"rmiller774: I expect that most crew members would enjoy the extra hours but would continue to play it close as they do today"
With all respect, I don't agree. After 9/11, my employer threw out all FTL protection bar the minimum CAA legal CAP371. We found ourselves working like crazy, 7 days on, 2 days off, with plenty of minimum rest, nights, earlies, changes to schedules, call-outs from standby etc. Redundancies were made and those of us left were working flat out. The increase in the number of minor errors everyone was making was very noticeable. Pilots are generally a professional bunch, and they realise that it is their lives as well as the passengers that they are responsible for when on duty and as such, most pilots are careful to have enough rest.
The problem is not the pilots not making use of their rest periods, it is the fact that human beings cannot chop and change their sleep patterns from day to day just because their roster says so. Here is an example. If my first flight is an early (going to bed at 7pm to get up at 3am), then I have to suddenly tell my bodyclock to be ready to sleep at 7pm instead of my usual 11pm. I probably won't hit the pillow and sleep at 7pm, not because I am "playing things close (to the limit)" but because I am a human being. I get back from my flight at 3pm, home by 5pm, then the following day I have to do a night flight. So what should I do? In theory I should be getting 8-10 hours a night of sleep. Last night I didn't manage it due to the early start. I probably slept from 10pm until 3am. So already I am in sleep deficit. When I get home from the early duty I am really tired and go to bed at 10pm. I wake up at 8am, because that is when my bodyclock says I should. I have to leave for work at 5pm to drive through rush hour for a 7pm report. So I have to be up at 4pm. So ideally I should now go back to bed and sleep from 8am until 4pm. Perfect!!! Except my body doesn't work like that. It is now awake, yet my roster tells me that what I need to do is go back to sleep for another 8 hours in order to be fully rested for my night flight. Most likely is I manage a couple of hours in the afternoon and go to work, feeling fine until about 1am, when I feel really tired. I then have to fight the urge to sleep until I get back. I land at 7pm, drive through rush hour and go to bed around 9am.
rmiller774 I would welcome your suggestions as to how to cope with changing schedules. I've tried for 10 years and I still find myself tired on night flights and early mornings......