Piloto Noche

In my twelve years at FedEx, I've raised the F flag twice. Both times were as a first officer and in both instances, there were no negative consequences whatsoever. The trips were simply re-written and we continued on with our revised schedule.

Lately, I've been asking others I've flown with if they have ever used the 'fatigue' bullet and surprisingly, very few have. These same pilots can also relate stories of flying horrible trips with very high drool factors. So, my question to them was, why didn't you call in fatigued? The answers are always varied but I think I can see an underlying theme. I believe a lot of people don't do it because of a fear of the unknown....What will the duty officer say? Will I be charged sick leave? Will I get in trouble or put up on the horizon for being a weak player?

I don't know, this is all just speculation based on my own observations. I have a feeling that the rare fatigue call is quietly dealt with from the company's perspective and the rest of us are clueless as to how many are actually using the fatigue call. Would it be a good idea to somehow track and publish the circumstances surrounding the fatigue calls? Would you like to know when and on what pairing an anonymous crew threw in the towel? Could our PSIT guys somehow get that info out to us? Would it make a crew feel better about using the fatigue call if they knew others were using it too?

Some of today's' pairings make me fatigued just looking at them. Yuk.

MaydayMark

I flew with a f/o about a year ago, and when he called in fatigued for a disputed pairing (from HKG), he was deadheaded directly back to MEM so he could explain to Flight Management why he wasn't properly rested for duty?


As it turns out, he'd made a reasonable effort to sleep (despite short layovers and circadian issues) and he was not disiplined ... but, just the threat of disipline might be the reason so few folks think twice about calling in fatiqued?

Now ... if we could just get management to think that "maybe, just maybe" fatigue is the reason our accident rate is so high? Or at least get management pilot to fly the disputed pairings?

Mark

hamfisted

Don't count on any SCP/ACPs to be the pilot advocate on anything to do with "fatigue" or DPs. SCP blocks his calendar and the ACPs who allow access to their calendar fly maybe one or two pm out-and-backs per month. When having to try to explain being "fatigued" to an ACP who never experiences the optimizer first hand, how understanding do you think they will be?

Piloto Noche

So, what I'm hearing here is a reluctance to call in fatigued because of the chance of having to explain my decision to an ACP?

This is why we get paid the big bucks. If I have to make a safety decision based on a fatigued situation, I'm going to do it. Also, as a Captain, if my F/O is fatigued, We're BOTH fatigued. I won't leave him hangin' out there all by himself like I had a Captain do to me.

Let's see, end up in a flaming ball of fire at the end of the runway or talk to some knuckle-head cubicle driver in a set of dockers and cheap loafers....Hmmmm. Tough Choice!

fdx727pilot

I've done it once, when I was on reserve. Arrived in MEM on the inbound flight, feeling like c$$p because thunderstorms all afternoon had kept me from sleeping. Checked in with CRS and after being told I had a new assignment, called fatigued, and told the scheduler why. No repurcussion, other than the loss of one R-days pay.

MD11HOG

Used it once as a S/O on the 727. We were being used every night on Indy Hotel Standby and after the 3rd night my hotel room in Denver took 2 hours before it was ready. 2 hours of sleep(8hours legal rest) and go back to Indy that night. Sceds turned us through INDY to PHL. Then they wanted an out and back to get an empty plane back to Indy. When I got to PHL, I thought
to myself I wouldn't drive a car and I'm not going to get back on the jet. I had documented the hotel problems so I had some back-up. The captain told the duty officer "My s/o is fatigued" and handed the phone to me. The DO just asked me to send her an e-mail with the facts and I never heard a word about it.

USNFDX

If you have an incident, violation, or an accident. The last thing that you will be able to do is play the "fatigue card".

From the FOM

2.5 FATIGUE
It is the crewmember’s responsibility to be
properly rested for each phase of the trip.
However, if circumstances prevent this, no
FedEx crewmember should feel pres-
sured to fly when not properly rested. A
crewmember who is fatigued should imme-
diately notify Crew Scheduling if unable to
complete a trip.

With the FOM, and the new language in the CBA, The company has basically legally washed their hands of any fatigue issues.

If you are fatigued do to no fault of your own,
(IE j/s in turn to NRT, or out partying all night)

Then it is you duty and your job not operate when fatigued!

Harassment from the DO or an ACP should be reported to the union.

fedupbusdriver

I was on an afternoon airport standby once, and got paged. We were to J/S to Indy to fly a jet one leg. When we got there, Indy knew nothing about us. They started checking, and found out that a crew that was on a four leg revised pairing though Indy, told Mem scheduling that they were calling in fatigued when they landed in Indy, but changed there mind. I am just glad that they didn't have a mishap on that last leg.

Fedex999999

When I was in the back of the Boeing, we were doing the MEM-BUF-Ottawa trip. The sort was late, so we were late getting to BUF. When we got there, customs paperwork for some cargo from China was missing/incorrect (not our fault, this isn't the paperwork we check for). We were delayed while they worked throught that (everyone in MEM was gone by then, ramp in ANC was not staffed then, so no one to help.) After drooling for over an hour, the f/o said, no way. We are going to the hotel. We had an 8 hour nap at the hotel, and continued to Ottawa. Never heard a thing.

Piloto Noche

This is just the kind of weak **** Captain I hated to fly with. Really looking out for his crew there, wasn't he? Hope he wasn't a Marine.