Rest Day prior to a 8 day leave
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Rest Day prior to a 8 day leave
I am not the pilot but the 6 year ME-EK-buddy (wife). If you have a Washington flight - in a normal schedule, when could you fly earliest the next leg? Does 'augmenting' make a difference? Yes, my husband could explain - but . . . ;-) I am just frustrated that I have to start our leave with a mummy . . . .
Last edited by Big06; 26th Oct 2012 at 16:40.
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IMHO it is not a good idea to expect your pilot husband to go directly on leave immediately after working a long block of max duty /min. rest rosterd Days/nights when he is totally jet lagged and now deeply fatigued by the straw stress of middle east airline flying into the mummy state you noticed.
I saw people do it in G.F. and they seemed to suffer early age cancers, heart attacks and some had SCA going on their leave flight.
Consider letting him sleep off the jet lag and give him time to rewind his mental tapes... allow him 36 hours of horizontal rest if he feels he needs it...you will find he ages less quickly and is in a better mood and will live longer...of course if you do actually enjoy an increasingly grumpy older man or wish his demise...push him 24/7 to be a normal husband...
Having been jet lagged for years pilots are rarely normal husbands... especially if they have pushy wives... demanding they be normal husbands...this normally results in an ex pushy wife and financially poor pilot...around age 40 seemed to be the pilot age to change pushy wives in Gulf Air. I hope this helps and you understand he is flying himself into ill health for his family and you.
I saw people do it in G.F. and they seemed to suffer early age cancers, heart attacks and some had SCA going on their leave flight.
Consider letting him sleep off the jet lag and give him time to rewind his mental tapes... allow him 36 hours of horizontal rest if he feels he needs it...you will find he ages less quickly and is in a better mood and will live longer...of course if you do actually enjoy an increasingly grumpy older man or wish his demise...push him 24/7 to be a normal husband...
Having been jet lagged for years pilots are rarely normal husbands... especially if they have pushy wives... demanding they be normal husbands...this normally results in an ex pushy wife and financially poor pilot...around age 40 seemed to be the pilot age to change pushy wives in Gulf Air. I hope this helps and you understand he is flying himself into ill health for his family and you.
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I actually did not ask for marriage counselling 
And it is interesting to see that wifes are a bigger threat than company policy 
But do not worry, I am the 2nd one already, we are far above 40 YO and I do have a fulltime job with a decent salary. I think it is just not fair that the company does not allow the employee to relax in the home country - or only after 36 hours rest using leave days. But true, my discussion here will not bring back the times where a min of two off-days prior to hols was the rule. Just an idea for those who can influence these policies . . .
And it is interesting to see that wifes are a bigger threat than company policy But do not worry, I am the 2nd one already, we are far above 40 YO and I do have a fulltime job with a decent salary. I think it is just not fair that the company does not allow the employee to relax in the home country - or only after 36 hours rest using leave days. But true, my discussion here will not bring back the times where a min of two off-days prior to hols was the rule. Just an idea for those who can influence these policies . . .
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40&80, splendid post as usual. But, what does IMHO mean ? I see it quite a lot. I also see her point although you are correct. I worked for a few airlines in my 40 year career & not one had an "agreement" to roster days off before and/after rostered leave. The better ones did try, succeeded, leaving us to think it was an agreement. I too worked out of the Middle East and there was no "Agreement" but the company did understand the expat problem & tried very hard to roster days off either side of leave. Oh, I also have an exwife who never understood the airline problem, became pushy & I suffered many leave starts, jet-lagged & irritable. I also got very annoyed having to travel back on a leave day in order to start a ten day mission that started at 1200(L). Ex wife thought that a ten day mission was extended leave as all we did was to loll around swimming pools of first class hotels...........................oh, but that is another story.
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Big06 - think that poster missed the point of you're question....
Washington - depends if any variation is in place, in theory he could fly again after rest but would be very limited as to what - short-mid haul at best.
Augmenting - only helps for the flight he operates not when he can operate next
Leave - Its not great as i also suspect when hubby returns from leave he should be acclimatised (3hr time zone shift)to you're local time for a lot of the flights he operates, so on paper he should be back 3 nights before he flys....
