Having a beer....

[Boing7117]

I'm sure this has been asked before - but my search didn't yield too many results...

I was told by a pilot that the minimum time between having a beer and flying a plane is 24 hours.

I found this a little hard to believe but I'm wondering what the concrete rules are, and in practice, how well these rules are enforced?

Does it vary from airline to airline or country to country? Are you governed by the rules in the country you fly out of - or by the rules of your airline?

[Artificial Horizon]

That is a load of rubish. The hard and fast rule in the UK is 8 hours bottle to throttle. But however (and it is a big however) each airline will have different rules. My airline reccommends 10 hours bottle to throttle with only MODERATE drinking in the preceding 24 hours. When away on 'trips' you are governed by the country that you are in and you have to be very careful. Parts of Scandanavia are so strick that you may as well not bother drinking at all. The UK limit for blood alcohol is about 1/10th of the drink driving limit, and I am told that there is only an allowance at all to take into account the natural body alcohol that occurs in all of us. It is very a judgement call as everyone reacts differently, there have been pilots prosecuted after a couple of glasses of wine with dinner the night before report, others seem to be able to down 10 pints and be o.k in the morning. The best advice is just be sensible, you will learn your own limits very quickly, and don't drink to the numbers as some do. I have seen some say 'I can drink 5 pints as the human body processes 1 unit of alcohol per hour and I have 10 hours to report' this is a dangerous way to act becuase that is such a generic statement.

[whatdoesthisbuttondo]

The limit for U.K. aircrew is 20mg per 100ml blood.

8 hrs is nowhere near long enough, since 2003.

see

www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/FOD200328.pdf

[Carnage Matey!]

Eight hours is plenty long, take a look at paragraph 6.2.

[Pilot Pete]

Eight hours is plenty long, take a look at paragraph 6.2. Plenty long enough for what? The CAA document uses 5 units (2.5 pints of 'ordinary beer') as an example, stating that it is 'likely' that that persons blood alcohol level would be zero by report.

Artificial Horizon quotes a example of someone saying they can drink 10 units as they have 10 hours until report. I suspect that it is 'unlikely' that this persons blood alcohol level would be zero at report.

So blanket statements are really 'out' regarding blood alcohol levels at report. The medics issue their 'get out' likely and as we are all so different I think Eight hours is plenty long is dangerous blanket advice.

PP

[Artificial Horizon]

Pilot Pete, I quite agree with you, I was trying to point out that this sort of statement (which I have heard from fellow pilots) is a very dangerous line to follow. Once your start counting units vs. hours to report I think that you have probably had enough and shouldn't be drinking.

[Capt Claret]

In Oz:

There is no proscribed maximum blood alcohol level, yet.
No alcohol within 8 hours of departure. Departure is defined as setting course overhead the field, or, setting course with atime allowance for the distance from the field. :E
Additional to what is essentially 8 hrs bottle to throttle, one cannot operate as aircrew if one's capacity to do so is impaired by the intake of any "alcohol, drug or pharmaceutical".

[Carnage Matey!]

Whatever happened to common sense I ask? Obviously if you've sunk 10 units 10 hours before report you're unlikely to be fit. If you've had 2 CAA standard pints the chances are you will be, although they have to use the term 'likely' to avoid any comeback. If you are ever stupid enough to get busted for drunk driving in the UK (and no, I haven't been), the alcohol abuse counsellors will tell you to work on 1 unit per hour. Everyones got a rough idea of how well they handle booze. I've seen crew refuse to have one beer twelve hours before report because "It's just not worth it". Such defiance of logic is perplexing given we work in an industry which is entirely based on statistics and calculated risk. Reasonable, responsible alcohol consumption within the rules is perfectly compatible with aviation.

[411A]

>>Reasonable, responsible alcohol consumption within the rules is perfectly compatible with aviation<<

Hear, hear!
I'll drink to that!

Still, the days of 'reverse thrust' were quite special.
The younger guys don't know what they missed....:uhoh:

[spekesoftly]

The UK limit for blood alcohol is about 1/10th of the drink driving limit,
That's not correct. The UK CAA prescribed limit for pilots (20mg/100ml blood) is 1/4 of the limit for UK motorists (80mg/100ml blood).