A B737 first officer described the 'perfectly legal' scheduling practices which are employed by his ...

Narrative:

Minimum rest and poor contract threatens flight safety. My airline is known for minimum staffing and 'efficient' operations. However; once weather and unforeseen conditions arise because of this 'efficiency' crews are forced to fly fatigued. Even when weather isn't a factor many minimum hour scheduling practices are common; such as ten hours between duty in and duty out at hub airports. Common sense dictates ten hours is not enough time. I have a place twenty minutes from the airport (very close by most standards) and it takes me 1 hour to leave the airport and arrive at the parking lot of my apartment. Another thirty minutes minimum is required to unpack; repack and shower/get up... This equates to ten hours minus three hours equals seven hours of sleep. Seven hours of sleep if you go right to sleep with no interruptions (forget about eating). Realistically you can expect five to six hours sleep and then be on duty for sixteen hours the next day! [This is] all perfectly legal. This is exactly what happened to me. After flying all five of my reserve days my day off was rolled and I was required to show for a mid morning departure. I was notified of this approximately eleven hours the night before while checking my schedule before leaving work for two days off. The show time was in the early am. My return flight blocked into the gate at fourteen hours later. A full B737 takes fifteen to twenty minutes to deplane. Then I must walk across the airport and check my schedule before driving home. By the time I get to the employee bus and arrive home it takes an hour (with no traffic). After my early am show that day for a round trip I am then drafted to do a maintenance flight. Maintenance flights might entail non-normal procedures. No problem on six hours of sleep. Completely legal; safe of course is another mater. Has anyone in the federal government figured out it does no good to regulate how safe airplanes are mechanically if the crews who fly them are too tired to think straight? I can only call in fatigued so many times before disciplinary action is taken against me. Of course the company sounds like a broken record and says they are complying with what is 'legal'. Please help.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 First Officer described the 'perfectly legal' scheduling practices which are employed by his airline but which cause him to have to work fatigued.

Narrative: Minimum rest and poor contract threatens flight safety. My Airline is known for minimum staffing and 'efficient' operations. However; once weather and unforeseen conditions arise because of this 'efficiency' crews are forced to fly fatigued. Even when weather isn't a factor many minimum hour scheduling practices are common; such as ten hours between duty in and duty out at hub airports. Common sense dictates ten hours is not enough time. I have a place twenty minutes from the airport (VERY CLOSE by most standards) and it takes me 1 hour to leave the airport and arrive at the parking lot of my apartment. Another thirty minutes minimum is required to unpack; repack and shower/get up... This equates to ten hours minus three hours equals seven hours of sleep. Seven hours of sleep IF you go right to sleep with no interruptions (forget about eating). Realistically you can expect five to six hours sleep and then be on duty for sixteen hours the next day! [This is] all perfectly legal. This is exactly what happened to me. After flying all five of my reserve days my day off was rolled and I was required to show for a mid morning departure. I was notified of this approximately eleven hours the night before while checking my schedule before leaving work for two days off. The show time was in the early AM. My return flight blocked into the gate at fourteen hours later. A full B737 takes fifteen to twenty minutes to deplane. Then I must walk across the airport and check my schedule before driving home. By the time I get to the employee bus and arrive home it takes an hour (with no traffic). After my early AM show that day for a round trip I am then drafted to do a maintenance flight. Maintenance flights might entail non-normal procedures. No problem on six hours of sleep. Completely legal; safe of course is another mater. Has anyone in the federal government figured out it does no good to regulate how safe airplanes are mechanically if the crews who fly them are too tired to think straight? I can only call in fatigued so many times before disciplinary action is taken against me. Of course the company sounds like a broken record and says they are complying with what is 'legal'. Please help.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	901715
Time
Date	201007
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 210 Flight Crew Total 13000 Flight Crew Type 1000
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A B737 first officer described the 'perfectly legal' scheduling practices which are employed by his airline but which cause him to have to work fatigued.