Would have thought 5/2/5/4 is reasonable IF it didn't involve 5 consecutive earlies.....
Each to his own, but I couldn't cope with that.
In a previous life, I had a few years at an outfit in the land of wine and cheese in the 80's and had what was probably a perfect and exemplary roster - and if I can do my sums correctly, a 16 day block at EZY provides 6 Rest Days whereas we needed an 18 day block to have 6 rest days.
So, lets' see if I can explain it -
Basically, all the schedules were 'split' into three timeszones -
Earlies - Deps between 06.15 and 07.00, latest finish about 12.45.
Afternoons - Deps between about 12.00 and 13.30, latest finish about 18.45.
Evenings - Deps between about 18.00 and 19.15, shut-down between 23.15 and 23.45
Most Duty Periods were triangular three sectors, some two sectors and some four sectors depending on length - longest sector about 2hr 15 and shortest 45 mins.
Always seven a/c operating operating from base - and referred to as A/C 1, A/C 2, etc...and 365 days operation.
So Roster was based on a simple 4/2/4/2/4/2 etc. Looking thru my old Logs, I can see -
DAY 1 / DAY 2 - A/C 1 - Evenings
DAY 3 / DAY 4 - A/C 1 - Afternoons
DAY 5 / DAY 6 - Rest
DAY 7 / DAY 8 - A/C 1 - Mornings
DAY 9 / DAY 10 - Standby ( which were more or less permanent as the operation was fairly 'lean' and so consisted almost entirely of holiday cover and so the Roster was known well in advance and surprises didn't happen very often )
DAY 11 / DAY 12 - Rest
DAY 13 / DAY 14 - A/C 2 - Evenings
DAY 15 / Day 16 - A/C 2 - Afternoons
DAY 17 / DAY 18 - Rest
DAY 19 / DAY 20 - A/C 2 - Mornings
DAY 21 / DAY 22 - Standby
DAY 23 / DAY 24 - A/C 3 - Evenings
DAY 25 / Day 26 - A/C 3 - Afternoons
etc, etc, etc.......
Benefits -
1. For my assigned days, I could plot and plan my life months in advance once timetables and 'a/craft planning/rotations' had been published.
2. Rest Days were rarely preceded by a late finish and ended with an early start, so they were two 'full' days - unless, of course you were rostered for these on Standby
3. Over a 12 month period, all crew treated absolutely equally and as we all worked the same patterns and hours, so more or less equal flight pay
4. Plenty of time variety in routes/destinations
5. Company didn't spend millions for people and software to devise solutions for complicated rosters up to legal limits
6. Two day non-duty Weekends quite regularly
Negatives -
1. DAY 9 / DAY 10 or DAY 21 / 22 could be mornings, so four mornings in a row was possible, although we took it in turns to standby mornings / afternoons / evenings and so mornings were more or less only every third standby.
2. Delays really did accelerate during the day if the original one was in the morning sectors - no spare a/craft and no spare crews - so the evening rosters could extend well beyond schedule although earliest reporting time after the second night was about 11.00 so it wasn't too bad as it was only one night planned and if rostered evening on second standby day
2. Er.......
Eventually, I moved on becuase I thought bigger a/craft meant more fun and more money. If only I'd known then more about how fatiguing a poor roster can be....
OK, so nowadays it's all so much more about working Crew to maximum hours, but with most companies having fixed A/C Rotation Patterns from fixed bases, and fewer and fewer nightstops, I've never quite understood why there's a rostering problem if, say, there are finite aircraft, finite sectors each day, and finite crew people and hours availabilty at the base.
I suppose it's all about them chasing the almighty dollar......great for the owners but a killer for the Crews.
Last edited by Hussar 54; 7th Jul 2005 at 15:27.