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Old 26th Apr 2005, 13:09
  #35 (permalink)  
Say again s l o w l y
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: U.K.
Age: 46
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I assume that I'm the 'Sanctimonius Shed Driver' so I'll respond in that vein.

Is taxiing counted as part of a flight? Of course it is, you log it don't you.
Does alchohol impair your judgement? Yes. Should you combine the two? I don't think so.

What may have been acceptable in the 'good old days' simply doesn't cut it. Were any incidents caused by drinking and taxiing? I have no idea. I wasn't in aviation then, but I wish I had been. I can think of nothing better than when having finished my duty, to sit and chill out with a beer, but we must all be aware of how those beers may effect you later.

I would never put myself in the position where if I get a call from Ops asking us to get to the a/c early, that I wouldn't be in a fit state because of having had a drink. Unfortunately nowadays we rarely get more than min rest anyway, so that severely limits the social possibilities straight away.

We all have a responsiblity to our pax and company to be fit to fly, if you aren't for medical reasons/fatigue that is one thing, but having a drink is something we control, so if you can't fly since you had too much in the bar, then I don't have a lot of sympathy.

If you are too fatigued to fly, that's when companies should be getting a kicking.

The old school mentality of drinking and flying being synonymous are to pilots of my generation (in their 20's) are out of date. I would never drink and drive, but many of my parents peers don't think twice about it. Does that make it acceptable? Not in my eyes.

In answer to your questions.

Question are you a pilot do you have night stops, and do you drink at the bar with the rest of the crew ?

Yes, I'll have a drink, usually non-alchoholic.

Do you then have dinner and some wine ?

No.

Do you maybe have a wee one from the mini bar, to help you sleep or to party whatever.

No, I have never found booze helps me to sleep.

How do you then know if you will be under the limit for tomorrows operation?

I do, since I know that I haven't consumed more than a beer at most and that at the bodies normal rate of digestion, all traces of that beer will be long gone by the time I report for duty.

I'm not trying to be holier than thou', but I do feel that boozing before flying is unacceptable and shouldn't really be tolerated. We are all adults and are responsible for our own actions and the conseqeunces thereof.
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