I have been watching this thread with interest and agree with most of what has been said.
Its all very well saying "book into a B+B" but where I work I have yet to find one which will accept me "checking in" at 6am, sleeping all day and going at some point in the afternoon. Besides the fact that the price of B+Bs near the airport I work starts at around £40 per night.
I could check into a hotel, but I still have to drive there, so really my only option is an "on airport" hotel, at a cost of around £80-100 per night. I can't afford that.
When I have flown in America I found that many FBOs had bunk rooms which pilots could use for free. Usually around 4 bunks per room plus a bathroom.
Why do airports in the UK not have this facility? I don't need a posh hotel room, I would sleep anywhere (usually my car at the service station part way home). Surely it wouldn't cost BAA etc. much money to provide a handful of bunkrooms? I would be happy to pay a small amount for this, say, up to £10.
The other question to ask is why do car insurance companies load your premium when you tell them you are a pilot? What do they know that the public don't? Do they have access to a database which shows how high the risk of car accidents is to pilots? Interestingly it doesn't matter to them if you are short haul or long haul.
Also, for people who don't work in the industry, it is probably worth pointing out that most of us work "irregular" shifts - we don't have say 5 nights on, days off, 5 days on or anything as regular as that. Many of us work "as and when" which could mean flying an early morning or a day flight then a night flight. Also, like the previous example of a day flight finishing at 10pm followed by a 5pm standby. When you get home after the 10pm finish you are tired, so you go to bed sometime before midnight. You sleep until say, 6-8am. Then to get 8 hours rest in before your 5pm standby you need to go to bed again at 11am to sleep for 8 hours. Now, how is that going to happen? You are not tired, having just spent a night asleep. It is not possible to go straight back to bed and sleep for another 8 hours. And how often do we get called out? If you are not called out you can guarantee your next duty will be a day one, so do you try and nap during the day in the hope that you will be rested if you get called out or do you not sleep, and then be acclimatised for the next day flight.
Has anyone done any research on the "car journey" side of flying duties?
If not, about time someone did a survey.