Quote:
Originally Posted by rickair7777
"Rest opportunity" is what the company must provide to you.
Nothing in the regs specifies when or how you make use of it. When on an overnight you are not on "lockdown" in your hotel room for eight hours prior to show. Many of us were very concerned when 117 was being developed that the rules might be applied to commuting but that did not happen. The airlines were behind that, they didn't want to pay junior pilots enough to live near JFK, IAD, SFO, LAX, etc.
Also, practically speaking, a pilot coming off of days off can be sufficiently well rested to do a moderately long commute and still work a long day. But the pilot has control over that.
Rest is what both YOU and the company must ensure you have prior to beginning an FDP. When you are on days off, (often your prospective 30 hours is part of the days off), you HAVE been given the required rest prior to beginning the FDP on day one. You DO have at least 10 hours free from duty before the FDP which allows an 8 hour sleep opportunity.
The FAR does specify when. It says the 10 hours (that counts) is the 10 hours immediately prior to the beginning of the FDP.
It does not say you must lockdown for 8 of the 10 hours. It simply says you must have had the opportunity for 8 hours of sleep.
If your commute is more than 2 hours before sign in, then by definition you did not have 8 hours of sleep opportunity in the 10 hours free from duty immediately before the FDP.
Here:
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-id...se14.3.117_125
117.25
e) No certificate holder may schedule and no flightcrew member may accept an assignment for any reserve or flight duty period unless the
flightcrew member is given a rest period of at least 10 consecutive hours immediately before beginning the reserve or flight duty period measured from the time the flightcrew member is released from duty.
The 10 hour rest period must provide the flightcrew member with a minimum of 8 uninterrupted hours of sleep opportunity.
(f) If a flightcrew member determines that a rest period under paragraph (e) of this section will not provide eight uninterrupted hours of sleep opportunity, the flightcrew member must notify the certificate holder. The flightcrew member cannot report for the assigned flight duty period until he or she receives a rest period specified in paragraph (e) of this section.
Go read and show me anywhere in the FAR that the required rest prior to beginning a FDP does not apply on Day 1 because the pilot opted to commute.
Section (f) requires the crewmember to notify the company when they didn't get 10/8. So, in the view of the company when you report for duty, you had the required rest or you would have called them. It's a simple don't ask, don't tell for them. They aren't responsible for what they don't know.
The rules changed after Colgan, yet what they wrote isn't what they do.