Good article.

Regarding:
Lack of roster predictability is a major source of stress for pilots. Monthly rosters are presented to nearly half the pilots less than a week before the month begins, and 3.3% are not provided with a schedule. A significant proportion - 15% of respondents - are "required" to be "available" and contactable when off-duty.

Can everyone respond with your company name and tell us what date in the month at which your schedule is awarded, and when the trip trade window starts?

Personally, the stress of not having an acceptable schedule and not being able to change it until the week prior to the month creates stress.

We get our schedules about two weeks before our next bid (bid periods are five weeks). Our managers are absolute control freaks, hence not really an ability to trade/drop, though we can pick up as we are short staffed. But I never have motivation to pick up as I average 13 to 14 days off in a 35 day bid period.

Compass gets schedules out around the 20th or 21st and trades open the 26th.

skw
schedules out - 18-19th.
trading starts - 24th.

At Eagle we get our skeds on the 19th or 20th, then trip trade window opens on the 24th to 25th before rlf and cmp lines are built. Then we can tt at the end of the month again

our line numbers were available for viewing on the 15th if I recall..."Final" awards are available for crew trac viewing on the 29th...****??? OK, so you plan for your days off based on your "awarded" line number (as worthless as the runway behind you an aborted take-off). And they drop a couple of extra days on your schedule and don't even have the common courtesy to give you a reach-around as they slowly jam you in the poop-chute. I just don't understand the mindset of our "management-team"...VERY, VERY despondent the more I stay in this profession...Acme truck driving academy isn't even hiring, so I guess I will have to keep slugging away...As long as the WV Turnpike doesn't kill me first!

XJT,

Bid usually closes/lines awarded mid week during the second week of the month. Trip trade during the third week.

It's the relief/secondary/fallout/mix/buildup/reserve line guys that have it rough. Their stuff usually isn't final till the last few days of the month for the next bid period.

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.

Most regionals dock your pay for fatigue calls. Take three hours of pay, thats ~$60 after taxes for a first-year FO. Thats 2-3 weeks of food (ramen) on most FO budgets. Thats what prevents most people from calling in fatigued.