marcal

This x1,000,000.

Granted I always did Asia, but I NEVER woke myself up when my body wanted to sleep. I'd rather go to the jet with an hour of sleep and take first rest on the way home. You'll will be amazed to see how you can function on such small amounts of sleep. Some will say, "well thats not showing up rested for a flight". Well, you are now flying international and its impossible to always show up rested for flight. It is necessary to rest on the airplane(physiologically speaking not legally).

For instance, using Europe as an example I personally wouldn't wake myself up. I'd rather sleep until I wake up(possibly at 5PM europe time-Noon at home) and stay up until 5am in Europe(midnight at home) and sleep for two hours and then go to work and try and get first rest(most don't like first rest so it shouldn't be that hard to get).

Finally, even if you can't sleep in the bunk, simply resting with your eyes shut will actually go along way. If we had "controlled rest" like every ICAO carrier out there it would be even better. I loved naps in the seat for 20 mins. When you can't keep your eyes open in the flight deck, those 20 mins can carry you another 3-4 hours.

DrunkIrishman

I’ve never been a big fan of hitting the ground running. The times I’ve done it, I’ve slept like a champ that night so maybe that’s the way to go. I normally take a nap and then switch to European time. I sleep well there and catch a nap on the way home.

Mach86

The thread reviver seems new to international and wants to have fun on layovers. So while the sleep when you’re tired is a great strategy for a boring layover, it doesn’t allow for the fun factor.

There are also other implications. Flying out of the Middle East, Australian layovers used to be a killer for me. Leave at 10 in the morning, fly 14 hours, land at 6 in the morning. Everything in Australia closes at 6pm, so if you don’t force yourself up for lunch, you’re not going to have anything to do, and limited options for food. Apart from pubs nothing is open in the evenings.

The length of the layover plays a part too. While you can wing a 24 hour layover staying on your home time, it gets really tough with longer layovers. We used to do a 48hrs LAX with the previous company. 16-hour flight and a 12 time zone difference. It was too long of a layover not to semi-convert to PT.

Everyone has their techniques on how yo deal with it, but it’s hard not to believe that this lifestyle doesn’t take a toll on your health in the long term.

JustNarced

The issue with domestic is the number of trips that have max FDP ( the same length of duty as a WB with half the crew) with three to four legs, airport standby and out west, something like 65% have redeyes. At least with international you can step away from the cockpit and know that you aren't rerouting into a shorter layover.

The -88 was the best kept secret. 5 to 6 hours of credit, no redeyes and something like 85% commutable. Paid nearly the same as 320 and 737.

I am curious how 320 LAX would be if you could hold just SNA trips. The airport has a curfew and a reroute would have to get you back to SNA.

sailingfun

They can return you to any airport and surface transport you to where the rotation started. You might be confusing reroute with recovery flying.

JustNarced

I probably am. Thanks for reminding me. It was filed away, deep in the back of my brain, the dilapidated Allied Airbus econo van ride from LAX to ONT. I believe this driver had five functions in life; eat, sleep, breath, gas and brake. Brake and gas were binary and connected to breathing at the subconscious level.

freezingflyboy

Agreed. When I was new to international and had my hair on fire to see everything and do everything, I'd often hit the ground running and just fuel on caffeine till dinner. But don't over do it! Id usually grab an espresso leaving the hotel and maybe another or a coke at lunchtime. My technique when I had a big layover planned was to ask for 3rd break and then on some of the longer van rides, I'd intentionally try to grab at least 20-30 mins of shuteye on the way to the hotel. Make no mistake, you will feel like death at a certain point but its doable. Personally, keeping moving/active really took the edge off some of the circadian swaps.

Oh it absolutely does. After a year or two of "gotta do everything, see everything" I settled into the standard 4-5 hour nap at the hotel, wake up feeling like death but drag my butt to the gym or out for a run, meet for dinner routine. My personal rule was to cut off caffeine after lunch and alcohol 3 hours before my planned bedtime. I had good results with these techniques but I still had to deal (like most people do) with the 2am-5am unforced wake up period from time to time.

notEnuf

The issue with ocean crossings is there’s an unwritten rule that thou shall not call in fatigued when out of country.

BusBoi

There's something else no one points but I've realized: personal hygiene. Specifically, before any redeye I brush my teeth and make sure I shower, almost as if I was going to bed.

I work for a ULCC right now (lots of redeyes) and was briefly a legacy FA some years ago. Europe flying is awesome and there's a reason it generally goes so senior for FAs.

jaxsurf

I’ve never flown a redeye before (for an airline); would you mind expanding on this? Is it just for general comfort, or what? Or are people stinky on their redeyes or something?