RE: lenght of shifts

["Paul M. Wright, Jr." <pmwright@home.com>]

>> one that wasn't mentioned that I believe factors into the crews
>> thought process is travel time to and from outlaying bases and how that
>> plays into their personal life (which certainly has some validity and
impact
>> on crew turn over rates). The bottom line in any staffing pattern is the
>> crews willingness to make ongoing and honest assessments of their fatigue
>> level and mental acuity (of themselves and their partner) as well as
>> managements willingness to take an AC out of service for a period of time
>> for crew rest if needed.

You've made two excellent and key points.  As flight programs evolve from
the original medical-center based model to a more distributed
point-of-service model, travel times can become increasingly significant as
a determinant of what is viable as a staffing pattern.
One flight program in our neck of the woods had a past (can't speak for the
present) policy of requiring flight crew members to rotate through all duty
stations over a service area hundreds of miles wide.  That certainly has an
impact on the feasible staffing patterns that might be available and
workable.

On the second point of evaluating and responding to evidence of fatigue, I
think you've made an excellent statement of what a workable solution might
look like, but I can't help but wonder whether it is realistic for flight
crew members to make such self-determinations.  After many years of watching
people report for their 12 or 24-hour flight duty shift after having just
completed a 24-hour duty shift for another employer and all the while
denying any possibility of fatigue or sub-optimal performance, I would have
to conclude that the ability to accurately gauge flight-readiness for
oneself is rare enough that basing a policy on that ability would be
un-wise.  I also have the idea that fatigue may be similar to hypothermia in
that there are stages during which there is a physiologic tendency towards
thinking all is well as the situation deteriorates.  Whether peer assessment
can overcome dysfunctional individual self-assessment is a matter of
conjecture but I suspect it usually cannot except in the setting of a truly
high-performance team with a large degree of interdependence and trust.

Nonetheless,  you've provided some very useful thoughts to be considered
when evaluating a new staffing pattern.


regards!

paul

Paul M. Wright, Jr.
Mesa, AZ




















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