Narrative:

Let me start off by saying that it is my responsibility to show up for work well rested; physically and mentally prepared to fly. I came to work knowing I was going to have a rough day of flying; seven legs with minimal rest during the day. The rest I was to get during the day quickly disappeared as we were given an airplane that had no APU; no fuel pump and down a generator (all deferred) making my job much harder to safely operate an airplane. As the day wore on we were late and our 9:14 overnight was reduced to minimum rest; 9 hours; due to having to complete a six leg day the next day with over 11 hours of duty. After getting to the hotel I had to eat and wait for the hotel to quiet down so I got a couple of hours of sleep; needless to say I was sleep deprived going into day two. After completing 5 of the six legs the next day I took the responsible step and called in fatigued as I could no longer fly safely. I tried my best not to call in fatigued because of worrying about pay and how much rest I would get in domicile. I was under block for the month so if the company didn't pay me I would take a huge cut in pay. Also being allowed 8 hours of rest is crazy to me after a fatigue call that is the rest I was told I would receive by my scheduler. I should have been told go home get some food and go to bed and call us when you wake up; I think that would have been the professional answer from the company. The company says they can't tell me when I am fatigued but they can tell me when I have had enough rest to come back to work. When I came back to work I was not rested and ready to fly. When I am sleep deprived I need more than my normal sleep time to get back on track and operate safely as a professional pilot. The schedule of flying 7 legs minimum rest and then 6 legs the next day is asking a pilot to stretch the level of safety and I refused to stretch the safety factor. On a side note; the schedules the company is building are getting borderline crazy. The previous week I flew 5 legs with an 8:01 scheduled overnight to fly four legs the next day. This is another example of no possible way to get adequate rest; but it is legal. In my mind that overnight should have been a nap. Why the company is building these schedules I have no explanation but they are not safe for the pilots or the passengers. Our pilots are flying around exhausted and if you don't believe me just walk into operations and ask a pilot. I am more than willing to explain my story/experience in detail - this is a very serious matter that needs the immediate attention of the company; the union; and the FAA. The threats that I encountered were loss of situational awareness from dozing off. Missing radio calls due to exhaustion and lack of alertness. [I was] taking a while to understand complex taxi instructions that were not normal for that airport. Not being able to understand the controls of the airplane i.e.; taking along time to become aware of a possible TA heading for the plane. Once I get to work I feel it is the company's responsibility to provide me adequate rest. I have no problem flying multiple legs as I am aware this is the present and future flying for the CRJ200; but I do have a problem when I am flying the maximum amount of time that is legal. After flying 7 legs anybody is exhausted and needs to recover; and going on reduced rest is not the way to recover. I have heard many times from the company; 'well; it is legal.' this statement not only scares me but frustrates me because it may be legal but it doesn't mean it is safe or the right choice. I think if the 'it is legal' attitude continues there is a big potential for there to be a bent airplane or something worse. I have learned from this fatigue call that it is better to fly tired than call in fatigued. Worrying about my pay and how much rest I was going to get while calling in fatigued was making the situation worse. If I didn't worry about it and continued to fly tired I could have just gone to the hotel and gone to bed. I think this is the wrong answer for any airline but it is the truth here. I felt as if I had to justify to people why I was fatigued and why I should be paid. Bottom line to me; I take calling in fatigued very seriously but this experience was a horrible one. In my opinion calling in fatigued needs to be revamped; I shouldn't have to have outside influences affecting if I am going to call fatigued or not. If I am fatigued; I am fatigued.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 First Officer reports calling in fatigued after a seven leg day with a minimum over night; then flying five of the six assigned legs the next day.

Narrative: Let me start off by saying that it is my responsibility to show up for work well rested; physically and mentally prepared to fly. I came to work knowing I was going to have a rough day of flying; seven legs with minimal rest during the day. The rest I was to get during the day quickly disappeared as we were given an airplane that had no APU; no fuel pump and down a generator (all deferred) making my job much harder to safely operate an airplane. As the day wore on we were late and our 9:14 overnight was reduced to minimum rest; 9 hours; due to having to complete a six leg day the next day with over 11 hours of duty. After getting to the hotel I had to eat and wait for the hotel to quiet down so I got a couple of hours of sleep; needless to say I was sleep deprived going into day two. After completing 5 of the six legs the next day I took the responsible step and called in fatigued as I could no longer fly safely. I tried my best not to call in fatigued because of worrying about pay and how much rest I would get in domicile. I was under block for the month so if the company didn't pay me I would take a huge cut in pay. Also being allowed 8 hours of rest is crazy to me after a fatigue call that is the rest I was told I would receive by my Scheduler. I should have been told go home get some food and go to bed and call us when you wake up; I think that would have been the professional answer from the company. The company says they can't tell me when I am fatigued but they can tell me when I have had enough rest to come back to work. When I came back to work I was not rested and ready to fly. When I am sleep deprived I need more than my normal sleep time to get back on track and operate safely as a professional pilot. The schedule of flying 7 legs minimum rest and then 6 legs the next day is asking a pilot to stretch the level of safety and I refused to stretch the safety factor. On a side note; the schedules the company is building are getting borderline crazy. The previous week I flew 5 legs with an 8:01 scheduled overnight to fly four legs the next day. This is another example of no possible way to get adequate rest; but it is legal. In my mind that overnight should have been a nap. Why the company is building these schedules I have no explanation but they are not safe for the pilots or the passengers. Our pilots are flying around exhausted and if you don't believe me just walk into operations and ask a pilot. I am more than willing to explain my story/experience in detail - this is a very serious matter that needs the immediate attention of the company; the Union; and the FAA. The threats that I encountered were loss of situational awareness from dozing off. Missing radio calls due to exhaustion and lack of alertness. [I was] taking a while to understand complex taxi instructions that were not normal for that airport. Not being able to understand the controls of the airplane i.e.; taking along time to become aware of a possible TA heading for the plane. Once I get to work I feel it is the company's responsibility to provide me adequate rest. I have no problem flying multiple legs as I am aware this is the present and future flying for the CRJ200; but I do have a problem when I am flying the maximum amount of time that is legal. After flying 7 legs anybody is exhausted and needs to recover; and going on reduced rest is not the way to recover. I have heard many times from the company; 'Well; it is legal.' This statement not only scares me but frustrates me because it may be legal but it doesn't mean it is safe or the right choice. I think if the 'it is legal' attitude continues there is a big potential for there to be a bent airplane or something worse. I have learned from this fatigue call that it is better to fly tired than call in fatigued. Worrying about my pay and how much rest I was going to get while calling in fatigued was making the situation worse. If I didn't worry about it and continued to fly tired I could have just gone to the hotel and gone to bed. I think this is the wrong answer for any airline but it is the truth here. I felt as if I had to justify to people why I was fatigued and why I should be paid. Bottom line to me; I take calling in fatigued very seriously but this experience was a horrible one. In my opinion calling in fatigued needs to be revamped; I shouldn't have to have outside influences affecting if I am going to call fatigued or not. If I am fatigued; I am fatigued.

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.