Flight And Duty Times For Pilots

There’s been much media attention of late targeting the newly implemented Pilot Fatigue Rules in the US. This has ended in a number of other articles getting published which particularly chat about the incredibly high number of pilots who admit to being tired at work. Recent polls indicated that a large percentage of airline pilots admitted to making errors at work due to fatigue brought about by the fatiguing nature of there flying schedules.

As we are aware an airlines flight and duty times have to be accepted by the states regulatory authority and must be adhered to by the airline itself. It is illegal for airlines to order their pilots to fly more than the stipulated flight and duty times. So if these rules are instituted to prevent pilots from flying in a tired state, why then is there such a large rate of reported mistakes, situations and accidents occurring due to weariness?

There are 3 major factors why this will happen. Firstly the guidelines and rules are basically out of date. Due to improvements in technology aircraft can fly longer and further than before. Lately we saw the FAA introduce updated rules as some of the prior regulations were implemented over 50 years formerly. This also raises the question why the FAA would only enforce passenger airlines to comply with these new rules and not freight airlines.

Second there is always a probability that even if a pilot is allocated a rest period it’s not warranted that he or she will have a satisfactory sleep in this time. Any number of eventualities that are experienced by people everyday could stop the pilot from having an acceptable rest.

Last of all there is the situation where an airline will force a pilot to fly hours higher than the legal limits. Now while this is relatively rare in this time it does still happen in some nations where manpower to police these rules is restricted. Flying tired has been proven to be identical to flying in an intoxicated state. A situation which is not realistic for any pilot.

For more information on subjects related to airline pilots please go to www.pilotsalary.co. Here you will find additional info on Pilot Fatigue Rules and other topics like what is a Pilot Salary.