Interesting article.

For me personally, I draw the line at the suggestion of using Ambien to regulate a sleep cycle. While I admit I have never tried it, lengthening and further empowering the drug dealing arm of the pharmaceutical industry is hardly the answer for our industry. Americans are already grossly over medicated in the name of "better health."

Here is an 2005 new story link based on information provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FOXNews.com - Americans Are Over-Medicated, Experts Say - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News

The only difference between being a legal drug dealer and illegal drug dealer is you will make a heck of a lot more money and enjoy federal, state and local protection if you deal the "legal" kind.

Good point. Funny thing, my company just put together a 3-4 page study on fatigue and ways to prevent it. It was pretty well done I think, but there seemed to be some underlying tones to it.

One of the things seemed to be putting the responsibility on the pilot to not be fatigued. Even though we fly many of the types of schedules outlined here and properly managing sleep cycles with the shifting of show and release times just isn't possible.

The second thing was they said that one of the things that has proven to be effective was the use of caffeine. For some people, maybe. Personally, it doesn't do jack for me to prevent fatigue. But is seemed as if besides the company trying to tell you to manage your "rest" periods better, it also seemed as if they were saying "just drink more coffee and everything will be OK".

Secretary LaHood said the flying public demands "the most-experienced pilot they can have and the most well-rested they can be."

Ha! I must have missed the sorting criteria on Priceline/Expedia/Travelocity that lets passengers input pilot experience and/or rest. This line is total BS - the only thing the public demands is a cheap ticket. I'm sure they would also like a comfortable seat, good food, friendly service and yes an experienced and rested crew - but apparently, based on actual customer behavior, the only thing that they "demand" are cheap fares. How inconvenient to have "facts" interfere with hyperbole.

Scoop

No...the public wants the cheapest fare available. As has been said many times before - the public doesn't set the market price. Raise all tickets prices $100 if the companies will do it. All I'll do when they are all raised is still buy the cheapest ticket I can find whether it was $99 or $199.
Gas prices are a good example. Whether the gas in CA is $1.50 or $3.00 - I still buyu gas - but I'll still buy it from the gas station advertising $3.00/gal over the one across the street advertising $3.10/gal.

USMCFLYR

+1 Agreed!!

The USAF advocates and permits the use of Ambien for pilots. To my knowledge, there hasn't been any adverse scenarios as a result of its use. It is up to the individual to determine if it is helpful in obtaining rest. I personally think that it is a very useful tool in combating fatigue. Operating on the back side of the clock, especially during intl ops is just part of the job. It's not for everyone, but if used selectively, it can be very effective. If you don't want to take it, then it's very simple.....don't take it.

If anyone has a better way of getting 8 hrs of restful sleep (with no side effects by the way) when it's 1300 local, the sun is blazing outside, and you've run out of closepins to seal up the tattered curtains in your hotel room then please let me know. I think the FAA needs to get on board and broaden their horizons for fatigue management.

In a zero sum game where the number of flights remained fixed, this would of course mean a de facto need to increase the gross number of pilots (or was that the number of gross pilots? ).

However, airlines aren't exactly flush with cash right now, or particularly profitable. An equally plausible scenario is that airlines will simply cut back on the amount of routes they fly and reshuffle existing pilots to cover the new work rules.

Or trim back and furlough. This will likely impact the regionals far more than the legacies/majors who already have decent work rules negotiated by their pilot groups. Many regionals, I'm afraid, already operate on the bare legal necessity of rest rules.

Be careful what you wish for, laws of unintended consequences, etc. You will find no stronger proponent for federal laws to address crew rest rules than myself, but I'm sorry to say that from a pilot employment standpoint, this couldn't be happening at a worse time.

I use Ambien a couple times a month when I'm trying to re-orient my sleep cycle for that 0300 wakeup, otherwise there's no way in heck that I can get to sleep at 1900 the day prior without it.

I used Ambien extensively in the USAF when in Iraq and found it to be totally safe (for me). There are some funny stories though as it seems to hit some people a lot harder than others and some not at all. Sometimes it totally knocks me out right away and sometimes its and hour later and I'm still wide awake, but it WILL make me sleep eventually.

Either way, I find it's better than tossing and turning in bed and being bleary eyed the next day.

Well, they're going to have to increase staffing becuase they aren't going to be able to do things like illegals/high speeds or min rest overnights anymore. That means less efficiency of crews(or less beating us like mules)

You are absolutely correct that the John Q. Public wants the cheapest fare available, but I disagree on the rest of your post. Remembering your Economics 101, gas has a much more "inelastic" demand which means a large price change has a minimal affect on demand. Airline tickets; however, are known to be much more "elastic" in demand, which means that a small price change greatly affects demand. Most people have to buy gas to get to work, but unfortunately can do without airline tickets.

Scoop