What is the Flight Time Limitation Scheme ?

[blueb0y79]

Hi all

Can anyone tell me where i can find out more on the Flight Time Limitation Scheme for crews ? What is it ? And who produces it ? What are the hours that a crew can fly ?

Many thanks

Oh and does it matter if its a charter or scheduled flight ?

thanks again

[SAM 2M]

The scheme in the UK is laid down on CAA publication CAP371. I think that you can obtain a copy online from the CAA website. Try
www.caa.co.uk/publications/publicationdetails.asp?id=22

CAP 371 is part of each operators operations manual (Part A) and is then approved for the operator by the CAA. For a given operator it may contain variations for particular type of operations such as when an airline is concerned mainly with night freight.

In short the document is the same for charter, schduled and freight with minor variations which will be in the companys ops manual.

In Short Max Flt Hours 900 p/a
100 Hours in 28 days.

Max flight duty on a given duty depends on the time of report, the number of sectors to be flown and whether or not the crew are acclimatised in the time zone in which they report for duty.

Hope that helps

SAM:cool:

[blueb0y79]

And how do you compensate for the different time zones ? How does it affect the time between flights ? Is there a rule for it?

Thanks

[Billy The Squid]

blueb0y79,

If you look through the FTL there is what's known as Table A and Table B which dictate how many hours a crew can do depending on their 'local' time of start.

Table 'A' is most commonly used and assumes the crew are acclimatised to the local time of the country they are starting their duty in, i.e. they must be on chocks after 11 hours. This does not include any time allocated for post flight paperwork which comes into play in the total duty and minimum rest calculation.

For example, in the UK reporting at 0800 local (0700z) and doing 5 sectors means the crew can do up to 11 hours duty before they go into discretion.

There are many variations and quirks in the scheme itself and these take time to learn and get used to. Once you do it's a very good scheme (just a personal opinion) that is designed to protect crew from fatigue, whilst maintaining a degree of flexibility so crucial in this industry.

Hope this helps......

BTS

[blueb0y79]

Thanks everybody.

The info you gave me was spot on. Its people like yourselves who make this board worth visiting. Keep up the good work and hopefully one day ill be able to repay the favour !

Thanks again