Not entirely surprised you both missed the point. WWW - my point is not that such conditions are acceptable and that people should get on with it. My point is that if conditions do not permit you to fly safely because your rest pattern has been disrupted, you do not fly. I do not go along with the argument that as we're on ops we have to do it - horlicks! Do you think any balaklava'd mate would thank you for flying him into a mountain on an exfil cos you're tired? Get real and realise that if you aren't prepared to stand up and be counted ie refuse to fly until the bean-counters authorise suitable accomm (it needn't be hotac-tents are fine as long as they're properly situated and supported)then you will continue to be trampled on.
Fat Albert - If you read my initial piece you'll see that I never said that the tanker or recce roles were a piece of wee wee - I said that the ULH stuff I do is a piece of wee wee from the point of view of the criticality of fatigue on your effectiveness.
Yes my 744 is very fluffy but the pressure is still on when landing at a strange airfield at night, in a monsoon, with 400 bods down the back and 15 mins hold fuel, knowing that if you get it wrong you're out of a job.
I have much respect for the multicrew world but stand by my assertion that it is more critical in the fast jet(especially single seat) environment when operating under fatigue than in the multi world where by definition you should all be watching each others backs. This does not change the fact that people should not bleat on an anonymous forum about how awful it is when if everybody refused to fly because of flight safety - it would not take more than a few hours-things might happen.
Editted for incompetence.
[ 03 December 2001: Message edited by: Dissi Loo Shunned ]