So kind of interesting as it just "hit my radar screen" today. Do all the pilots flying international realize that FAR 117 is going to force layovers greater than 36 hours for international flights over 7 to 8 hours or so?
Here is a summary from another post I made:
The Flight Duty Period is counted from the last time the crew was "Acclimated". Acclimated means 72 hours in "Theater" or after 36 hours rest. So for the trip EWR-GRU-EWR when the pilots show up for the return leg they have to look back and ask "when were we last acclimated?' The answer is when they left EWR . . . SO . . . the Flight Duty Period is considered to be BOTH legs and is limited by the table below. The result of this rule will be 36 hour layovers on all international flights that have round trip totals greater than 15 hours to 19 hours depending on the departure time and augmentation level.
§ 117.17 Flight duty period: Augmented flightcrew.
(a) For flight operations conducted with an acclimated augmented flightcrew, no certificate holder may assign and no flightcrew member may accept an assignment if the scheduled flight duty period will exceed the limits specified in Table C of this part.
(b) If the flightcrew member is not acclimated:
(1) The maximum flight duty period in Table C of this part is reduced by 30 minutes.
(2) The applicable flight duty period is based on the local time at the theater in which the flightcrew member was last acclimated.
§ 117.3 Definitions.
Acclimated means a condition in which a flightcrew member has been in a theater for 72 hours or has been given at least 36 consecutive hours free from duty.
9 day Asia lines with 80+ hours just became 12 day lines, and 12 day European lines just became 16 days unless they augment the European trips under 19 hours with another pilot.