Base flight time limit on actual time not scheduled (with slight allowance for overage due to wx only).
That's not much different than what we have now. You'll need to be VERY specific if you want to prevent abuse.
Agreed. 10 hours minimum rest in between regular, day-circadian-rhythm trips.
Googles, careful... you don't want to do 12 hours minimum rest except on VERY long international trips; that would severely impact middle-day trips in pairings. You'd end up working more days in the month to get the same amount of block/credit.
Careful. Some people LIKE those. (I don't, but I know people who bid them exclusively - they live in domicile, have kids, and that's ALL they bid). What it maybe needs to say is:
"Continuous duty periods that commence after 8 p.m. local time and continue, without an intervening rest period, until after midnight local in the time zone of the city in which the pilot departed, shall be
a. no more than two takeoff and landings in that same duty period, AND
b. shall be limited to no more than 9 hours of scheduled duty, AND
c. shall be no more than 4 hours of actual flight, AND
d. shall be proceeded and followed by 12 hours of prospectively-assigned rest, AND
e. each crew member, including the flight attendant(s), shall be provided with a single-occupancy hotel room for any ground time in between the two flights in paragraph (a) above, in excess of 2 hours."
This would allow for a CDO that has a 2200 report, 2245 departure, 2 hour max flight out, arrive 0045.
Hotel for up to 4 hours.
0445 depart back into domicile, 2 hour max flight back, arrive 0645, 15 minutes to duty off at 0700, then 12 hours minimum rest before you could report for another one.
The point is to make the rules flexible for the people who want them, restrictive enough to be safe, and ironclad enough for management not to be able to violate them.
It's pretty sad when the FAA has to jump in and negotiate for you instead of a union.
Actually, this is better. Once they are implemented, they are not subject to re-interpretation by the airline or the NMB, cannot be violated at will under a "fly it now, grieve it later" order from the Chief Pilot, and leaves the airline no choice but to adhere to the rules.
I also like a 12 hour max duty day, extendable to 14 hours ONLY for unforeseen delays, and make 14 hours the "drop dead" time, similar to how 16 hours is now for Whitlow. This also would fit in the 10 hour min rest profile (14 on, 10 off, maximum, under any circumstances domestic).
Lastly, I'd like to see a restriction on the mixing of day/night circadian rhythm trips from the FAA. Make it where you can't have a 2-day trip followed by 2 CDO's or vice-versa.
The more scheduling ALPA people involved, who actually build pairings, see what happens when you put a lot of restrictions in the pairing generator, and can come up with a middle ground like some of the above examples, should yield some decent results.
