I like the idea of approving short naps. NASA has been pushing this idea for well over a decade based on their extensive research.
Have you've ever been in a position to legally take a nap while operating a flight?
There's theory, and then practice.
Naps in the cockpit, or even an approved crew rest area, especially on short flights (arbitrarily I'll use 9 hours or less of block) sound great.
Let's examine an
actual example I've seen put on this site, in addition to my experiences in my short time in long haul.
Everyone complains, and rightfully so, about 8 hours not being enough off duty time. Many times people will say that they need time to turn off work, and relax. I agree, and I require the same.
Now apply this thought in a practical sense. First, in my environment. My last trip ended up with an 8+20 or so block back to ANC, with an actual flight time of 7+40. Obviously we needed 3 people. So, let's look at what our staffing requirements for the flight are. You haYou need to be upfront for the 1st hour out and 1 hour prior to landing, so that leaves 5+40. You have 2 seats to fill, so that means it's 11+20 to have butts in the chairs. Divide that by 3 and I come up with 3+45 or so per person in the chair. That means you have 3+45 for a nap. So you get up, hit the blue room, grab some water, crawl into the bunk, and try to tone out the SA picture you have going on.
Now, what can keep you from getting into a quick nap? Maybe you had an abnormal during takeoff or climbout, or the weather is shady at the destination and alternate and you're tight on gas.
Maybe you, and the rest of your crew, got a great night's sleep prior to showing up to work. Are you going to nap after being awake for 4 hours after sleeping 10 or 11?
Let's look at another scenario that our crews look at. It's not the one sector long haul, it's a 14+20 day with 4 pilots, but on two legs. One is about 7+45 to a 1+30 turn then a 6+30 leg. Much more fatiguing. Then you get maybe an 1.5 or 2 hours for a nap if the CA chooses to divide the rest on the legs. Of course, it's better to sleep a whole leg, but the CA may not want that, since they need to be in the front seat for T/O and landing, and the FOs rotate. Add to that there are several "call ahead so we don't shoot your ass" FIRS where you are crossing boundaries that they don't like each other, and in FIRS where you have to use HF within one of the largest cities of the world, and the VHF frequencies are so clogged and sporadic on coverage you just chug along NORDO.
Not so easy to tune out and turn off there.
I can rack out with the best of them, and get startled quite awake by that evil call chime. I have the comfort of a stateroom we can control the temperature in with a nice matress, linens, pillows and blankets. The works. I stil have problems sometimes dozing right off.
Looking back, I couldn't imagine flying the Jumbo Shrimp, passing out somewhere around GSP and waking up in Alabama. Maybe being startled awake by the master caution or a spot of turbulence. I'm sure the reflex action could be quite disconcerting. Just falling asleep in a cockpit seat is tough enough. You have to be pretty fatigued to fall asleep in such a tight space.
I'm sure NASA collected some data, and all the things point to us being able to fly one 9 hour sector. I mean you could fly a "3 man cockpit" for 12 hours, but only 2 of the "men" were qualified to fly the joint. So you had 3 fatigued bodies in a widebody hurling through the air at .88M (gas
was cheap) for 12 hours at a time on a fuel critical mission. Ugh....
The guys that have been there, done that have told me enough horror stories that I don't even want to walk the road.
