At a social occasion recently I watched two colleagues on 2 different fleets discussing their roster. Both doing 90 block hours give or take a few minutes. One delighted with how much time off he had and the other decidedly distressed facing yet another roster of 8 days off with multiple night turns while trying to coordinate the various things life requires in Dubai in the coming month. He had visibly aged since I last saw him and was into productivity for the 5th consecutive month with leave still some way off.
I’ve been somewhat vague to protect the identity of the individuals but the scenario is common enough.
As the company sees block hours as a measure of both remuneration and more importantly fatigue there is clearly something wrong.
When one examines the Duty Hours each was doing the anomaly is obvious. The former had Duty Hours of around 100 while the latter was closer to 150.
So to summarize the one pilot was working 50% harder than the other, and for this he was rewarded with less rest, days off etc. Looking a little deeper there were no opportunities for CRC rest and few for in-flight seat rest. The former was looking at about 30 hours of his 90 in a bunk. It’s illogical and insane to me. Shouldn’t the bloke working harder have more rest?
The bottom line is that the period before a flight is viewed as non productive and irrelevant to the fatigue process. It’s practically impossible to hit a duty time limitation so it has no effect on limiting the fatigue. You’d have to work the equivalent of 8 hour days for 6 day weeks repetitively at all times of the day and night in multiple time zones. That’s not even expected of our regular routine office workers. How’s it easier for a pilot?
Likewise the time on the ground in a turnaround is not considered valued as work or considered in any meaningful sense for fatigue. And then let’s not forget the duty times themselves, which are simply illegal. Last time I looked, the check-in computer told me I had 3 minutes until briefing started which was 1 hour and 35 minutes before departure. I thought briefing was a task required by the company. I thought duty was “Any continuous period during which a crew member is required to carry out any task associated with the business of the company”. So our poor pilot of the big roster was getting even more fatigued by multiple duties where he put in an unaccounted 35 minutes. On the roster in question this totaled over 7 hours! More insanity.
Is there any attempt to redress the glaringly obvious faults? I turn to the Portal to see if perhaps the FRMS has some wisdom in this regard. This is the only page on the portal that is “Under construction” and has been for the past 4 years to the best of my knowledge. It appears irresponsible and uninformative. Can anyone actually tell me what this magic FRMS actually achieves? Roster and rest balance is clearly not in its remit.
On top of this all, simply to add insult to injury one of flights on the “poor pilots roster” was a “Variation” Duty. That’s just an excuse to break the already inadequate duty time limitation with one provision of giving him rest after the event! Let’s hope he makes it to his bed without injury..
I turn to the “General Principles of the (Flight Time Limitations) Scheme”. Perhaps this offers clarity. I note such phrases:
- “The GCAA when assessing the suitability of a planned schedule, will take into account the time allowed for pre flight duties…” – Clearly not. No one could do the required tasks to get airborne in the 1 hour scheduled. Hence the 1 hour 35 minutes allocated but not recognized.
- “The allocation of work patterns which avoid such undesirable practices as alternating day/night duties.” – Well! Poor pilot’s” roster almost looked like this was the objective!
And on and on it goes. Words, platitudes, lip service and an absent FRMS by all accounts. I feel I am living in an alternate world of a different logic. Its insanity to me.
Where is the Regulator in all this? Where is the HR department? Isn’t work, pay and time off what they are all about? Where are the doctors? They are apparently trained to recognise the cause and symptoms. I presume they put sickness against rosters and look for patterns. They will be there.
In basic terms it shouldn’t be that difficult. In most places time at work is what makes you tired and the very reason for pay. In fact we are repeatedly told the time before flight is the most critical. No distractions, it’s a busy time, drinks cards and barred dispatchers are the cure. But apparently this is not work, not tiring and not worth being paid for. It beats me. I cannot fathom how block time, a measurement for engines and airframes has somehow been translated into some measurement of how hard I work, how tired I am or how much I should be paid.
But then maybe I’m losing my marbles. Perhaps I’m fatigued.