS to BOS or LAS to MIA. That's fatiguing, and it is the company doing that to the pilot group. We are professional enough to know when we have reached our limits. We have had exactly 1 incident in 20 years and it was fatigue related and neither pilot was a commuter. We have pilots commuting in from 2000 miles away to fly, everyone has a crashpad or a hotel room to rest before flying. The guys that drive more than 2 hours have it the worst but that's why the seats in the flightdeck recline. Personally, I live 15 miles from the airport, except for 2 months a year when I commute from YVR so I have a good appreciation of this problem. More rules are not needed - we are professionals here and we can self police the problem.
cactusbusdrvr is offline