LuvCKP

Chronic fatigue!
In any given base there are 10-20 originators each morning before 5am local. Just as many terminators after midnight-30.
If you do the math the AM crews covering the originators are setting their alarm clocks well before 3am.
The PM crews are getting home well after 2 am.

A lot of trips have duty days that are longer than the overnights.
Dense trips. Short rest.

If you bid an easy open-time trip you have a target on your back for an irregular operations reroute to something other than what was awarded.
Ordered steak. Chicken served.

If you are on a premium trip and call in fatigued you lost premium pay for what you ended up not flying so the company puts the Pilot in a position where they have to make a monetary decision when they call out fatigued.

The people who write the schedules aren’t pilots. Adam Decair did a podcast with COO AW and claimed the “shoulder flying” was the only way they could build a schedule that was profitable.

Operationally this is a huge stress on the pilots (and all other front line employees). Do you think the flying public wants pilots flying without adequate rest and nutrition?

WHACKMASTER

To add to this, there are A LOT of spare aircraft sitting around with not enough pilots to fly them. In ELITT especially on the captain’s side we have a lot of red days. Instead of conceding to an improved contract to actually attract and retain enough pilots, they continue to double down on their bu!!$h!t shenanigans in the negotiating room.

They’ll continue to push until we’ve pushed back enough. DON’T fly hungry or tired. Drop the F-bomb when needed.

🔥👇

Cyio

Exactly and if our qol doesn’t matter to the company it is up to us individually to maintain it. If I’m even a little fatigued I am calling out. Not worth the safety of our passengers and crew nor my future self.

The way I look at it is as follows. If the company wants to run a fatiguing schedule they have done the math and factored the costs of pilots being tired. Do yourself and the rest of the flying public anfavir and call out. Flew with a CA the other day that went long until 4am, was supposed to be done at 11:00pm. You can’t tell me that was a smart move but for some reason they felt this overwhelming urge to get the mission done.

Im thankful I wasn’t a passenger or crew on their flight especially when he was telling me just how tired he was when they got done.

e6bpilot

I agree with this completely. I have stopped apologizing and have stopped trying to make up for their lack of planning. No food? Delay. No sleep? Fatigue. No wheelchair pushers? Too bad. No transportation? I'm not waiting. Single engine? Not worth the risk.

It is past time to start standing up for ourselves.

Champeen07

Ive changed my tune with our schedules. In my first year I thought it wasn't that bad. I hadn't been jacked around too bad, and although I had some early mornings, my days weren't too long or it was a rare occurrence.

Ive completely changed my opinion in the last month. It has been chronically fatiguing. Alarm clocks set before 0400 multiple days in a row. AM turned PM trips back to AMs. Then reroutes and added flying once back in base. Ive made the fatigue call and thought about it almost every trip in the last month.

It has me wondering if I can do this the rest of my career.

If the company is hell bent on having flights that depart at 0500, then we need to be limited to two legs or less than 8 hours of duty because its not safe after that. It really chaps me that they make us take the DLs on fatigue, yet they build schedules that directly go against what those teach us.

Is there going to be a response from the head shed if I call in fatigued at least once a month and possibly multiple trips in a row? Because that's the direction I'm headed.

ZapBrannigan

I feel the same. I seriously thought about calling in fatigued this week and second guessed myself because I just called in fatigued last week. So I filled out a fatigue report and told them exactly that.

hoover

there is no limit to calling fatigued if you're fatigued. Doesn't matter if it happened last week or yesterday. It is what it is. I have never heard if anyone being questioned and itd be a big red flag if they punished anyone

Lewbronski

They wouldn't punish you necessarily, unless, for example, they could build a case that you weren't really fatigued, but lying about being fatigued in order to get off a trip. If that was the case, they'd assert they're not punishing you for a fatigue call, but for dishonesty.

More likely, they could send you to a FFD as a shot across the bow, or even more likely, give you an, "Everything okay? Need our help?", call to let you know you're on their radar.

Caveman

If you're on a premium trip you are financially punished for a fatigue call. Certain straight trips will also set you up for financial harm if you do not fly the reassignment all the way to FAR 117 limits.

e6bpilot

Yep. This is a comment I make on every fatigue report I do. We are incentivized to fly fatigued when on premium, which we often are when we get extended duty days. It totally goes against the intent of the program.

I love our fatigue program and use it when it is called for, but this is its big weakness.