Ladies and Gentleman,

Its time to act. Go to the CAPA site and write your elected officials, encourage friends, families and others to do the same. The whole process takes less than two minuets as its done electronically for you! Here are the details.


To send a letter to Congress, follow these few simple steps:

1. Go to Home | Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations, click on the "Contact Your Legislators" button on right side of the CAPA Home Page.

2. Under "Current Action Alerts" header, click on "Support These Changes to the FAA's Flight Time/Duty Time NPRM"

3. Enter your zip code in the "Action Alert" box, write your name in the "Your Name" box, enter your sender information below and click "Send Message."
For additional information on this issue, please click on this link "CAPA Flight Time/Duty Time Talking Points"(Flight Time/Duty Time (FT/DT) CAPA Talking Points | Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations).




Here is the end product if you want to cut and paste and send it the old fashion way and also the way you need to send it to Babbitt.

October 27, 2010

[recipient address was inserted here]


Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

As a US commercial pilot reviewing the FAA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(NPRM) on Flight crew member Duty and Rest Requirements I am pleased that
the majority of the NPRM represents an improvement to current regulations
and covers all commercial operations in the spirit of "One Level of
Safety." However, there are some specific items that need to be changed in
order to mitigate fatigue for the professional pilot.

1) The flight time limit should not be increased 25% from 8 hours to
10 hours. 2) The augmented (3 person) flight time limit should not be
increased 25% from 12 to 15 hours. 3) Rest requirements should be 10
hours domestic and 14 hours international. 9 hours, reducible to 8 hours
is not enough time to achieve restorative sleep, eat, and attend to
personal hygiene between duty periods. 4) Domestic augmentation should
not be allowed.

As a professional commercial aviator working at high speed in congested
airspace, and through arduous weather conditions, I can tell you that
fatigue mitigation is paramount to improving the safety of the travelling
public. The NTSB has held fatigue on its "Most Wanted List" for thirty
years because it is a problem that flight crews deal with on a daily
basis. This FAA NPRM will go a long way to reducing fatigue and increasing
safety if these items are addressed.

Sincerely,

 

MODS,
Can you make this a sticky and post it so all forums can see it in each respective category?

 

Thanks for the info and the links.... Took less than 2 minutes.

 

Yup, better write those letters and undermine our best chance for realistic change to 60 year old flight and duty time regs.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the address for Randy Babbit is:

Room 1010
800 Independence Avenue
Washington DC 20591

 

Undermine a chance to fly 10 hours unaugmented........ what were we thinking?

So, 60 years is the limit on common sense? The constitution is over 200 years old, should we re-vamp that now too? (Well, more than is already being attempted by the current idiots)

There may be some aspects of this NPRM that make sense and should be implemented. But, this isn't a negotiation. We shouldn't make concessions to long standing flight/duty limits just get other needed improvements.

 

How about we quit with all the drama and just log on to this web site, follow the easy steps and let your voice be heard.

Mods how about we promote this cause and publish it in every forum? Why is this so hard to do? We are our own worst enemies!

 

I've reviewed the current 121 flag and domestic regs regarding flight and duty rest and compared them to contract standard (Fedex) and proposed changes as outline in the FAA NPRM for flight and duty regs.

I'm curious what aspects you think are so sacrosanct that flushing this proposal is better than the current law? There seems to be a lot of noise over on the Pax boards about the 8 hour rule. Ok, lets talk about it. Current law makes no distinction between when you start flying your 8 hours in a single duty period, just (by inference) how long you can stay on duty (16 hours).
Now I don't do a lot of "normal" morning day starts like the pax guys do, but I can tell you this, I (could) flying longer, more hours during that start of a day than when I typically do. The propose changes would allow more day flying, possibly up to 10 hours (Duty start between 0700-1259 LBT) and less for others. I'm not advocating for the 10 hour change, I think the times when I do fly are still too high, but at least we do have times. EU duty regs make no mention of flight times, just limits on duty time based on time of day the duty starts. Personally I'd give them their 10 hours for an normal am start, because I think it is reasonable, as long as they shorten the allowable flight times when the duty is arduous.

We at Fedex have some caveat's in our contract that allow us to fly to FAR duty limits. Some guy flying a load of people complaining about flying over 8 hours rings a little hollow. Under the current law he too can be extended to 16 hours, long enough that he'll miss happy hour. When we have an operational emergency, we can be extended to almost the start of the next happy hour. When having been awake all night, thats a bad thing.
Is flying more than 8 hours more fatiguing than less, absolutely, the less the better always. Is 8 equal at any time of day, absolutely not. Can we live with 9 (or possibly 10) hours during any part of the day? If you don't think so, I guess you don't make very many night sorties. We need this duty relief and the proposals to increase some allowable flight times are not unreasonable, as long as some FTL limits are reduced.

 

Did it. Thanks

 

Done. Sent