Hi Steve,
To answer your question, when I was on the Airbus....yes, I did plenty of Australian and middle eastern patterns.....they were mentally and physically exhausting.....and rightly demanded a three pilot crew.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that pilots should not be fatigued flying some of the ball-breaking patterns we fly through our WOCL, especially the cumulative effect of doing so. What offends me is that airline management ignore the obvious need for a leg stretch pilot and, instead, pretend that sleeping on the job is as safe by candy coating it with a nice safe sounding term like "controlled rest". It's still one pilot sleeping on the job.....no matter how it is rationalized or cloaked.
Hence my characterization of "controlled rest" as a euphemism: "an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may sound offensive".
If safety was our number one priority we would have a leg stretch pilot assigned when flying a long duty period through the WOCL, certainly those patterns identified as particularly fatiguing by ASR-F.
It may be scientifically proven to increase alertness levels, but at the same time sets up the real possibility that BOTH pilots may end up asleep...as the evidence of it in practice has shown.
Last edited by raven11; 28th Aug 2014 at 00:37.