Originally Posted by
DAL 88 Driver
The track record for CDO's ("SDP's") in this industry is clear. Guys like them and bid them because it allows them to be home every day and do whatever it is they want/need to do. They do not sleep during the day. The only sleep they get is whatever sleep the CDO provides. There may be rare exceptions to that, but the track record is clear that the vast majority do exactly as I described. Operating a flight (whether it's a short flight or a long flight) on maybe 3 or 4 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period is UNSAFE. Period.
If we ever get these horrid things, I will not sign the release to operate that morning flight. If I can't avoid the trip, I'll be forced to call in fatigued for the morning flight. Do you really want to put Delta pilots in that position?
Again with the litany of non sequiturs.
First of all, what "records"? Numerous airlines do SDP's (many with considerably less protections than we had in the TA that I didn't like, and WAY less protections than I'm advocating as a minimum) so where are these records that are supposedly settled law?
We live and work in a 24 hour world. We can't reverse engineer circadian babysitting of rogue pilots who shoot type A between their toes every chance they get trying to run side businesses and be super parent or whatever. Some pilots may like SDP's because they can work all day at home and fly on 1 hour of sleep or whatever. But guess what? Some pilots like long haul international for that exact same reason. Domestic trips with day sleeps and red eyes. Home by breakfast for a full day's work chopping firewood while day trading, then a quick little league double header before another evening report.
How about all those 5am reports we do? Do you
really think every single pilot is fast asleep by 7 or 8PM getting uninterrupted full cycle REM restorative sleep every single time? Have you ever done a report that early and not gotten a
full uninterrupted 8 hours? Did you call out fatigued? Every single time?
There is
nothing in SDP's, if done reasonably, that is any less safe than a lot of flying every single 121 operator already does safely every single day.
If you are so opposed to them, and you somehow get one, and you are automatically going to call in fatigued in the morning no matter what, then do what you have to do. Safety first, and if you're not fit to fly then its what you must do.
But pulling the panic cord on something that a lot of pilots actually like and is in
fact no less safe than many other operations we currently do doesn't do us any good. Funny thing is, SDP's would likely replace a lot of 30 hour layovers with early AM reports followed by long 4-5 leg days. Hope every single pilot gets to sleep by 7PM every single time, or those would also lead to tons of fatigue calls too, right? At least the duty day in question is 10 times longer with the same report time and likely on the same amount of actual sleep, so there's that.