Coming up on 94 hours of Standby for the Month.

[Diesel]

Realityman-

You enjoy your fbo stby, i'll enjoy my hotel stby.

And I don't have to listen to the guy in the chair next to me snoring or watching the military channel.

 

[ozpilot]

or better yet Fox News ...

 

[realityman]

or better yet Fox News ...

Uh, yeah.:erm: I'm gonna have to concede this point. Big screen TV's with a gazillion channels and every single time I walk into the lounge it's Fox news. Ugh.

But you can't blame the schedulers for other pilots' lack of imagination when it comes to what channel to watch!

Diesel, I think you're just too used to the FBO lounges in Maine! Trust me, most of the rest of the country's FBO's have INDOOR plumbing!!:laugh:

Ah well. I'm sitting standby at Million Air in CMH right now. Heading back to the cushy recliner chair to do a little reading. Maybe I'll stop and grab some free cookies and drinks before going to the lounge. I must just be a glutton for punishment!:beer:

 

[172driver]

Actually, I fatigue out plenty. And I don't know ANYONE who has been stuck doing standby at JFK for more than a day, let alone 5. If it happens to you, then I'd be tracking down the person in scheduling whose cereal you pissed in and apologize!

I have been scheduled to sit multiple days of standby at JFK more than once. It didn't happen. The company will usually listen if you talk to the right people. If not, we have other tools at our disposal.

 

[NJACrewservicer]

Just had a guy fatigue that was given 16 hours of rest...2 hours at the hotel on duty...show at the fbo 1 hour prior to flight...did a .9 rev leg...then fatigued.

:crying:

 

[pilot22]

I have question for when you are sitting standby for so many hours. Do any of these FBOs have a place where you can work out (treadmill, bike etc) and can you take off and go for a run around the block?

 

[kman]

You know what? Why Don't we make it mandatory to sit at the fbo after 10hrs of rest? If its so great to just stuff ur face, surf the net and watch tv, then on ur next 12 hour overnight ask them to bring u back out to the fbo early, so that you can cover the backup to the back up to the backup.
GO A TEAMERS!!! GO!!!

There was a point last month when we had 4 xls and 2 ultras crew sitting in TUS? (another 3 were sitting in SDL and PHX)FOR WHAT? WTF! Guess we had to cover everything west of the Mississippi from TUS.

Yes the have tv, snacks, and internet. But I rather be in shorts and a tshirt, have my own choice of programming to watch, a semi real gym, a shower, privacy, go for a run, go for a swim, order and eat a real meal that doesn't have a plastic see through top on it, and the ability to take a nap in a real bed.

My Point is, yes we need some crews to standby, but there has to be a limit and some kind of accountability if the company is abusing crews with crew rot.

 

[CA1900]

Just had a guy fatigue that was given 16 hours of rest...2 hours at the hotel on duty...show at the fbo 1 hour prior to flight...did a .9 rev leg...then fatigued.

:crying:

Just to play devil's advocate here...

16 hours of rest sounds like a major shift to the circadian rhythm, which may be what prompted that fatigue call. Also, as I'm sure you're aware, hotels are not particularly restful places during day light hours. Maids slamming doors, footsteps shaking the hallways (more an issue in cheap hotels), and so on. So if the bulk of the rest period was in the daytime, that may be the issue.

Hypothetically, let's say I'm that crewmember who called in. I work from 10am to 11pm on this duty day. That means I got up around 8am to get ready, eat breakfast, etc., and did 13 hours of duty, and probably got settled into the hotel around midnight.

Now scheduling gives me 16 hours of rest, which means I'm coming to work at 3pm -- actually 5pm, when you add in the two hours of hotel duty. Do you really think I can just "reprogram" my body to wake up 7 hours later on a whim? I can't. And I'm going to get hungry and probably wake up long before that, because the breakfast and lunch periods from the day prior have passed while I was theoretically sleeping.

My point is, I'm going to be dog tired at midnight, and go right to bed. That means I'm probably going to get up around 8am, regardless of the time I was scheduled to start duty. And from that point on, the clock's ticking. By dinner time, yeah, I'm probably going to be cooked, even though I "only did a .9 rev leg."

While I'm always happy to get a long overnight like that, from a productivity standpoint, I'd have been better off with 12 hours than 18 at the hotel. (36 would be even better, but that's probably asking a bit much.)

You're not going to get a full day out of me after you shift my sleep pattern, in either direction. I'll do my best as I always do, and the quality of rest I got (i.e., was it a quiet/comfortable hotel) will have an impact on how much energy I'll have. But I'm not going to fly groggy. It absolutely isn't safe, for us or our owners.

 

[Hawkered]

If you don't like it; leave! There's no shortage of flying to be had. Are you some sort of a problem child?

BTW, stay off this freakin' board talking crap about our company; you've got a union to hear you whine.

It could be a lot worse. You could be taking a bullet in the backside for your country in the sandpit. You whiners make me sick!

 

[fob727]

Bad day, huh?