The whole fatigue game is a clown show and the FAA has allowed it to happen for the operators benefit. “You can’t predict fatigue.” Why not? I know that I’m delayed out of SFO, I know that I’m on a long redeye, and I now know that my workload has increased. With the increased workload, I know I won’t be fit for duty come landing time on the east coast. Simple and logical, but “yOu CaNt PrEdICt FaTiGuE.”
Yeah. 117 has been "interpreted" to death. My alarm clock went off at 6am yesterday and at 10pm I was still in a plane waiting to fly leg four on an "automatic" extension. I got home after midnight. Reserve FDP is incredibly permissive and we basically never time out.
The company has the option of "auditing" your FDP to remove any "non-movement time" from your block. (Certain operators have started shorting pay on the same basis) You can be sent from Fresno to LAX in rush hour traffic in a "LIMO" (busted Versa with a racist armenian cab driver) four five hours, which doesn't count towards your block, nor does it count as a leg. You can finish a 14 hour day with a 6 hour deadhead, get to the hotel at 7am and have 9.5 hours "rest" before you're back to do it all again.
Everything is funneled into the fatigue system, and much of the fatigue system—including whether crew can be disciplined for calling fatigue—is left to "employee/labor relations." You can feel the airlines' grubby little fingers in there pulling strings. There were provisions in the NRPM to prevent the company from doing some of these things, but they magically got stripped out, with the note "This is a labor relations issue."
Everybody wants to Monday Morning Arm Chair QB this, but moral of the story, CA was in a situation he was uncomfortable with, made a decision, and got the airplane safely back on the ground.
Seconded.
Only critique I’d have is once that decision is made, stop asking for permission and start telling. If the dispatcher, MX controller, or duty pilot has a problem with it…let DALPA deal with it. I’m sure they’d love to flex on some management over the erosion of PIC authority.
Absolutely. Being PIC means sometimes you have to be that ass that makes everybody unhappy. Ideally you can do it in a way that's soft and kind and understanding, but if you get pushback you need to make it clear that it's not a request.
(A friend of mine had a dispatcher try to tell them that if they added 17 minutes of taxi time, dispatching to a cat I airport with 700rvr and a 44 minute flight time, they'd be legal since it would make the block over an hour. My friend was polite at first, expressing that they weren't super comfortable with "paper legality" and wanted to see an improving trend, since coastal fog doesn't always follow the forecast. The dispatcher said something to the effect of "we'd prefer to have the plane in the air," to which my friend said "To be clear, my plan is to delay for a few minutes to see the weather trending legal." After getting pushback, they asked to be transferred to someone a bit higher in the stack, who immediately said "oh yeah, that makes perfect sense.")
At the end of the day, it's good to gather input, phrase things as questions, ask people what they think ... but sometimes that's in service of guiding people to the right decisions, if you take my meaning.
I think sometimes people know the right answer, and simply want other people to validate their decision so that A> they don't have to feel bad about it, and B> so they don't have to worry about taking heat over it.
When that happens, people can spend a lot of time iterating or waffling on even pretty obvious decisions.
Mn.
thotpatrol.org
