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Old 5th Dec 2005, 18:20
  #31 (permalink)  
inflames
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sandpit
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Rostering for December is just going to be another blur for me. Working Xmas and New Year. 38 hours night of 76 rostered and they still have 3 trump cards in the way of standby they will almost certainly pull out.

Operations and rostering are quite technical jobs. If you see some of the solutions to the rostering problems that are thrust upon us then you realize that they are mainly manned by monkeys, and not those that they flew into space either. They need to invest in lateral thinkers and drag this company into the western world! I wonder how liable they are also for their mistakes. I see time and time again delays, cancelled flights, and 180 degree errors in flight planning and rostering. While most simple pilot flight errors including paperwork errors are treated with contempt by management. I have been given a no show twice on my schedule only to be told that they were sorry as they realized nobody had called me too inform me of change, or they found out that it was an illegal duty.

To read the list of grievances above is like pissing into the wind, I am afraid they fall on deaf ears until the inevitable happens and they are out of pilots, out of good management and out of money. The root of the problems in GFA go beyond rostering. If Hogan spent a week in operations and rostering to find an equitable and efficient solution to the problems. I am sure the place could be turned around within two months. The problem is that nobody looks for medium or long term solutions, as this requires monetary and managerial investment. As for HOFO the sun does not shine out of his a*** either. He’s a nice guy that doesn’t want any confrontation, therefore does not really get much changed.
From a personal standpoint, I hardly ever feel fresh during my flying, even after 2 days off, you have spent at least one day trying to get your sleeping back to normality, just so you can spend your second day doing something you thought might take you an hour but turns out to be a whole day, and in a tired haze. During many of the duties I also feel that I am very unsafe in the cockpit as tiredness creeps in after being awake for 20 hours or more, as no regard has ever been paid to sleep cycles. Rhesus monkeys and lab rats get more regard towards there biological cycles and are allowed sleep at the correct times if only for the sake of unprejudiced experimentation. I wish rostering would stop seeing how far my limits are when operating an aircraft! Quality of life with Gulfair is going steeply down in my respect towards the company, not because of money or time off, only because of our roster and unpredictability of our schedule. They need to work on this, I don’t care how much they bond me for or what they may threaten to do, they may lead me to an aircraft but they can’t make me fly it!
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