In my Jan. 3 blog, I repeated a point my AMT colleague Ronald Donner stated in one of his blogs on FAA's new regulations designed to reduce pilot fatigue.
Taking into account recent scientific research, FAA announced the new rules last Dec. 21. Airlines must now consider several factors when scheduling, including pilots’ duty periods, the number of time zones crossed and the time at which pilots start their first flights. Pilots must now have a 10-hour rest period before reporting for duty, a two-hour increase over previous regulations.
FAA also increased the number of consecutive free hours pilots must have per week to 30 hours. And, added acting FAA administrator Michael Huerta: “If a pilot reports that he or she is fatigued, then the airline must remove the pilot from duty.”
Ronald asked: "What about aircraft mechanic duty time? We get fatigued just as pilots do." I asked the same for ground crews.
Last night I watched FAA’s “Grounded” video, a well-produced, half-hour video highlighting the demands of a frantic airline executive with more than a few things on his mind. As he reviews his day, he’s shown ordering his maintenance personnel to stay past a shift, work until the job gets done and that they could, you know, sleep on their own time. The origins for many of the mistakes the exec owned up to by the end of the show could be traced to that very encounter.
I then headed on line and read more about the issue of fatigue on FAA’s mxfatigue web site. I started to page through a 35-page “Fatigue Survival Toolbox” pdf. For the time being, however, I didn’t read past page 6 since it offered this advice:
- Plan to get 8 hours of sleep each night.
Is that even possible in this day and age? Do you know anyone who sleeps that many hours each night – particularly weekday nights? I’m sure FAA is presenting an ideal here, but what’s your “real?” I try my best to eat right, exercise and, yes, sleep, but busy days push all these good things to the back burner. And sleep is the one I jettison the most.
So what about your ramp crews? Nobody can make anyone fall asleep – well, OK, other than giving them a copy of “War And Peace.” But do you make a point of encouraging your personnel to get adequate sleep? What’s “adequate?” Can you pinpoint an expensive mistake that could be attributed to tired workers? What programs might you have in place to encourage sleep and other healthy habits?
