Last minute change of ETD

[MonarchOrBust]

Consider the following situation (all times are local):

After 2 days off, I’m rostered for a 13 hour duty with ETD 0630. Report time is 0530.

Alarm goes off 0430. I wake up to find a text message from crewing (sent 2 hours before). They advise of delayed departure. New ETD 0930.

I’ve lost 3 hours of sleep due to this last minute of change. Legally, my duty does not start until 0830. After 13 hours of duty, my day will end just after 2130. I will have been awake for 17 hours.

In this case, very high levels of fatigue are guaranteed. What protections if any are there in place for this kind of thing and if there are none what would you as a crew member be telling crewing?

Thanks

[de facto]

Seriously..set your alarm,use silent mode when you go to sleep..cant be that hard.
If your phone doesnt have the option to do it,buy a new one.

[Denti]

You missed the point. The phone didn't wake up, but his report time was moved back by a couple hours.

And no, as far as i know there is nothing in EU-OPS or EASA FTL against that practice, except a rather feeble plea to not disrupt sleeping patterns.

However, if you get fatigued during duty or know before you start your duty that you are very likely to become fatigued you should be able to call in unfit to fly, either during the rotation (if it consists of several sectors) or before the start of the duty.

Or simply roll over and sleep for another three hours.

[Piltdown Man]

The first thing is, what does your Ops. Manual say about contacting you to delay your reporting time? The second item is this:

...when the delay is less than 4 hours, the maximum FDP is calculated based on the original reporting time and the FDP starts counting at the delayed reporting time

I presume they did stick to this...

[MonarchOrBust]

Thanks so far.

I stopped flying for this airline a few months ago. It was a medium sized European charter. I've looked through the OM-A and cannot find anything in relation to a delayed reporting time. I also checked the same for the airline before that (HK region) and nothing within their too.

I've located the quote above in the EASA docs now so thanks for that. So bottom line is, it's completely legitimate. One offs I suppose are fine but at the previous airline this was a weekly and sometimes twice weekly occurrence. The legislation is so week in this regard it defies belief! For most it's not possible to get more sleep after waking up once - that's the reality of it anyway.

[Lord Spandex Masher]

As far as I can remember you can only have your report delayed before you leave home, so....didn't get/see the text until after you left.

[de facto]

I didnt really get it true...still,your alarm went off as planned...you then got a text that your flight was delayed..well great get another 3 hours rest on the house...whats the biggy?unless you automatically fall asleep after being up for 16 hours...
Not every duty assumes you need to sleep just before it starts..you manage your sleep..thats half the work being an airline pilot..

[MonarchOrBust]

you then got a text that your flight was delayed..well great get another 3 hours rest on the house...whats the biggy?

The point is, the message could have turned up at the point one is starting their car. One's phone could be switched off or on silent. One does not even have to answer it up until the report time in theory! What counts as "revised ETD information has been passed on" anyway? What if I turn up, and it's the first time I know about it?

[Lord Spandex Masher]

Like I said above. You can't delay a report after you've left home. They can't assume you've received a text message. Therefore, you are on duty from your original check in time.