Nothing a good Spirit Course can't fix.... And sadly that is the solution most 'managers' at QF and others have. If you don't have a clue what skydrol is or how those great big aircraft get off the ground then 'Spirit Courses - All Around' becomes the catch cry...
I really do want people to understand that every airline has 'bad' and 'good' crew. Even 'good' crews on a bad day can be bad - or perceived as such. And never forget spending decades smiling at hundreds of people when you possibly haven't slept properly for 48+ hours, your body clock is at 0300 and you are so tired you feel like throwing up can make even the smallest task very, very challenging. Spend 10+ years in Long Haul and you change. I took a break from flying and it took me 3 years to stop sleeping in 4 hour chunks. It still happens from time to time, but I only realised how disruptive that was to me AFTER I experienced 'normal' sleep for a month. If you hit your head on a brick wall long enough, you do forget why your head hurts. These are things you just can't explain to people who have never experienced it. Sitting as a pax in a cabin, even if you flew SYD-SIN-LHR-SIN-SYD 5-6 times every 8 weeks or so for a year wouldn't come close to the feeling. And when I started one of the girls had accumulated 41 back to back BKK-LHR's IN A ROW, with generally 5 days off between each one!! I am sure there were people out there with more, she was just one I knew and had happened to count them up.
And to QF drivers, (excuse the thread drift) all this is why I think DF's EBA post regarding night credits on Qrewroom should be read very carefully. He's right, messing with night credits is messing with the DNA of the agreement and it's that intangible long term tiredness that (I would all but guarantee) at least contributed to RENURRP's issue. Qantas Long Haul is the longest haul in the world so Qantas LH crew do not have a comparison. This needs to be recognised.
A friend of mine going short haul for the first time summarised it like this. 'You are never really tired when you go to work, it's almost impossible to f^&*K up!'. It's a different tiredness to the tiredness most people understand. And 'managers' have not the faintest clue about it - for them a long day is 0800-1800 in the same time zone as yesterday with no life at stake and (all too frequently) a multi million dollar remuneration package to justify their 'hard work'..... To quote Capt Darling 'Life in the Women's Auxiliary Balloon Corps is pretty tough (compared to life at the Front)!'
Last edited by V-Jet; 18th Jul 2015 at 23:56.