Happy Hols
Washington - depends if any variation is in place, in theory he could fly again after rest but would be very limited as to what - short-mid haul at best.
Augmenting - only helps for the flight he operates not when he can operate next
Leave - Its not great as i also suspect when hubby returns from leave he should be acclimatised (3hr time zone shift)to you're local time for a lot of the flights he operates, so on paper he should be back 3 nights before he flys....
Happy Hols
Hang on, so flight deck crew don't get any RDO/XX prior to LV? There's one I hadn't heard before. CC get 1 XX before or after (sometimes both if they are lucky) but maybe that's because they only get 30 days a year not 42?
Can't you guys bid your days off to join on to your leave? Or do the rostering people kill that manually? Have to admit they surprised us this month with nearly everyone I know getting 5 day off strings they didn't bid for, or days off before AND after leave.... what is going on, did scheduling get abducted by aliens? Following a suggestion on here I've been bidding days off in reverse before leave and almost always getting it now.
Can't you guys bid your days off to join on to your leave? Or do the rostering people kill that manually? Have to admit they surprised us this month with nearly everyone I know getting 5 day off strings they didn't bid for, or days off before AND after leave.... what is going on, did scheduling get abducted by aliens?
Following a suggestion on here I've been bidding days off in reverse before leave and almost always getting it now.
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ULR's before leave
I brought up the subject of ULR's before leave at one of the management wrap ups a while ago.
It seems that it is more efficient to roster them that way, as the required two nights off after the duty on our time (i.e. leave) is better than losing 2 days out of the company productivity days!
It seems that it is more efficient to roster them that way, as the required two nights off after the duty on our time (i.e. leave) is better than losing 2 days out of the company productivity days!
Same goes for emergency leave. If you have to take it, be aware they imply it will come out of the balance coming for the next leave bid period, however check your upcoming leave and magically the next rostered leave will be minus however many EL days you took.... 
'Coz emergency leave usually entails something fun, duh 
'Coz emergency leave usually entails something fun, duh
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Just worth noting that the company requires the employee to be in Dubai 24 hours before the return to duty but as stated above, the company allows you to have 1 min off before your leave commences! As fair a deal as you would/could ever expect!
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Agree, 1 day XX prior to leave would be fair - but is not the case as I stated. Maybe I missed what you are referring to. 2 days XX afterwards is scheduled - and yes, I do respect the requirement to have a rested pilot on duty. But using vacation days to recover from long haul is short term human capital management. That might sound stupid now, as in a "normal ground operating workforce", vacation is meant for recovery from duty. [And that is where I am placed. No, no, nothing to do with any airline.] But you guys obviously have a different job - IMHO. Though a Sun-Thu 8-5 plus BlackBerry can be tough as well 
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Perhaps this approach to leave should also apply to all of our office staff. Currently, 5 days leave taken within 2 weekends can result in 9 days off. Maybe our illustrious HR should count the two weekend 'off' days before as leave too.
But then of course, that would affect them wouldn't it! And we all know how hard some of our colleagues work in HQ, especially certain individuals in the wonderfully efficient service center........
PLEASE, stop talking to your colleagues for 5 minutes between every ticket, stop texting on your fancy phone, stop looking at your nails every few minutes while we all wait, stop taking extended breaks, stop going for those extended breaks with just one ticket left to serve and stop pretending to look busy on the computer when we all know you're doing bugger all! Do what you're actually paid to do and START WORKING. IT'S YOUR JOB!!
Harry
But then of course, that would affect them wouldn't it! And we all know how hard some of our colleagues work in HQ, especially certain individuals in the wonderfully efficient service center........
PLEASE, stop talking to your colleagues for 5 minutes between every ticket, stop texting on your fancy phone, stop looking at your nails every few minutes while we all wait, stop taking extended breaks, stop going for those extended breaks with just one ticket left to serve and stop pretending to look busy on the computer when we all know you're doing bugger all! Do what you're actually paid to do and START WORKING. IT'S YOUR JOB!!
Harry
