Originally Posted by
DingerX
Sure, most crews pull it off just fine. Most times, you'll get by without the last five minutes of final reserve fuel too.
Part of it is self-discipline, experience, and proficiency. I am speaking of this crew, rather the fatal UPS crew.
I flew many lousy night pairings with TWA before the duty/rest rules got a bit better.
As tired as we may have been on a multi-leg flight from LAX to the east coast on the back side of the clock, we managed to get ourselves alert for the terminal area business at hand, whether it be CAVU or bare minimums.
Don't really know. Perhaps the lack of automation forced us to be more alert. The human-factors folks probably don't have a real good handle on it.
Also, commuting from a distant location to begin a night flight should be illegal.