Originally Posted by
XtremeF150
No I think the confusion is in Duty Day. There is no regulation about a duty day. You just can't accept a FLIGHT assignment unless you have had at least 8 hours min rest in the past 24 hours. If the duty day is extended DH or 91 flight, you can not return to duty for 121 flying until you have had a legal rest period. I do agree that Mesa sucks and mainly because they try to convince all the new hires to accept crappy assignment like this.
This situation was completely legal...what the regs don't come out and clearly say, but is obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense is that all of the FAR flight & duty time regs exist to prevent you from conducting 121 operations while fatigued (lets not get into their effectiveness right now
)
The FAR's DO NOT IN ANY WAY exist to prevent the company from making you work long days or go without sleep...the FAA does not give a rat's @zz about you after the 121 flying is done!
If you are DONE conducting 121 operations, the duty regs are legally COMPLETELY NON-APPLICABLE...you can fly 91 and/or deadhead all you like as long as you are not serving as a 121 crewmember (JS-ing doesn't count here). The only thing you have to ensure is that all of your required rest and flight time limits are complied with PRIOR TO YOUR NEXT 121 FLIGHT.
The only remotely gray area here is compensatory rest, because the exact wording of that reg reads as though you must start compensatory rest within 24 hours of the start of reduced rest...the real-world application of this is that it only applies in the middle of a trip where more 121 flying will occur after the rest...if you are done with 121 work, the company doesn't even have to give you compensatory rest. Again, the FAA does not care about you or your beauty sleep, and they did not write a reg to force the company to be nice to you!