Calling in Fatigued
 

What are the repercussions to you at your company if you call in fatigued?

Missed trip occurence?

Sick occurrence?

Docked pay?

Sick pay?

Carpet dance in front of the C.P. or D.O.?

Anyone want to share some experiences?

Personally did it twice with no consequences. However I have heard of a wide range in results from others. Bottom line, if you're fatigued and can back it up by your schedule, call in.

Ill add to that...think of the explanations you'll have to give to the Feds possibly if you screw something up and bend and airplane. I know some companies don't want to hear it, but its just not worth the potential consequences if you make a mistake. Damned if you...damned if you don't I guess.

I agree. If youre fatigued, don't fly. Simple as that. Guys that are worried about a carpet dance or phone call for banging in fatigued vs. going in the dirt because they weren't on top of their game due to fatigue need to seriously look at their priorities. I can promise you this: the carpet dance for calling in fatigued is way nicer than the one for bending metal. If the company wants to make an issue out of it, let them. Any lawyer worth their salt should be able to go to town on a company for pressuring you to fly fatigued. Heck, with your 401k taking a hit, that could be a backup retirement plan:D

At Pinnacle typically when you call in sick, they dock your pay and make you do a carpet dance with a base manager to explain why you called in fatigued. If you have legit excuse, its not a big deal. Only real downside is the pay hit. They wont let you use sick time.

After a long day in the middle of a long trip, in the middle of a long month.. I had had enough.I called myself off the trip. I talked to the MOD (mgr on duty) and after 20 questions he said "okay".

But now, that exchange is in the back of my mind and I have pushed thru many a night since then when I should have called in. Not-so-Funny how effective subtle pressure (pilot pushing) can be.

I know the difference between being tired (I seem to be tired a lot lately) and being fatigued. Working when tired is not a new thing. Most of the working world does it daily. I'd like to think I would call in if I was REALLY fatigued.

But at an airline that claims "safety first", in my experience it seems to be more like "safty third"

If they don't let you use the sick time for it, why not just call in sick instead?

When I was at Eagle, they were hosing the reserves particularly bad for a while. We realized that by contract once we had done 3:45 of actual flying for the day we wouldn't get docked for pay since we only got the 3:45 credit anyway.

That, combined with a recent slap on the wrist to management for intimidating pilots who made fatigue calls, allowed for a lot of fatigue calls by reserve pilots. For a while all we had to do was hint at dropping the "F" bomb and scheduling would magically find other pilots to do what would have been our 7th or 8th legs in the day.

I meant to say fatigued.

Fatigued is just that, fatigued.

Take a look at the Shuttle overrun in CLE. The captain was threatened for attempting to call in fattigued and this was one of the major contributing factors.

If your company gives you any grief for calling in fatigued, hang up and call the FAA.

The CA was threatened for attempting to fly fatigued??? Huh?

Called in fatigued 10 times over my two year stint on Eagle reserve. Never got hassled and never felt that I was doing anything other than being the professional pilot they hired.

I'll go one further than this....you don't need your schedule to prove anything. Let's say you have been off for three days. You went to bed late after having a great dinner with your wife. You wake up early for your commute. You have a good commute and arrive at your crashpad hotel with plenty of time to rest. Instead of taking a nap, you decide to stay awake so that you can get to bed early for your early show the next morning. Just as you lay down in bed and turn off the light, you receive a disturbing phone call from a familiy member. You have had a family member who has been injured in an car accident. This person is in the hospital but doing fine. Your family members say, "Don't worry..he's doing okay." Satisfied, you hang up and lay in your bed staring at the ceiling. Your mind is not at rest. Your sleep is distrubed and you toss and turn all night.

Now you are working on two nights of poor sleep and you haven't yet started day one of your trip....are you fatigued or should I say, poorly rested.

Either way..do you consider yourself an asset or a liability to your crew?

How you answer that question will help you decide if you're up to the task for taking day one or picking up your trip on day two.

You decide.....but you don't need your schedule to defend anything.

Look, what you were told in ground school about safety reporting, and CRM responsibilities regarding the looking out for safety first above flight deck hierarchy does not wash. You WILL be on the company S%$T list and may jeopardize your career in the process. Take it from one who has experienced it first hand at a "top" regional. I spoke up to my chief pilot after flying with a Captain who broke some major safety violations and created a hostile working environment when I confronted him. After all the B.S. in ground school about CRM and the overall safety of you pax, my chief wrote the complaint off and got rid of me as quick as he possibly could. I lost it all because I spoke up. I am considering a lawsuit and FAA complaint against the great SKW. Suck that Jetjok.

I am out of the flying game altogether, but I can relate a relavent post about calling in fatiqued. I was on reserve working for Eagle and they deadheaded me into Newark to overnight for a 6 AM departure. They put me up in a hotel who was hosting a prom party. The kids were making so much noise that by 1 am I asked scheduling to get me into another hotel. I also asked the front desk to send security to my floor to quiet the party down. Security did nothing and all hotels were booked with proms.

At 3 am I called scheduling and told them the party just ended and I have had no sleep for a 6 am departure. I told them I was fatigued and expected to be paid for the missed trip because I was at a hotel that they booked me into. Long story short was a day off with pay and no problems from anyone.

I thought about quoting a few the replies to this thread as some are bit absurd, however it has been a while since I worked for a regional.

There is a time & place for this...but sometimes you need to be the professional you are and SUCK IT UP. Choose your battles carefully as being careless with this will get you shown the door. Just my .02

Perhaps having a union might help... Most stuff can be handled through pro standards without ever getting the company involved unless needed.

DD, is that you?:)

i tried to call in fatigued after days of 16 hr duty days on the backside of the closck and got laughed at by scheduling. they said there was no one else and i had to fly or the flight would be cancelled. so i flew but that is how they operate. glad to say i no longer worl there. of my own accord

To some of them, they don't see the light until after they've been through an event that makes them see it.

I hope the rest keep these instances in mind when votes come up. They sure didn't last time.