That's easy, update the duty regs! I'd be ok with naps in the cockpit so long as the naps are not used against us. IE, getting even more grief for calling in fatigued, or extending our already long duty day.

Did ANYONE notice whom was pushing this in the video? It was the RAA. What do you think? I refuse to believe the regional airline association has had a change of heart and now actually cares about anything outside of the regionals coffers. They're pushing this through so they can say "hey, now we don't need to reduce the duty limits!"

if anyone recalls how the RAA behaved and what came out of their mouths during the congressional hearings this past summer, I think you'll remember that they pretty much lied / twisted the truth and made sure the committee thought everything was hunky dorey in our training, fatigue, pay and general status of the regional industry.

The RAA has budgets and bottom lines in mind as they try and lobby for this. They dont give a hoot about whether it's actually going to improve anything. A reduced duty day would cost the regionals tons of cash since it would severely affect staffing levels. These people are not on our side at all!

 

That's right people...the RAA want's this. You know why? So they can attack the proposed duty time limitations. Their senseless rhetoric will consist of something along the lines of...

"Flight crews no longer need to call in fatigued and do not need any more then 9 hours of rest because they can take a power nap on each leg."

"We have proof of this...take a look at this 20 year old NASA study"

Wake up people. The RAA is not here to help US! Don't let that camels nose in the tent.

The only way we should agree to this is if it does not water down the new proposed duty time and rest requirements. If that is the case, I'm all for it.

PS: Every time I think of the RAA, I think of the movie SAW. I would love Jigsaw to make them "see as I see"

 

I think your minority may actually be a majority. I'm in agreement with you. I've heard that a little nap on a long hard day will actually keep the crew fresh late into the day. You're spot on with your other observation as well. What a tough brutal life all of us poor pilots lead.

 

I forsee this only going bad for us as Chip says; This information will spur the RAA to try and help out the one's their truly working for....

 

Not sure why anybody is giving the RAA any credance at all on this issue. The NASA study was on long haul trans and inter-con flights... To take the NASA study out of context and apply it to 2 hour legs or less is a jackass maneuver.... Perhaps that explains why it was on CNN. If you can't stay awake for two hours, do the rest of us a favor and call fatigued.... and would the newbies please stop yawning over the radio while talking to ATC....

 

I think the real underlying problem here is that every incident or accident we have nowadays brings an onslaught of knee jerk reactions and rules from the FAA, Congress, the media and the public. Here is a situation where ONE crew messed up and there is this overwhelming pressure to make sure this one specific, isolated, minor incident never happens again. Whatever happened to just blaming the pilots

 

This is not a "knee-jerk reaction". NASA did the study years ago, and by all accounts the data suggests that short naps improve pilot performance. We're talking about a 10-20 minute nap in cruise while the other pilot is monitoring and an alarm is set. This could be done with a kitchen timer.

It's a safety issue. For the price of a kitchen timer safety could be significantly improved. It doesn't mean that new duty time rules aren't required, but it would supplement them. No matter how the rules are changed there will be times when a short nap would be beneficial. I would like to have a procedure where I could take a nap legally in order to improve performance.

As a side note, this is not a case were a little is good and more is better. Once you enter the REM phase of sleep it is much more difficult to awaken and you will not feel as rested. All of us has experienced this at one time or another when we fall asleep for 45 minutes or an hour and have to wake up. You may feel disoriented and it takes a long time to feel rested, this would not be good and is why it's important to put an alarm in the cockpit.

 

Kitchen timer? Can you imagine what an FAA approved kitchen timer is gonna cost?

 

How about something cheaper than a kitchen timer, do you know how much that will cost the airlines? Into the billions. Why not just make the FAs check on us every 15 minutes or when the nap time is over? Both times with these sleeping issues the FAs were the ones to "awaken" the pilots.

 

raa and cohen are straight up ***hole morons