Night-day rotations on a 4-2-4-6
What issues arise from covering a 24/7 position as follows:
Commence duty cycle with 4 nights, 8 PM to 8 AM;
48 hours uninterrupted rest;
Four days, 8 AM to 8 PM;
Off duty 6 calendar days (total 168 hours).
The typical U.S. E.M.S. assignment cycles from days to nights, mid-shift. In my case I work Fri-Sunday on days, and Mon-Thursday nights, which makes no sense to me except as a lazy way of scheduling.
The schedule proposed would seem to allow the individual pilot to acclimate to the night duty assignment as suits one best, nights would come at a point in the duty cycle where you'd be least fatigued, and the 6 day break would minimize the night-day switch. It also reduces the occurence of the sleep disruption issue by extending the cycle from 14 to 16 days.
Two issues occur to me from the proposal:
It appears that a larger portion of ones life is spoken for with duty assignments for a shorter break. My argument is that the first two days of the nominal 7-day break are lost to circadian realignment;
And, the 48 hours between the night assignment and day duty may not be suffficient interval, although it seems an improvement to the present situation.