Originally Posted by Lighteningspeed (Post 607912)

Hard to believe people like Cohen is the President of the Regional Pilots Association. What Cohen and the FAA refuses to acknowledge is that although low pay and low experience pilots MAY contribute to the deterioration of safety in the airline industry, the SINGLE MOST threat to safety is pilot fatigue directly caused by regional airlines managements' scheduling practices.

One, there should be no CDOs (High speeds) period. They are UNSAFE for anyone. Spoke to several CAs with close to 20,000 hours and they all said it is unsafe even after one high speed turn.

Second, airline management should not be allowed to schedule pairings with overnights less than 10 hours. 10 hour layover is in my opinion a bare MINIMUM necessary for pilots to get adequate rest.

Three, time spent waiting for passengers to deplane, writing up maintenance logs after the flight, leaving the terminal at the end of the day and waiting for the hotel shuttle van should NOT be counted as the REST period. Time for REST PERIOD should start when crews check in at the hotel for the night.

Originally Posted by Mason32 (Post 608105)

Then you and the rest of your pilots need to call fatigued everytime they schedue somethign like this. If each and every month the flight are delayed and cancelled because crew planning builds a schedule that results in too many fatigue calls.... guess what... the schedule gets changed.

Originally Posted by Purpleanga (Post 607835)

I also agree that the FAA has a dirty role in this as well and nobody has challenged them yet considering they can change the duty times immediately if they want. Unfortunately they only go by statistics hopefully this latest static will be enough but I really doubt it.

Originally Posted by saab2000 (Post 607853)

Why should they? Do you fly less safely because you are not well paid?

Originally Posted by ryeflyer (Post 607860)

Of course it's up to the pilot, but what corporate culture do these people work in? Can you really declare that your're fatigued? What's the sick-leave policy like if you've got a heavy cold say?

Originally Posted by boilerpilot (Post 608150)

And the fact that you either take that out of your sick time or don't get paid for that time? Regional FOs don't have a whole lot of choices. At a lot of places you will get at least one or two overnights like that a month, and if you only earn 2-4 sick hours per month, then you're spending all of your sick time (or much much more) on fatigue calls. What happens if you're really sick? The real issue is that when making the decision between calling in fatigued or when deciding to go to work for the day, the FO has to decide if the lost pay or lost sick time is worth what will probably result in a relatively safe and violation free day.

Originally Posted by Copperhed51 (Post 608020)

True, however after a long day of flying with not enough time to grab a meal, we usually have the taxi/shuttle driver stop off somewhere so we can grab something to go. That eats into my rest. Lately I've been going all day without eating because there's no time and the airports we go to don't have any food to buy. I am always starving and looking forward to my meal after I finish flying. I've been packing pop tarts and other snacks too since that's all I really have time to eat during the day.

Originally Posted by Copperhed51 (Post 608020)

True, however after a long day of flying with not enough time to grab a meal, we usually have the taxi/shuttle driver stop off somewhere so we can grab something to go. That eats into my rest. Lately I've been going all day without eating because there's no time and the airports we go to don't have any food to buy. I am always starving and looking forward to my meal after I finish flying. I've been packing pop tarts and other snacks too since that's all I really have time to eat during the day.

Originally Posted by ERJ135 (Post 608387)

At eagle if we take a meal break we can send an acars code 69? I think. Thats a meal break and the delay goes to scheduling.

Originally Posted by beech_nut (Post 608396)

If you are angered by the comments Roger Cohen made, in defense of some of the sweat shops he represents, you can call his office at the following number like I have just done.

Tel: 202/367-1170

The very nice receptionist told me he was out of the office doing another interview but I left him a pointed voicemail explaining how it was possible for me to come to work tired while doing a 4 day where the 1st day was min rest, 8 hours, all days were at least 12 hours long, and the last day started before 6 am and was scheduled over 15 hours.

This guy is swine.

Originally Posted by beech_nut (Post 608396)

If you are angered by the comments Roger Cohen made, in defense of some of the sweat shops he represents, you can call his office at the following number like I have just done.

Tel: 202/367-1170

The very nice receptionist told me he was out of the office doing another interview but I left him a pointed voicemail explaining how it was possible for me to come to work tired while doing a 4 day where the 1st day was min rest, 8 hours, all days were at least 12 hours long, and the last day started before 6 am and was scheduled over 15 hours.

This guy is swine.