"Typical work week?"
 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm just gathering some very basic information to see if my research topic would be worth looking into further. I want to address circadian rhythm as it relates to airline pilots.

1.) I was wondering what your typical work schedule looked like? Is it 4 on 3 off, 5 on 4 off, or something to that extent?

2.) How often do you traverse different time zones without returning to the time zone in which you began the flight? Is it every day or is it often such as 3 of 4 days?

3.) How often do you change "shifts" during that week such as day to night, night to day, etc? Is this somewhat often, often, everyday, never, etc?

Thanks for your help!
TBC

I change my shirt 3 times a week, oh you mean shift

Well I would hope you change your shirt at least 3 times a week...

erm....:S

Well then at least I shower twice a week....

Your questions are kind of hard to answer because the answers are different for what airplane one flies and whether one flies domestic or international. Generally speaking domestic trips at my airline range from 1 to 5 days and up to 13 days for international. Smaller narrowbody (DC9 etc) aircraft probably don't transition as many time zones but fly many legs while larger narrowbodies (737, 757) tend to fly less legs but fly coast to coast. (At least at my airline)

International to Europe usually starts with an allnighter with a 24 hour layover and then flies all day back from Europe.

Denny

Shall we tell him about coming home from Asia, where you leave at noon on Sunday, and you land at 11am on...Sunday.

I call it the time machine, after flying 11 hours, you land before you took off!

Try this for "three" days flying:

1930 departure EWR-MOW, 23 hour layover, 0700 departure from MOW-HKG, 12 hour layover, 1000 departure from HKG-SYD. That's about 15 hours of time change in 3-4 days, depending on your calculations.

GF

Ya, but you left out the part about sitting in coach with screaming babies and no sleep and the 3 days to recover after no sleep for about 24+ hrs after a min rest.

I'm an expat working 5 days on 2 days off. Home every night. Earliest departure from my base for our fleet is 0830. Latest RTB is 2210. Fed on every sector. Positioning in business class when required. Rostered an average 60 to 70 hours a month. Once a month we fly to DXB with a two night layover. Easy to swap out as the locals like the DXB layover.

I figured they were slightly rough due to as you mentioned routes and equipment. I was just looking for some quick basic info and if I decide to pursue the topic further I would be much more specific in a survey. Thanks for the info I truly appreciate it!