In talking with airline pilots, the subject of duty time seems to come up a lot. The one regulation that seems to have pilots questioning their schedules the most is obviously this one:

121.505

"No pilot of an airplane that has a crew of two pilots may be on duty for more than 16 hours during any 24 consecutive hours"

The question is, 24 consecutive hours means what exactly? Time blocks from midnight to midnight? 24 hour timer starts right when you start your duty time? I hear a lot of guys say that they have to question scheduling for being scheduled over the 16 hour limit. This problem seems to come up most often when pilots are arriving very late to a given destination and then having to get up early to fly the next morning for another LONG day. It also seems like this could be a major problem when DELAYS occur as well. My question is, as a regional airline pilot, how do you guys monitor this? When do you start/stop your 24 hour timer?

 

haah well if you ask T.B. the chief pilot at Colgan he has his own version of that rule.

 

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...14/ai_67871655

I found this link that might better explain you question.

From what I understand from the article, you have to look back and find 8 hours rest in any 24 peirod.

Also simply stated, you cannot fly more than 8 hours a day. Unless something out of control of the carrier, and something that I learned in school was legal to start, legal to finish saying. This might be the loophole the article is talking about.

I hope this helps you out some.
reeves

 

care to provide "his version" and then the "correct version"?

what a coincidence I was dealing with almost this same question today.

 

Show times start your duty day, not midnight and not block. So if I have a show time on 12/1 at 11:00 and my first flight begins at 11:45, then my duty day ends on 12/2 at 11:00. Also, you can not be scheduled for more than 8 hours of block flying in ANY 24 consecutive hour span, you can still end up flying more than the 8 hours as long as it is your original schedule and not revised after your show time. AND, as far as a duty day is concerned your last leg must end 15 minutes prior to the end of the 16th hour, cause at the end of the block there MUST be 15 minutes of duty. So your last leg must be scheduled to end before the clock strike 15:45 after your show time.

Keep in mind that if your airline has your show time as 11:00 and you clock in at 10:50 then your show time is still 11:00, not 10:50. This is because you choose to check in early.

People make these regulations a lot harder than they actually are.

How do we monitor it? That's why we need to understand the regs. Yes, the company will keep tabs on us, but they make mistakes.

 

so if it is scheduled for this but the 16 hrs is overflown because of a delay then it is still legal? Is it just what is scheduled that matters?

 

Wrong, you can not be scheduled over 8 hours. If your current schedule is 7:53 minutes of block and you fly 8:49 then this is legal. But, if you have flown 5 hours and you have 3.5 hours of flying left on your original schedule (total of 8.5 hours); and you get reflowed to a schedule that is 3.5 hours then it is illegal. If they revise your schedule then the 8 hour rule must be reapplied and the above example will show you scheduled for 8.5 hours after the reflow (illegal).

So, scheduled 7:53 and you fly 8.5 then legal. Scheduled 7:53 and reflowed to 8.5 then illegal. "Legal to start, then legal to finished," regardless of actual flight time for the day.

 

No, it's not legal because the 16 hours rule is mandatory, period. They must find a reserve crew to take your place. Also if you will begin the flight legal but finish illegal (only on the 16 hour rule) then you are not legal to fly. The most I have ever been scheduled for at SKW was 13.5 hours. Most airlines will not run the risk.

 

That's funny I work at Mesa/Airmidwest.

Here is a common request, "will you fly this part 91 leg for a repo or a test flight, outside of your 16 hours?"

Crap you not it happens, they should be fined for asking. It's not 121 so they can ask, every once in awhile some do gooder accepts it. They'll be an "incident" someday and finally put and end to that.

 

Wow! But that's Mess-a. They have their reputation for a reason. I have friends who fly for Mess-a and I understand why, it's a stepping stone with good upgrade times and nothing more. NOTHING MORE! I support Mess-pilots but F@#K MAG.