Preventing fatigue call abuse

[form810]

What measures are in place at your shop to prevent pilots from abusing fatigue calls?

At my operation (on-demand 135) we've had an extremely loose approach to fatigue calls. Basically, if a pilot drops the F-word, they're taken off the day's flying, no questions asked. It doesn't count against the pilot in any way. No tracking system, doesn't get deducted from the pilot's paid time off bank, etc. It's really been on the honor system to only call in if you've had a rough few days of work and truly need a break.

Lately this system has gotten some serious abuse. A pilot called in fatigued on the last day of five days off to report fatigued for an early morning departure the following day, another pilot called in fatigued two days in a row (with a relatively light flying schedule leading up to this) and so on.

What sort of checks and balances have you seen to prevent abuse? I've been researching fatigue policies and found some great research in things like the ICAO Fatigue Mitigation Reports, but there is little mention of preventing abuse.

Pretty sure it's just the "culture" of the shop in question. As I'm sure we're all aware, it's really tough to legislate morality - let alone simple, straight-forward legality.

 

[form810]

basically, this is how you should do it. Track who's doing it so that you can figure out what's up if you have a free loader, but yeah. The problem here is an interview problem - hire for integrity and it will never get to this point.

How? (Serious question)

 

[form810]

You bring up some great points about trust and giving people options to get time off when they need time off.

I have to ask though...can you imagine any possible scenario where a pilot could abuse a fatigue/sick/personal/etc time off policy? Or will pilots always do the noble and correct thing 100% of the time?

It might not have come across this way in my original post, but I absolutely want what is best for the pilots. At the same time, we have a company to run, and to make that happen, the proper systems need to be in place. I'm trying to get those systems in place.

You are eliciting the other side of the coin here... the unaddressed question that is at least -if not more- important.

How do we constrain the yes-men, go-getters from abrogating their personal responsibility to EVERYONE involved, over-working, and flying fatigued day after day? To management, those folks are appraised as heroes. So, you know, how do you manage that? That much more insidious danger?

 

[jrh]

If the fatigue call is due to the baby crying all night or having to listen to the neighbors cause a scene until midnight then sure, deduct the sick bank. That’s out of the company’s control.

Sounds like we're in agreement.

What I’m talking about is being on a trip and not being able to rest because of how the trips are built and having a fatigue report accepted but being blamed for not managing your rest and getting your pay deducted, which I’m hearing is happening more often now. Idk whether to chalk it up to negotiations or what.

I can only speak for brown but in my base we have trips where the report time shifts each day. Example being day one will be a 6pm show on the west coast followed by a 11hr overnight. Day 2 is a 3pm east coast time followed by another 12hr overnight. Day 3 is a 5am show with a 24hr overnight. Day 4 goes back to a 3pm show and is sometimes the last day of the trip.

I’ve done multiple informational fatigue reports on trips like this and others only to be told it “models well” and is contractual. If I call out fatigued for this I honestly don’t know if I’d have my sick bank deducted. Personally I could care less but as @DE727UPS stated we can have our sick bank paid out down to a certain amount. For a lot of people here that important to them.

You're right. That sounds rough. Fortunately it would never happen at our operation. Our trips simply don't work that way.

 

[jrh]

How do we constrain the yes-men, go-getters from abrogating their personal responsibility to EVERYONE involved, over-working, and flying fatigued day after day? To management, those folks are appraised as heroes. So, you know, how do you manage that? That much more insidious danger?

Good question.

A lot of it comes down to not building crazy schedules to begin with. It's hard to get fatigued if hard schedules aren't even a thing.

Also, as you mentioned, corporate culture. Set an example from the top down for how pilots should act. On a recent line check I gave, one of my debrief items for the captain was to slow down and not hesitate to delay a departure for a few minutes if that's what it takes to do the job right. The company is going to 100% back him up and would much rather have an annoyed passenger than a plane flying in an unairworthy state (the original issue was a question for Maintenance prior to departure). This captain leaned a little too hard in the Send It direction.

 

[form810]

Good question.

A lot of it comes down to not building crazy schedules to begin with. It's hard to get fatigued if hard schedules aren't even a thing.

Also, as you mentioned, corporate culture. Set an example from the top down for how pilots should act. On a recent line check I gave, one of my debrief items for the captain was to slow down and not hesitate to delay a departure for a few minutes if that's what it takes to do the job right. The company is going to 100% back him up and would much rather have an annoyed passenger than a plane flying in an unairworthy state (the original issue was a question for Maintenance prior to departure). This captain leaned a little too hard in the Send It direction.

Great that you give the message not to rush. Lots of dudes get hung over 5 or ten minutes, which is crazy on so many levels - but definitely still a thing out there in the 135 aether.

Still, as good as that is, it doesn't really directly address the more insidious problem of rewarding folks for "good behavior" that is really terrible behavior. It doesn't directly address the problem of those individuals who -perhaps by dint of needing less sleep, or perhaps by dint of being the good boy- allow themselves (and encourage themselves based on objective, external praise) to do stupid things like fly too much. The most insidious part about insidious problems is that very few participant-observers are actually able to observe objectively. A fatigued participant -like a drunk- is generally not able to accurately assess the amplitude of it's fatigue. There must be an objective disinterested observer observing and mitigating the situation. Or, at the very least, not praising and rewarding the bad behavior.

 

[jrh]

Still, as good as that is, it doesn't really directly address the more insidious problem of rewarding folks for "good behavior" that is really terrible behavior..

I see what you're saying, but not sure of the remedy. A lot of it comes down to trusting pilots to do the right thing.

What systems have you seen put in place?