Narrative:

I find out that my reserve call out window starts xe:00 (local) day one; xa:00 day two; xa:00 day three; etc. Of course I make preparations to be called out for a late departure or red-eye trip so I stay up late the day before and try to sleep in to get my body cycle ready for upcoming trips. I'm not called for a trip until day 3 of my reserve period. The sequence has a late call out of xc:00 and departure of xd:00. Of course the overnight is short with an early departure; then consecutive early departures the remainder of the four-day trip with no regard for my call out window or sleep cycle. To add insult to injury; we have less than 10 hours on the ground the first night and it takes 30 minutes to get through passport control. I'm literally the last crew member to be screened. Then we must wait for van and take a ride to the hotel. Because of all this I don't arrive at the hotel room until over an hour and a half after arriving. Then our departure is after sunrise. The morning hotel shuttle leaves on the hour and half past the hour so our crew is forced to arrive at the airport an extra 25 minutes early. Then we wait for the gate because a previous departure still occupied our gate. I'm estimating the entire crew received 6:30ish hours of actual sleep. Given that my body is ready for very late departures and not early; I'm exhausted. Actually the entire crew complains of not getting enough rest the next morning on this very short (scheduled) overnight. Now I must contend with an eight-hour day (arrive into a northeast airport late afternoon) while trying to get my body acclimatized to early departures. My body clock is screwed up enough without being subjected to a scheduled minimum rest the first night of a four-day trip. I'm not complaining about the early duty-in period; just the sea-saw duty-in cycles and minimum rest the company states are 'legal'. I thought safety was paramount?

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Reserve First Officer described his fatigue during a trip which has early checkin's after his body clock is prepared for his late day reserve duty time. The see-saw duty times and minimum rest are very difficult.

Narrative: I find out that my reserve call out window starts XE:00 (local) day one; XA:00 day two; XA:00 day three; etc. Of course I make preparations to be called out for a late departure or red-eye trip so I stay up late the day before and try to sleep in to get my body cycle ready for upcoming trips. I'm not called for a trip until day 3 of my reserve period. The sequence has a late call out of XC:00 and departure of XD:00. Of course the overnight is short with an early departure; then consecutive early departures the remainder of the four-day trip with no regard for my call out window or sleep cycle. To add insult to injury; we have less than 10 hours on the ground the first night and it takes 30 minutes to get through Passport Control. I'm literally the last crew member to be screened. Then we must wait for van and take a ride to the hotel. Because of all this I don't arrive at the hotel room until over an hour and a half after arriving. Then our departure is after sunrise. The morning hotel shuttle leaves on the hour and half past the hour so our crew is forced to arrive at the airport an extra 25 minutes early. Then we wait for the gate because a previous departure still occupied our gate. I'm estimating the entire crew received 6:30ish hours of actual sleep. Given that my body is ready for very late departures and not early; I'm exhausted. Actually the entire crew complains of not getting enough rest the next morning on this very short (scheduled) overnight. Now I must contend with an eight-hour day (arrive into a Northeast airport late afternoon) while trying to get my body acclimatized to early departures. My body clock is screwed up enough without being subjected to a scheduled minimum rest the first night of a four-day trip. I'm not complaining about the early duty-in period; just the sea-saw duty-in cycles and minimum rest the company states are 'legal'. I thought safety was paramount?

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.