Long-Haul Airline Pilots to Be Monitored
When the longest-ever nonstop airline flight went into service on Monday -- 18-plus hours between New York's Newark Airport and Singapore, over a 10,000-mile route, in an Airbus A340-500 -- the pilots became inadvertent guinea pigs. To document their response to the stresses of the flight, the crew will be hooked up with a special watch attached to a handheld computer, which will monitor their alertness levels, Singapore authorities told the Associated Press on Tuesday. After each flight, the pilots are scanned with a brainwave-measuring device to check how rested they are. The tests are to see whether new regulations are needed for the super-long flights. A final report on the study is due out next year. In Singapore and most other countries, current rules limit pilots to 18 hours of duty time. Singapore Airlines (SIA) now has four pilots on each flight under Singapore's aviation agency's provisional rules. Two of the pilots must be captains. Pilots are given two rest periods during the flight in individual compartments, and must undergo special training including guidelines on sleep physiology, alertness management and counter-fatigue measures. The new flight beats the existing record set in February 2004 when SIA launched nonstop service between Singapore and Los Angeles.
Long-Haul Airline Pilots to Be Monitored
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DiscoDashSeven
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Re: Long-Haul Airline Pilots to Be Monitored
Just what we need...bigger, more complicated watches.Rebel wrote: To document their response to the stresses of the flight, the crew will be hooked up with a special watch attached to a handheld computer.
Do they still split the crews up as one primary crew and one cruise crew? If the primary crew has to get up three hours before wheels up and then last eighteen hours after that, they are going to be in their sleep mode at some point no matter how much they rest in between.
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Panama Jack
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ahramin
I believe that crewing policy varies from company to company as well as country to country. AC does not require two Captains for their long haul but a combination of F/O’s and Cruise pilots who are also F/O’s to remain politically correct.
In my experience the best rest time is the middle rest period with two F/O’s and always taking one of your crew rests at the end when crewed with three F/O’s. I found the crew bunk on the 340 to be far superior to the J class rest facility on the 767. It’s surprising how much floor noise and generally how loud normal operational noises are when trying to get some rest. Normally if I awake with drool on my mouth I suspect that I must have fallen into a deep sleep for some period of time. So lack of sleep is a major problem that some regulatory authorities, if any, have failed to address.
Coupled with the lack of practice because of the long haul environment, a major problem can develop quickly with the crew being slow to recognize it.
We do have a problem with the aircraft manufactures that fail to recognize the limits between man and machine and how lack of sleep and practice affects human judgment in managing that interface.
I believe that crewing policy varies from company to company as well as country to country. AC does not require two Captains for their long haul but a combination of F/O’s and Cruise pilots who are also F/O’s to remain politically correct.
In my experience the best rest time is the middle rest period with two F/O’s and always taking one of your crew rests at the end when crewed with three F/O’s. I found the crew bunk on the 340 to be far superior to the J class rest facility on the 767. It’s surprising how much floor noise and generally how loud normal operational noises are when trying to get some rest. Normally if I awake with drool on my mouth I suspect that I must have fallen into a deep sleep for some period of time. So lack of sleep is a major problem that some regulatory authorities, if any, have failed to address.
Coupled with the lack of practice because of the long haul environment, a major problem can develop quickly with the crew being slow to recognize it.
We do have a problem with the aircraft manufactures that fail to recognize the limits between man and machine and how lack of sleep and practice affects human judgment in managing that interface.
The following was copied from the "Blues" forum and is self-explanatory:
"This sounds similar to the program run at my airline to measure fatigue.
I've used the equipment on two flights.
The "watch" is a device that senses movement (and lack of!) and has an alarm that sounds after a period of inactivity. It is a prototype warning device that is meant to be one of the last defences against "exceptionally long blinks."
Our volunteer pilots were hooked up to a brainwave monitor for the whole
flight. The data gathered was compared with the results from several
co-ordination tests each pilot did during the flight with the hand-held
computer.
The aim is to gather data on tours of duty that generate a high level of
fatigue reports. It is hard to justify work pattern changes based only on
feelings or opinions but when you have some actual data before you it makes the exercise more scientific.
Basically any time between 0100 and 0500 body clock time you don't want to be in an airplane!"
Hmm I like the idea of a backrub in the F/A crew can..
"This sounds similar to the program run at my airline to measure fatigue.
I've used the equipment on two flights.
The "watch" is a device that senses movement (and lack of!) and has an alarm that sounds after a period of inactivity. It is a prototype warning device that is meant to be one of the last defences against "exceptionally long blinks."
Our volunteer pilots were hooked up to a brainwave monitor for the whole
flight. The data gathered was compared with the results from several
co-ordination tests each pilot did during the flight with the hand-held
computer.
The aim is to gather data on tours of duty that generate a high level of
fatigue reports. It is hard to justify work pattern changes based only on
feelings or opinions but when you have some actual data before you it makes the exercise more scientific.
Basically any time between 0100 and 0500 body clock time you don't want to be in an airplane!"
Hmm I like the idea of a backrub in the F/A crew can..
