Originally Posted by Panama Jack
Rubberbiscuit's and
typhoonpilot's responses underscore one of the fundamental ills in the Canadian pilot profession-- the one-up-manship and macho bush pilot romance syndrome that has largely broken down the professional comeraderie amongst pilots in the Canadian airline industry.
I often hear these chest thumping stories, usually preceeded by the words "back up North we used to . . . " whenever another pilot brings up a grievance. Make no mistake. Even in Canada, pilot groups like IFALPA has raised their concerns about flight and duty time limits, which were arrived at with little scientific input from research groups like NASA who have studied the phenonemon.
It is foolhardy to use "the Canadian experience" as a litmus test for everything that happens in aviation. There are actually few positives that can be drawn from the working environment of the Canadian aviation industry-- little wonder that so many are plying the trade throughout Asia and in other parts of the world.
Wrong. My comments, along with Rubberbiscuit's, underscore the fact the there are places in the world where a 900 hour limit is very good. I'm not Canadian, by the way.
The endless complaining about EK here has begun to take on a life of it's own. Each person coming up with a new trauma. Sorry, but 900 hours in a year isn't a big deal. There are many countries in the world where the limit is higher. Canada is 1200, the USA is 1000, Taiwan is 1000.
The reason people at EK are tired isn't because of the 900 hours they have flown, it is because of what time of day they have flown. The effects of major time zone changes on the body and multiple night flights are the issue. If you want to fix the problem, you have to identify it correctly.
Typhoonpilot