During my last few years in the business, I found that the only way to play safe was to only drink on the first evening of days off, and the subsequent day. Nothing on the day before flying, which meant a good 30 hours bottle-to-throttle, and nothing during the working week. A pain in the a*se, but the alternative was the chance of losing my job. A long way from when I started in the military many years ago, when it was prop up the bar till closing time, breakfast at 7, brief at 8, airborne by 9. Things have changed.