Lots of sectors vs long haul
 

What are the affects on the body with say 4, 2 hour sectors, up and down, pressurising etc over a period of 5/6 days against an 8-10 flight with a rest day after it, then another.
I guess you would have to consider jet lag on the long haul option but when I see the water bottles expanding and contracting all day long and I'm exhausted, I'm wondering if long haul would be better because its 1 up, 1 down.

Any material out there on this?

Rgds
SS

G'day Skid,
I spent around 10 years flying the B747-400, mostly on ultra long haul sectors and while I enjoyed it, the people, the places we went and a great aeroplane I'm glad I made the move to another great aeroplane that operates far shorter sectors, the B767. The move also allowed me to get my command.
I noticed that after about six months on the B767 I became aware that I felt much better than I'd felt for a long time and put it down to being completely free of ingrained jetlag. I always felt tired on the B747 but it's part of life so you don't notice it so much until you stop doing it.
As a comparison, when on the B747 I'd fly around 90 sectors a year and get to operate around half of those my self. In my first year in Command on the B767 I logged around 350 sectors and flew a little under half of them my self. Total hours for the year was pretty much the same for both types, just short of 800 hrs.
So, much busier days on the B767 but no jetlag, as the max zone change is only 2 hours, which is a real killer and the fun factor is certainly better probably because I'm now in the LHS.
Regards,
BH.
P.S. One of these days I'm gunna leave all the typos in and see if anyone can read it.:8

Having done both, I'm a firm believer in Horses for Courses.

If you have the opportunity you should definitely try both, to find out which type of flying your body is best suited to - then listen to what it's telling you.

The good news is, despite all the scare stories, no-one has ever proved one type of flying does more permanent harm to health than the other. This assumes you take the precautions indicated by the life-style e.g. drink plenty of water and use sun screen for long-haul, take meal and other breaks whenever possible and live within reasonable distance of base for short-haul.

Albert Driver brings up an interesting point; what constitutes 'within reasonable distance of base' - any research available?

Skid, I doubt whether any specific experiments have been performed in this area, but you could use http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=PubMed as a starting point. Use the keywords "airline AND pilot" and take it from there.

Most of the studies into pilot health I've seen, appear to be concerned with the effects of sun exposure, not shift patterns.

If your querying pilot mortality, (when you will die), you may be better asking the insurance guys. You may find information on morbidity, (how you will live), on pubmed or glean some further information on here.

Cheers,

ginge:)