tcco94

but then that break coming home, best sleep ever lol

Fastpilot

It’s super easy for me. I sleep fine on any break. I don’t know how the guys that never sleep on break do it. JFK-FCO is a little tougher for me to sleep first break since it’s such an early departure but I do fine on pretty much every flight.

PilotBases

I mean, by looking at them, it’s taking a toll on their body. From my time on both WB and NB fleets, WB guys tend to age in dog years compared to NB. Again, not the hard and fast rule, but a 60 year old NB guy looked better than his WB classmate.

saturn

Wow, is it actually possible to not be chronically sleep deprived? It sounds like you only get 1 full night sleep over 2 nights. Between the circadian disruption, off rhythm forced sleeps and wakeups; piecemeal sleep recovery..have at it boys and girls. I'm too much of a sleep primadona. Now off to do my NB redeye followed by an early AM circadian swap.

crewdawg

We have a NB that avoids those too.

Jaww

Sign me up! It’s stories like this that keep me away from the luxurious WB lifestyle. Glad some like it, I’ll be NB for life.

Fastpilot

O yea, it’s definitely not good for your body but then again, our NB schedules are trash too so if I’m going to beat up my body, I’d rather be doing it in Europe on a 24 hour layover

Big E 757

This is exactly how I feel. I did International on the ER. The first 2 years in NYC, it was all international, and then they added domestic. I used to sleep ok on breaks, and learned to get a good night sleep in Europe after a little while of trial and error. Domestic trips can mess me up too though. I bid commutable trips so with the current trips, that means short layovers and long days that start earlier each day. The worst for me are the trips with early mornings every day. Getting up at 3:30-4:30 am, 2-3 days in a row, then the last day, I commute home and am up till midnight, then wake up at 5-6 am. It takes me 2-3 nights at home to get a good nights sleep. Mid rotation red eyes. Or the first day where I got up early to commute, and then I’m landing on the west coast at midnight (2:00am my time) and then going to bed at 1am or so, but waking up at 6:30, because that’s 8:30 at home and I can’t sleep any later. At least a Europe 3 day, you only have to deal with it for 24-36 hours. A domestic trip can drag my ass for 3 days.

When I was younger, I could sleep and recover in the hotel. Now, after two kids, and helping my wife get them off to school, I’ve become more of an early bird, and can’t just sleep until noon if I need to. I don’t think a 3 day Europe trip is much harder on the body than most 4 day domestic trips, especially on the 320 or 73N. Just my opinion.

iaflyer

I must of been hired about the same time and I started out on the ER too. I loved the 3 days - fly over, a bit of a nap, then a few hours nap in Europe. Wake up at 2ish, go do something with the other FO, meet at 5 for drinks and dinner. Off to bed at 10, sleep until the phone rang 1 hour prior to pickup. Fly back, get a 2 hour nap in the rest seat. The trip was too short to change my body clock, and between the sleep in the hotel and the rest breaks, I got probably 14 hours of sleep and I was gone from home 2 night - so 7 hours a night. After my trips, went to bed a bit early and I was all ready to go the next day.

Now as a NB Capt, I find sleeping much harder with varying wake-ups. Sometimes with an early show on the east coast, I'm up at 3:30 for the 4am van time. No Bueno.

Xray678

I used to enjoy Europe trips. As I’m getting older, they are harder to deal with. I’m getting senior enough that I mostly fly 1 and 2 day trips. Most importantly I’m able to stay on a constant schedule. Constant being roughly the same show time (no early mornings) everyday. I feel so much more rested, and recently was able to stop BP meds. The difference is huge. Delta needs to learn from Southwest and build trips that don’t change show time from early to late or vice versa.