Communication more often than not can be complicated. I'm happy every time misunderstandings gets cleared up.
Re 800 flight hours annually:
5 flight hours @ day x 160 days = 800 flight hours. Efficient and professional utilization of flight crew makes it no major challenge to meet production expectations. Btw, 800 hours annually is probably too high of a limit, in light of the types of operation we are involved in. Some negative factors are:
* Noise levels
* Vibration levels
* Dress code most of the year
* Shift schedules, working days, nights, weekends, public holidays.
* Weather
* Ergonomics of the work place
* Etc. etc.
In CHC HS, the flight crew working the Monday-Friday roster (MF-roster) easily reaches the limit of 95 flight hours per 30 days and the 800 flight hours per 365 days. On numerous occasions pilots have been forced to take days and weeks off from flying to reduce the accumulated number of hours. It has been demonstrated that the MF-roster easily accumulates 800 hours in 150-160 days in our crew change operations, even if this is not a goal for the pilots themselves.
Competition or cooperation? Pilots are involved in various types of operations which involves different types of work load, such as:
* Crew changes with flight duration of 3:00 or more.
* Crew changes with flight duration of less than 3:00.
* Offshore shuttle operations with high number of sectors.
* Offshore shuttle operations with a lower number of sectors.
* Offshore SAR operations combined with shuttle operation.
* Dedicated SAR operations offshore or onshore with low flight time production.
* Stand by duty onshore with low flight time production.
* Etc.
It is sometimes tempting to claim that "my job" is harder/tougher/more difficult than "your job", or vice versa. This typically leads nowhere, creates irritation, anger and animosity among pilot groups.
I assume:
When all is said and done, we all would like sufficient time with our families and friends. We would also like to see a high degree of predictablility throughout the year, enabling us to plan for a social life.
For far too long the pilots in the UK sector have been in the unfortunate situation of having what seems to be inferior planning tools in place, leading to the chaos theory being the guiding light for the operational execution of the daily flight program.
Historically it seems that more than one colleague in the UK sector have felt this to be less than satisfactory.
This is easy to understand, as the pilots of Bristow, Scotia, Bond compared to the pilots in the GOM, Norway, Denmark, Holland and numerous other location have had to endure a higher number of annual work days with less (read: no) predictability when it comes to planning days off duty in general.