Thanks Crab......it never ceases to amaze when the obvious never stands out --always have been useless at proof reading!
SS......To be honest haven't heard of any such objective research underpinning the adoption...it was just a pragmatic approach at the time as far as I can remember. Someone from the CG will have to answer for them, but I do recall that Sumburgh always adopted the RAF approach to first standby from the start. (That unit for many years was the only CG unit between the late 1970s and the early 1990s).
More interesting perhaps is that the guesswork involved may indeed have little good foundation.....particularly since the introduction on NVGs in the early 1990s. Crew fatigue will indeed be affected by many issues...hence the RAF at least, always relies on good captaincy in the end to judge the state of the crew on these matters and decide accordingly.
Cheers
Last edited by Tallsar; 9th June 2010 at 18:14.