rickair7777

Yeah, I think 99% of my pairings are 12 hours or less...we don't need 16 hour days to get our days off.

But I don't think the cause of the train crash was fatigue...I think the guy was heads-down text messaging! That's really bad judgement, not fatigue.

ImEbee

Thats what duty rigs are for.

captain152

CAP I'm with Colgan also down in IAH, and the lines down there are pretty much what you described ... but I don't think the problem is with scheduling us to work more than 10-12 hours. The problem is the fact that when WX/MX/etc. decide to start impacting our day and drag it out another 2-4 hours, it starts the wear and tear. Management can schedule us to work 10-12 hour days all they want, but when the brown starts to hit the fan, when does one call it a day and being in someone else to help finish? When is the fatigue too much to handle? Management isn't out there flying those planes around after those long hours, but if the pilot tries to call in they get threatened with a miss trip. Where do you draw the line? BTW, how is everything up there, I've heard it's going really well!

skywatch

He's right. If you want to work 8 hour days like cubicle monkeys, than plan on living in base like they do, and plan on 8 days off a month like they have. It is that simple. If you want to be paid by the hour for time on duty, no problem. Negotiate that in the next contract. Just don't figure on the same rates you have now. I bet in the end, your pay doesn't change much, and your duty days are shorter, but you lose a few days off and that makes commuting that much harder.

RuttR

Originally Posted by RuttR
But they're still allowed to text message??? Our company just had a memo come out saying we're not allowed to read newspapers in the cockpit.


I wish. The memo didnt specify. Thus we have to assume all phases of flight or "immediate termination".

box-hauler

The big issue is with 12 hour duty day is that you will need more crews. I believe they should limit the duty time and not the flight time. Let a crew fly as much time as they can in 12 hours, then a minimum of 12 off. This will require more crews to fly a companies schedule. If you started at 5 in the morning you will be dead by 5 at night so they will need a crew to do the afternoon / evening flying.

For flame bait how about since we got senior citizens flying they need to be in bed by 7:30, and if you could make it so they could eat dinner by 4:30 that would be great.......

CAPIP1998

I hear ya, and we do get our fair share (sometimes more) of weather and ATC delays up hear in the good olde northeast. However, it seems not too farfetched to have say a 10 hour scheduled max, extendable to 12 hours by the company, and up to 14 by the pilot. That would give us the 2-4 hour protection without allowing the company to create ridiculous schedules with 4:30 sits (cause 4:45 would be hot reserve). Most days it wouldn't really come into play, but we would have the option to call it quits at the 12 hour mark if need be (say... min rest the night before).

I don't think there will be a change to the regs anytime soon, but lets hope we can get something written into a contract soon (preferably ALPA) to give us at least some protection.

As far as how it's going, I'd say fairly well. We just got our new crewroom (have to walk outside to get to it, but still worth it). CO keeps jacking with our schedules which of course has given CJC free reign to jack with our pairings, but all-in-all not too bad. The Q is sweet, and ATC is even starting to get used to working us around the NYC airspace.

Shoot me a PM if you have any questions or concerns about the ALPA drive. We've got a majority of cards and are close to filing for an election. Hopefully we'll have ALPA on property before the year's end!