Originally Posted by PC767
A stupid trollish post carnage. You clearly don't like cabin crew do you? Well sorry but the CAA states that we are a necessary evil. If only to bring you guys an edition of every newspaper onboard into the flight deck, only to clear them out again once you've finished the crosswords.
Crosswords? You can tell they're pilots. They're clever.
here in Ops we just colour in the pictures.
As far as mixing LH and SH duties goes, it's perfectly possible, but as was said earlier there do need to be bigger gaps between duties due to being unacclimatised and needing your 3 local nights, etc. so it's not as simple as rostering a bunch of TFS's or similar and leaving it at that.
Just for those that don't know and don't like to ask,
CAP371 (The avoidance of fatigue in aircrews) is the CAA publication that lays down the minimum legal framework that all flight deck and cabin crews MUST comply with in order to operate a commercial airline. Its terms are final and non-negotiable.
Union agreements, scheduling agreements, etc. are basically refinements and niceties over-and-above the bare legal rules of CAP371 and are agreed on a case-by-case basis between an airline and its crews/union. There is always the option to drop any or all of these agreements providing both parties agree to do so (During times of disruption, emergency, etc.) There are no legality issues with this and no-one from the CAA will take action against you. BASSA can ask you not to, but they can't stop you.
I would imagine that if they censured you for 'breaking the agreements' and suspended or even barred you as has been alleged on here, then you would have a very good case for some sort of legal action against them.
This is why so many pilots and other department guys get so narked when Cabin Crews start saying it's "Illegal" to go against the Union agreements. It isn't.