av8tr1
"Never tell me the odds!"
Last week I had a airport reserve shift. I arrived early for my shift and checked in early.
I had an upcoming personal event that I was a bit emotional about and didn't get much sleep the night before preparing for that trip which was expecting to be life changing. I also recently injured my wrist a month ago and was having trouble with it waiting on my doctor to make a decision on what to do about it (surgery or cast based on results of MRI). I didn't want to leave the pilot group short and having to fill my flights so I chose to continue to fly for the last month. My wrist isn't really impacting my flying it's just a slight annoyance at the moment.
I maybe got 4 hours of sleep two nights in a row before the shift in question. At the time I thought I could handle any trip that came up (our flights are short no more than 1.5 hours to the the outstation where I can catch up on rest). As the morning rolled on it became apparent to me that I was not going to be fit for duty. Another employee was concerned about me and said he didn't think I should be flying that day.
Well we had one flight cancel which by policy moved that pilot up to the airport reserve and I moved down a notch to home research. Then we have a new pilot who didn't want to fly in the weather that morning (long story for another thread). We had fog and rain with 800RVR so it was going to be a difficult departure and flight and she didn't feel like she could handle the departure.
So I called in fatigued to dispatch. I told them I had to prepare for my trip and it was impacting my sleep and I just wasn't able to safely fly the flight. And suggested they assign the canceled flight pilot per the policy to my new assigned flight.
The dispatcher who I first spoke with blew his top on me and said I had no choice to fly and dispatch decides who gets assigned what flight. Hes a guy who is known for being difficult and most pilots just hang up to avoid having to speak with him. So I ended the call with him and called another dispatcher. The dispatcher said I can file a fatigue report but I faced a "No Show". By company policy 3 "No Shows" is an automatic termination.
The pilot group (like most airlines) has a cold war relationship with dispatch. Both groups are pretty hostile to each other. So any attempt at working together is usually met with hostility. Basically dispatch doesn't want pilots telling them how to do their job and takes offence anytime a pilot suggests a different option. Even when the suggestion is the company policy apparently.
So I found out yesterday my fatigue report was denied and I was given a "No Show" for the day. Even after the chief pilot went to bat for me. Apparently dispatchers have final say on if a pilot is fit to fly or not. Who knew?
I was pretty tired that day and truly wasn't fit to fly. I was too tired to even recognize how tired I was. So bad in fact that another pilot friend of mine took me aside and said I probably shouldn't be flying that day. I thought the rules were if a pilot called in fatigued the FAA said there isn't supposed to be any repercussions. The company apparently has a punitive model for fatigue calls.
So now I have a "No Show" on my file, two more and I am out. We don't have a union (I am starting to see the benefits of having one) and I don't want to call the FAA as was suggested by another pilot.
Suggestions? Or should I just accept the "No show"? I like the company and the flying we do. But I've gone out of my way for the company with my injured wrist. And it looks like my support to the company isn't reciprocated.
I had an upcoming personal event that I was a bit emotional about and didn't get much sleep the night before preparing for that trip which was expecting to be life changing. I also recently injured my wrist a month ago and was having trouble with it waiting on my doctor to make a decision on what to do about it (surgery or cast based on results of MRI). I didn't want to leave the pilot group short and having to fill my flights so I chose to continue to fly for the last month. My wrist isn't really impacting my flying it's just a slight annoyance at the moment.
I maybe got 4 hours of sleep two nights in a row before the shift in question. At the time I thought I could handle any trip that came up (our flights are short no more than 1.5 hours to the the outstation where I can catch up on rest). As the morning rolled on it became apparent to me that I was not going to be fit for duty. Another employee was concerned about me and said he didn't think I should be flying that day.
Well we had one flight cancel which by policy moved that pilot up to the airport reserve and I moved down a notch to home research. Then we have a new pilot who didn't want to fly in the weather that morning (long story for another thread). We had fog and rain with 800RVR so it was going to be a difficult departure and flight and she didn't feel like she could handle the departure.
So I called in fatigued to dispatch. I told them I had to prepare for my trip and it was impacting my sleep and I just wasn't able to safely fly the flight. And suggested they assign the canceled flight pilot per the policy to my new assigned flight.
The dispatcher who I first spoke with blew his top on me and said I had no choice to fly and dispatch decides who gets assigned what flight. Hes a guy who is known for being difficult and most pilots just hang up to avoid having to speak with him. So I ended the call with him and called another dispatcher. The dispatcher said I can file a fatigue report but I faced a "No Show". By company policy 3 "No Shows" is an automatic termination.
The pilot group (like most airlines) has a cold war relationship with dispatch. Both groups are pretty hostile to each other. So any attempt at working together is usually met with hostility. Basically dispatch doesn't want pilots telling them how to do their job and takes offence anytime a pilot suggests a different option. Even when the suggestion is the company policy apparently.
So I found out yesterday my fatigue report was denied and I was given a "No Show" for the day. Even after the chief pilot went to bat for me. Apparently dispatchers have final say on if a pilot is fit to fly or not. Who knew?
I was pretty tired that day and truly wasn't fit to fly. I was too tired to even recognize how tired I was. So bad in fact that another pilot friend of mine took me aside and said I probably shouldn't be flying that day. I thought the rules were if a pilot called in fatigued the FAA said there isn't supposed to be any repercussions. The company apparently has a punitive model for fatigue calls.
So now I have a "No Show" on my file, two more and I am out. We don't have a union (I am starting to see the benefits of having one) and I don't want to call the FAA as was suggested by another pilot.
Suggestions? Or should I just accept the "No show"? I like the company and the flying we do. But I've gone out of my way for the company with my injured wrist. And it looks like my support to the company isn't reciprocated.
