CX regional flights
 

Hi

For you guys who fly the regional flight ive seen some flights are over six hours long with a stop so would these flights carry S/O or would you fly both sectors return next dayor same day. 1 more thing for long haul pilots how many regional flights do you get a month roughly?

CX256

Normally only two pilots are carried unless one of the sectors is longer than 9 hours [8 hours if the sector goes into the late night period (0200-0600 local time where the sector commenced)], in which case a third pilot must be carried.

For example, over the summer period the 777 does HKG-BAH-DXB with two pilots - 1st sector 8 hours 35 minutes, second sector 1 hour 15 minutes, total flight duty period 12 hours 10 minutes.

sand pit
 

Aggh yes and who can forget the one BAH-DXB-HKG back of the clock, 2 crew. If you did BAH-HKG on the same night you would require 3 crew!!!!!!!
But that good ol saying...."but its legal!!"
Regional crew are frequently flying greater than 8/9 hours in one duty but as there are 2 sectors this eliminates the requirement of extra crew. Is this good practise or just getting around the laws?????
As a thought, i feel that the credit factor should be raised for 2 crew a/c flying more than the 8/9 hours. Eg credit factor of 1.5 for the hours > 6 in any duty period.
Flights like DPS/CGK/SUB/CTS returns and the BAH and DXBs, very tough with just 2 guys!!!
I know this wont alleviate the fatigue issue but at least the crew will be compensated appropriately.
Thoughts???

Yep, there are loads of inequities in the current FTLs. Another example: For ultra long range ops, no crew member can spend more than 8 consecutive hours at the controls without a rest break of a least one hour, and no more than a total of 10 hours at the controls. On the other hand, it's quite ok under the FTLs for the regional guys to do a 2-sector flight duty period of 12 1/4 hours through the middle of the night with only 2 pilots (ie NO rest). It might be legal, but quite frankly it's damn stupid, not to mention unfair.

I'd love to see them increase the credit hour factor for 2 crew ops with long FDPs, but I'd prefer the FTLs be amended to get rid of some of these silly inconsistencies and reduce the fatigue on these flights.