D49:
I guess my first question is why would someone want a 16 day rotation? This means every time the cycle resumes, it starts on a different day of the week. Seems like to me breaking up a 14 day rotation eliminates this using something like: 3-3-4-4 or 7-7. And why are you going from nights to days?
Second question is how much flying are you doing that would dictate short duty periods of 4 days to alleviate fatigue? Or is this an accommodation being made for personal reasons such as someone’s school schedule?
I used to work your present schedule of 3 days, 4 nights, off 7. Personally, I loved it because my last day shift, Sunday, was psychologically like the end of the week for me and then had 24 hours to prepare for Monday night. I didn’t mind the 4 nights because the base has NVGs and didn’t have a crushing flight schedule. With 7 straight days off, I never took a day of vacation because I could go anywhere in the U.S. and spend 5 days there which also meant I didn’t have to disturb another pilot’s break to fill in for me if I was on a schedule with shorter breaks such as the one you have mentioned.
Here’s a schedule I proposed to our former program manager:
Day shift – 0600-1400
Night shift – 1400-2200
Yeah, I know it isn’t 24 hour coverage, but it means no more getting out of bed at 0200 when we all know we’re at out best. It means every pilot gets to sleep in his/her own bed or at least away from work. Even if you catch a late night flight, you still get plenty of rest and it’s pretty hard to screw up your circadian rhythm on this schedule. The company doesn’t have to hire any more pilots, as if they could hire enough in the first place. And I did look at our flights and remember seeing about a 6-7% reduction in total flights launched between 2200-0600.
Anyway good luck with it,
Ron Powell
Permanently replaced at PHI Air Medical