Almost All Regional Pilots are Fatigued
05-23-2010, 12:57 PM
#12
Line Holder
Joined APC: Feb 2010
Posts: 26
Originally Posted by yamahas3
Almost all regional airline pilots are fatigued..... and too much of pansies or too dumb to stick up for themselves. If you are fatigued, DONT FLY. Yes, the rest and duty rules suck. They really really suck. But the one thing that is in your favor is that an airline forcing or threatening to make a fatigue pilot fly is going to be in a world of hurt.
Toughing it out and doing "just that one more flight" when you're fatigued isn't impressive and it doesn't show you're a better than average pilot. All it does it keep the planes moving, give the airline, RAA, and FAA 1 more successful flight to add to the stack of examples how these scheduling practices "work," and show your fellow coworkers like me that you're unprofessional and you care more about your commute flight than the safety of your passengers or your career.
We're all so used to being fatigued that we think its normal, that its just how things are done. Have you really ever thought back about how many mistakes you make on every flight? When is it going to catch up to you? How many could you have caught/prevented if you were rested and on top of your game? It is completely ridiculous to think that after reduced rest or a 13-14+hr duty day ANYONE, especially pilots dealing with bad weather, maintenance problems, diversions, etc.... can operate to a safe level.
If you're riding in the back of a plane and the pilots are on hour #14, exhausted, and just trying to get home even though they're dead tired... the FO keeps nodding off and the CA can't even get radio calls right... and blow an engine at V1, are you going to wish you had a rested crew? What about a severe wake turbulence encounter on climbout? What a freak birdstrike Sully incident? What about a rudder-hardover? What about a rapid decompression?
What if you're that pilot in the cockpit and its not even anything like that. The "one in a million" thing doesn't happen. Instead you just miss a crossing restriction and cause an "deal" with another plane. Or maybe you don't notice that hold short bar and you're this week's "Planes come within 100ft on takeoff at LAX!" on CNN. Next thing you know, you're getting a career ending violation. You're going to be a fatigued regional pilot till 65 because you're definitely not moving onto the majors.
We've let them do this to us. Don't fly. Force them to change their ways.
Toughing it out and doing "just that one more flight" when you're fatigued isn't impressive and it doesn't show you're a better than average pilot. All it does it keep the planes moving, give the airline, RAA, and FAA 1 more successful flight to add to the stack of examples how these scheduling practices "work," and show your fellow coworkers like me that you're unprofessional and you care more about your commute flight than the safety of your passengers or your career.
We're all so used to being fatigued that we think its normal, that its just how things are done. Have you really ever thought back about how many mistakes you make on every flight? When is it going to catch up to you? How many could you have caught/prevented if you were rested and on top of your game? It is completely ridiculous to think that after reduced rest or a 13-14+hr duty day ANYONE, especially pilots dealing with bad weather, maintenance problems, diversions, etc.... can operate to a safe level.
If you're riding in the back of a plane and the pilots are on hour #14, exhausted, and just trying to get home even though they're dead tired... the FO keeps nodding off and the CA can't even get radio calls right... and blow an engine at V1, are you going to wish you had a rested crew? What about a severe wake turbulence encounter on climbout? What a freak birdstrike Sully incident? What about a rudder-hardover? What about a rapid decompression?
What if you're that pilot in the cockpit and its not even anything like that. The "one in a million" thing doesn't happen. Instead you just miss a crossing restriction and cause an "deal" with another plane. Or maybe you don't notice that hold short bar and you're this week's "Planes come within 100ft on takeoff at LAX!" on CNN. Next thing you know, you're getting a career ending violation. You're going to be a fatigued regional pilot till 65 because you're definitely not moving onto the majors.
We've let them do this to us. Don't fly. Force them to change their ways.
05-23-2010, 09:21 PM
#13
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Posts: 483
Originally Posted by yamahas3
Almost all regional airline pilots are fatigued..... and too much of pansies or too dumb to stick up for themselves. If you are fatigued, DONT FLY. Yes, the rest and duty rules suck. They really really suck. But the one thing that is in your favor is that an airline forcing or threatening to make a fatigue pilot fly is going to be in a world of hurt.
Toughing it out and doing "just that one more flight" when you're fatigued isn't impressive and it doesn't show you're a better than average pilot. All it does it keep the planes moving, give the airline, RAA, and FAA 1 more successful flight to add to the stack of examples how these scheduling practices "work," and show your fellow coworkers like me that you're unprofessional and you care more about your commute flight than the safety of your passengers or your career.
We're all so used to being fatigued that we think its normal, that its just how things are done. Have you really ever thought back about how many mistakes you make on every flight? When is it going to catch up to you? How many could you have caught/prevented if you were rested and on top of your game? It is completely ridiculous to think that after reduced rest or a 13-14+hr duty day ANYONE, especially pilots dealing with bad weather, maintenance problems, diversions, etc.... can operate to a safe level.
If you're riding in the back of a plane and the pilots are on hour #14, exhausted, and just trying to get home even though they're dead tired... the FO keeps nodding off and the CA can't even get radio calls right... and blow an engine at V1, are you going to wish you had a rested crew? What about a severe wake turbulence encounter on climbout? What a freak birdstrike Sully incident? What about a rudder-hardover? What about a rapid decompression?
What if you're that pilot in the cockpit and its not even anything like that. The "one in a million" thing doesn't happen. Instead you just miss a crossing restriction and cause an "deal" with another plane. Or maybe you don't notice that hold short bar and you're this week's "Planes come within 100ft on takeoff at LAX!" on CNN. Next thing you know, you're getting a career ending violation. You're going to be a fatigued regional pilot till 65 because you're definitely not moving onto the majors.
We've let them do this to us. Don't fly. Force them to change their ways.
Toughing it out and doing "just that one more flight" when you're fatigued isn't impressive and it doesn't show you're a better than average pilot. All it does it keep the planes moving, give the airline, RAA, and FAA 1 more successful flight to add to the stack of examples how these scheduling practices "work," and show your fellow coworkers like me that you're unprofessional and you care more about your commute flight than the safety of your passengers or your career.
We're all so used to being fatigued that we think its normal, that its just how things are done. Have you really ever thought back about how many mistakes you make on every flight? When is it going to catch up to you? How many could you have caught/prevented if you were rested and on top of your game? It is completely ridiculous to think that after reduced rest or a 13-14+hr duty day ANYONE, especially pilots dealing with bad weather, maintenance problems, diversions, etc.... can operate to a safe level.
If you're riding in the back of a plane and the pilots are on hour #14, exhausted, and just trying to get home even though they're dead tired... the FO keeps nodding off and the CA can't even get radio calls right... and blow an engine at V1, are you going to wish you had a rested crew? What about a severe wake turbulence encounter on climbout? What a freak birdstrike Sully incident? What about a rudder-hardover? What about a rapid decompression?
What if you're that pilot in the cockpit and its not even anything like that. The "one in a million" thing doesn't happen. Instead you just miss a crossing restriction and cause an "deal" with another plane. Or maybe you don't notice that hold short bar and you're this week's "Planes come within 100ft on takeoff at LAX!" on CNN. Next thing you know, you're getting a career ending violation. You're going to be a fatigued regional pilot till 65 because you're definitely not moving onto the majors.
We've let them do this to us. Don't fly. Force them to change their ways.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
