Friend of mine messaged coming back from Europe.

The website was showing the inbound late from EWR (thunderstorms in the northeast, departed hours late).

But, the outbound, Europe-to-EWR leg was not showing a departure time of, say, 90 minutes later i.e. quick turn and get the plane back ASAP, but rather, having the plane sit for 4-5 hours and then fly back to EWR. It said delayed due to flight crew availability.

Wouldn't the crew from the previous day's inbound just delay the report of their ~24hr layover, and show up at the new report time?

Why have the inbound, which was scheduled to arrive at 8AM, and gets in actually at 11:30AM, sit around until 3PM to go back? Why not leave right away?

Just wondered. I only fly domestic, couldn't figure it out. I went on there just to see and it looks like a few places, STR, BFS, FCO etc. were similar.

Looks like another nasty evening in the northeast is brewing over Pennsylvania as we speak.

 

It all has to do with FAR 117.

If the crew desk doesn't notify the crew of the delay until wake up time, they fear a fatigue call would occur later in the day due to the delay. The desk preempts this by waking the crew in the middle of the night and resetting their rest clock. They give the crew a new later report time which may mean that the plane sits for a few hours so the crew is available for a full duty period.

 

Another reason to never answer your hotel phone and to stare long and hard at the number on your cell prior to answering.

Or, just let every call go to voicemail. Works every time.

 

cell phone on airplane mode....hotel phones unplugged. That's my sleep mode. But don't do that on short call....lesson learned.

 

Had that exact situation happen to me this past trip.

Can the Captain reset the FO, IRO rest times or does scheduling have to contact each pilot individually?

 

He can try, if he's a dbag. Only the individual can accept a reset.

 

Marvin will but he shouldn't. NO ONE can waive your contract for you.

Which is why (at the start of the trip) you give the Captain your cell phone number along with the admonition that he not waive nor volunteer you for anything without your concurrence, unless it involves the Swedish Bikini Team or some other likewise talented group of individuals.


Swedish Bikini Team - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c2NEFPqTwY

 

I think I'd rather have a call in the morning that says just push your show time back an hour because the plane is getting in late. That's a hell of a lot better then getting home several hours later just because the plane left Ewr late. The least amount of time spent on the road the better. But what do I know, I'm just a FNG.

 

A 0100 or 0300 wakeup to reset rest can often royally mess with your ability to continue resting. I do not provide the crew desk the flexibility to interfere with my rest. I am not required to do that. If "fewer hours on the road" is something you consider regarding rest resets or crew desk communications then stick with the Lcal boys-- you'll be in similar company.