Originally Posted by
Flytolive
In theory you are correct, but we all know in practice it is a bit more gray.
I agree that if it the proposals have a negative impact on safety we should turn it down outright, but Probe asked, "I cannot, for the life of me, understand why we would want to make it difficult and expensive to operate our most profitable airplanes, on routes a lot of pilots dream of flying (not me, I hate long haul)."
My #1 answer was SAFETY! I am glad you agree.
I do agree with you. If we are not able to fly these ULH flights safely with the changes in the AIP, then we should turn it down. Always. And there shouldn't be any discussion on the issue further. Which means we have no negotiating leverage.
As I get ready for my 2 leg all-nighter tonight, I suspect that a 4 pilot crew extending their duty day 30 minutes probably would be able to accomplish the flight safely. But I'm not there so I can't really speak for them. But they will ALWAYS have the right and responsibility to call in fatigued, as we all do