Originally Posted by
Brad4est
Sorry, I'm a bit late to the discussion, but ..
Domestically it is not the 30 in 7 that will cause major changes to our schedule, but the 8 in 24 rule. Currently, under supplemental rules, we can fly more than 8 in 24 as long as there is an intervening legal rest period. (See Part 121. 505) Many of our flights, domestically, use this ability to exceed 8 in 24. Under Flag Operations, you can only fly 8 in 24, period, intervening rest period or not.
The Flag change will impact quite a few of our trips domestically and how they are built, all to our benefit. Perhaps not surprisingly, when I asked the Flt Ops rep at my last training class about this, they were unaware there were different rules and hadn't looked at how it would impact our schedule at all. I personally think it will be fairly significant, especially on the west coast trips and multi-leg trips the optimizer so loves.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the 8 in 24 problems were rather recent - we don't have a history of them here at Fedex. Company just started doing it in the last few months and supposedly they are all fixed in the Sep bidpacks (there were still a few in August but most were fixed). They really don't work for line building except under 4a2b where you don't have as much concern about min days off. If there's a history of 8 in 24 flights then please elaborate.
In addition, flag ops block limits 121.481
FAR Part § 121.481: Flight time limitations: One or two pilot crews -- FAA FARS, 14 CFR have very similar rest requirements for pilots that exceed 8 in 24 - it is clearly allowed.
The comments on the manning changes to Flag Ops didn't come from me - they came from JG and the rest of the NC at an LEC meeting and they sounded like they had done their homework.