The thing is, when Plank writes 102 hours a month, only pilots who have done it, month in month out, and in similar rostering circumstances can understand. If you haven't done 'rotating shift work airline flying' then you can only try to imagine how it feels, you can't actually imagine it. The closest thing I can relate it to is having a new born baby in the house ( and being the one who looks after it).
Fair point. Has any official, unbiased research into such a working schedule and its effects been undertaken?
Back in the 1940s and 1950s, in the days of steam railways, locomotive crews typically worked five or six 8-hour shifts per week, starting at any time in the 24 hours. Shifts were often, but not always, fixed for a week at a time, but different every week, and sometimes varied widely from day to day. The work was both physically and mentally demanding - there is no autopilot on a steam locomotive.
Does anyone know of any fatigue-related studies done on railwaymen at the time, and would their results have any bearing on demands on flight crew today?