CAO 48.0
1.3 The holder of a pilot licence other than a private pilot licence who engages in aerial work, charter, or regular public transport operations, shall be subject to the flight and duty time limitations specified by CASA in section 48.1 of this Part. Calculations of flight and duty time limitations made under the provisions of section 48.1 shall take into account any flight and duty time performed in the course of private operations.
This is very correct, but if you read on to the definitions...
tour of duty: means the period between the time a flight crew member commences any duties associated with his or her employment prior to making a flight or series of flights until he or she is finally relieved of all such duties after the termination of such flight or series of flights and includes reserve time at the airport.
If I choose to fly on a RDO or weekend privately, this is NOT duties associated with my employment. Therefore while the flight time is included in F&D records there is NO DUTY TIME on days off in private ops.
However IF you conducted a "private flight" on the same day as a duty shift either prior to, or after work, or particularly in the middle of a duty such as on your lunch break, you must count it as duty. Much more difficult to seperate the intent in these cases.
CAO 48.1
1.12 A pilot shall not commence a flight and an operator shall not roster the pilot for a flight unless during the 7 days period terminating co-incident with the termination of the flight he or she has been relieved from all duty associated with his or her employment for at least 1 continuous period embracing the hours between 10 pm and 6 am on 2 consecutive nights.
This means you cannot WORK 7 days in a row. BUT you can fly PRIVATELY as long as it has nothing to do with work.
So if you work full time as a pilot then your company "owns" your 900 or 1000 hours.
The company you work for DOES NOT OWN YOUR HOURS!
You can fly privately as you like, or even work for other companies. Australia is a free country last time I checked. (shhh! don't tell DOTARS!)
HOWEVER! EACH company you work for and the PILOT (you), share a joint responsibility to adhere to F&D times under CAO 48.0 & 48.1. Therefore most companies do not like you flying privately or working for another company as it makes it difficult for them to keep track of your flight and duty IN TOTAL!. It makes it difficult for CASA to ensure you and the company(s) concerned are complying if your records are different!
So advise your employer(s) of your private (and other work) flying and as long as you are in no danger of exceeding flight time limits or of fatigue considerations (as already mentioned) you should be ok.
Cheers!
Z.
