Adapting to night flight
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Joined: Jan 2018
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From: Amantido
Adapting to night flight
I am posting this here because I recently obtained my first job at a cargo operator in Europe. All of the flights are at night and I am looking for tips on how to transition smoothly to night flying and in general night shifts. There are probably reasons why they say that night flying is not for everybody in the long term and so far I have only worked during the day.
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 77
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From: Europe
What is your roster pattern? Fixed or random... That is important with night cargo. In hindsight, night cargo can be a super relaxed operation. But like anything it depends on the fleet (usually the wider the hull, the better the ops), company, roster, etc.
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 77
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From: Europe
I had no issues with it. Easiest 350 hours a year ever flown. But you need a fixed roster pattern so you can adjust. And you need to be able to sleep during the daytime. I guess everyone is different and some nights are tougher than others.
Joined: Jul 2010
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 1,780
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From: Asia
Make sure your room is conducive to sleep, I ended up blacking out my windows. Heating/air conditioning as appropriate.
Try not to sleep in too long when you arrive home as it will stop you from sleeping that night. If I get to bed at 10:00am, I’ll get up at 3:00pm and go back to bed around 11:00pm.
Try and get some sleep before going to work, even 3 hours makes a huge difference.
If you genuinely cannot stay awake on the flight deck, tell the other pilot and take a 30 minute nap, don’t just fall asleep.
Always remember that you aren’t the only one who’s half asleep, ATC, engineers, loaders, fuelers and other pilots are just as tired and suffering reduced performance so be extra careful.
The fatigue is manageable in a B737 range operation as you won’t be suffering 14 hour sectors with multiple time zone changes and minimum rest like you would on a B777 with Emirates.
There are positives, airspace is less congested with direct to and straight in approaches the norm. Finishing on Friday mornings and starting again on Monday night is very common as well. You are also unlikely to get near flight time limitations either.
Id happily go back to it if the money was the same as I’m on now.
Try not to sleep in too long when you arrive home as it will stop you from sleeping that night. If I get to bed at 10:00am, I’ll get up at 3:00pm and go back to bed around 11:00pm.
Try and get some sleep before going to work, even 3 hours makes a huge difference.
If you genuinely cannot stay awake on the flight deck, tell the other pilot and take a 30 minute nap, don’t just fall asleep.
Always remember that you aren’t the only one who’s half asleep, ATC, engineers, loaders, fuelers and other pilots are just as tired and suffering reduced performance so be extra careful.
The fatigue is manageable in a B737 range operation as you won’t be suffering 14 hour sectors with multiple time zone changes and minimum rest like you would on a B777 with Emirates.
There are positives, airspace is less congested with direct to and straight in approaches the norm. Finishing on Friday mornings and starting again on Monday night is very common as well. You are also unlikely to get near flight time limitations either.
Id happily go back to it if the money was the same as I’m on now.
