Transcon turns are a piece of cake. JFK-LAS-JFK with a 0700 show and a 1930 check out with 10:30 block is far easier to do than the current flight schedule.

The current transcon flights have for example: a 0700 show, arrive at LAS at 1030 local. You go to your hotel room for a 10-11 hour 'rest'. Ever try sleeping in a LAS hotel with all the traffic in the hallway?? Kids, drunks, winners and loosers talking at 95 decibels?? Good luck getting any rest. Then you get up at 21-2200 local [0000 to 0200 EST] and fly all night back to JFK, with poor rest if any, in the night during your normal sleep times. NOT very safe, but happens all the time since it is FAA legal. [FAA stupid IMO]

If the exemption [it is an exemption, not a FAA rule change] gets submited and goes through it will be for daytime or normal awake time periods only. No transcon red-eyes.

I also believe that if the trip goes into open time, that if it is assigned to a reservist, [not voluntarily picked up by a lineholder] then it may have to be heavy crewed, since only a person requesting this type of flight should have to fly one. I also believe that the FAA. if they approve the exemption. will require a heavy crew if the weather is below certain minimums on the second leg. This is pure guess work. The request for the exemption has not been filed with the FAA yet. [and may never be filed]

The research is done, the legal but unsafe flights with the day sleeps had very poor performance by the testing pilots, and the transcon turns had very good performance. I know since I was one of the pilots flying the flights and doing the alertness-testing and research.

I agree that some airlines would attempt to make some real nightmare schedules if they could. But if this exemption is filed and approved [unforturantely unlikely] then I believe it will have many stipulations attached to it to provide far more safety than the current rest rules provide.

ICAO rules would allow a JFK-LAS-JFK, and nobody is saying that ICAO rules are unsafe., I'm hopefull for this exemption, but I'm not holding my breath for it either.

B6guy

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