Originally Posted by
UpThere
One of the scheduling problems we face as a pilot is getting our circadian rhythm out of whack. Most "normal" people get up in the morning, go to work, come home, go to bed, with other activities in between. Flying on the back side of the clock, i.e. all night can really wear you down. Also, swtiching between early and late flying times back to back. An example of that would be getting up a 5am on day 1 to fly from 6:30 am until 6:30 pm. Then, on day 2 you don't report to fly until 2:30 pm and you finish at 3:00 am. These are the type of things that wear you down and also have an overall effect on your health. Something else you might want to mention in your speech in the fact that the NTSB has made reccomendations for the FAA to change the hours of flying, hours to remain on duty, and rest requirements for pilots. The FAA has not changed these regulations in decades.
that's a really good point. at colgan we have these lines where the first half the month you are doing 2 PM show time and working till 11:30 PM... and then the latter half of the month you are 5 AM show times (working 5 AM to 2 PM for example). or the first two days of the week is an afternoon/night shift and then the last day of the week is a early morning shift. so we have to stay up until midnight one day and then a day or two later, be able to go to sleep at 8 PM. completely unnatural and almost impossible.