900 hour each year. Day - night flying week about too. Oh, and we didn't have autopilots and we often operated single crew 8 sectors days too.
LUXURY!!! Our boss used to make us get up before we'd gone to bed, sweep the runway and lick the ice off the wings.
I can't remember a time in the last 50 years this hasn't been an issue right across the industry. I used to fly with one bloke who'd ask for me when he was going to drive ooop north in the early hours. As a sprog, I'd enjoy spending a couple of hours under the stars single crewing. "Don't you land it!" He used to say, as he was nodding off.
Didn't do much good. Smashed himself up really badly after one flight. Odd thought comes to mind. He might not have done that if he'd been with me that night.
It wasn't allowed then. If I'd even shut my eyes for a moment, it's likely I'd be prodded with an angry finger. The glared rebuke on one occasion was worse than the prod.
One company. 500 hours a year. Penalty to the company for going over that was £50 per hour - IN 1972. That was one heck of a lot of money back then.
Next company, just legal limits but even then several guys would go over the yearly maximum of 1,000. Fantastic flying though.