Hi folks!
We are now "celebrating" over 10 years without prescriptive fatigue laws governing Australian pilots. Also, no fatigue laws for flight attendants in Australian airspace. CASA had for years buried its head in a hole.
One cannot complain against one's company for rostering, legally at the time, shifts that were very difficult to comply with. One had to perform and fly. Is it reasonable to require a pilot to fly 43.5 hours of airborne time in 5 days? It is certainly legal, under the "trial" exemption of CAO 48. I did it! and boy was I knackered at the end! The last 9.5 hours was all in darkness.
Prescriptive fatigue laws give protection to the over-worked and under-rested, and they give ammunition to the guns one fires at idiot management. When CASA removes the ammunition, it becomes an instrument of fatigue.
Have you ever suffered from fatigue? I know people whose
cars have left the road on the drive home, I know people who have been burnt out, simply due to fatigue. Would you join in a class action against CASA? 10 years is far too long.
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See you there,
Ned