Ok, my twopence worth....
If Crew Control are asking crew's to do something that is out of 371 limits then I would say it was down to inexperiance of that Crewing staff member.....or unprofessionalism, I mean, what does he/she think his/her job description is.
To a new person to Crewing CAP371 looks bloody awful !!, maybe there should be a simplified version and certainly made available to crews, who are generally pretty good on basic knowledge but still room for improvement !!! - as an example, it's amazing how many Discretion Reports I get which have been worked out including 30 mins de-brief or standby start time is FDP start time. An ex-airline used to have a crewing rep. to visit all ABinitio courses to introduce themselves and go through the Crew Control's general working practices, an excellent idea but I've never seen it since.
And on a final note why do Pilots always quote "The CAA will take away my licence" well, Bollo*ks - the CAA will not take away anybodys licence for busting an FDP or any other legality on your roster, it's the operator who will get a wrist slapping not the flight crew, the CAA can only suspend your licence on medical grounds. Please come up with another excuse from now on!!
Cheers
007
------------------
Hear all....see all....say n'owt !