Chuck
You raise a valid point. I have little knowlegde of these surveys, but I do believe the regulations are way outdated, simply because of my rosters and associated fatigue.
I started a thread a while back demise of professional pilots profession. This was one of my major concerns, and reading through the threads even since then, many other airlines pilots are voicing their concerns. The 30 year old regs are well outdated, yet nothing seems to change, and even worse airlines are rostering their crew MONTHLY right up to the maximums, rather than using them as a maximum when they are REALLY stuck due unforseen resignations, they also IGNORE the recommendations of time off between rostered slip patterns, giving only 1-2 days to recover rather than the recommended 3-5 days. Why publish recommendations knowing only a handful of legacy carriers will honor them, while the large majority of airlines ignore them. pointless.
They also seem to believe that if you get several hours off before a flight, even though you have been working succesive all night flights in different timezones you can simply sleep whenever you wish.
I havnt been able to do this since i was an infant.
Its called jet lag, and its not only passengers that can suffer from it.
When will someone carry out a realistic fatigue survey for the 21st century. Taking into consideration 2 pilot crews (no flight engineers anymore) and longer sector and duty times.
there have been surveys conducted whos results indicate that flying tired or fatigued has the same effect as flying under the influence of alcohol. yet the only rule change in the last 30 years appears to be the change of the alcohol rule from 8 hours to 12 hours. realistically those who would have in the past consumed a reasonable amount of alcohol finishing above the required 8 hours off will take little notice of the 12 hour rule. yet those who consumed only a small amount would not have been impaired when reporting for duty. I believe the level allowable now is so small, fatigue of crew is a far more potential hazard, yet the authorities have done nothing to address this.
You may be correct, the alcohol rule does not affect the airlines, only the crew, yet the fatigue issue would affect the airlines costs, yet greatly improve the crews and airlines safety.
So who pockets are the authorities in.
If you answer that we can see nothing will be done to improve the situation.
It seems the authorities of the world are a bit like many royal families. Plenty of publicity, but basically no real authority.
Last edited by TDF380; 5th Nov 2005 at 11:36.