Originally Posted by
Han Solo
This makes sense and was my gut feeling. Doesn't make the 0345 wake-ups any easier. I feel for people whose body clocks aren't on EST, it's rough for anybody waking up at 0345 EST, I can't imagine the poor pilots who are acclimated to mountain or pacific time who have the 0530 departure out of CAE or ILM.
You would have really hated the trips 20 years ago! We almost planted a 727 in the pine trees 6 miles short of the runway in ATL after 3 consecutive days of those early wake ups for a West coast crew. They were getting up at midnight to 1am. That finally led to changes but someone still has to fly the trips. We are a 24 hour airline.