Flight Duty Day

[LastSamurai]

Need a little help here.

I have been hearing, over the years, from company to company, that your flight duty day starts the moment dispatch or operator calls you. Example, dispatch calls you at 06:00 for a 14:00 flight and therefore your duty day started at 06:00 since that is when you got the call.

I have not been able to find ANY reference to this in the CARS. The only thing I was able to come up with is the actual definition of "flight duty day" which states the following:

"flight duty time" - means the period that starts when a flight crew member reports for a flight, or reports as a flight crew member on standby, and finishes at "engines off" or "rotors stopped" at the end of the final flight, except in the case of a flight conducted under Subpart 4 or 5 of Part VII, in which case the period finishes 15 minutes after "engines off" or "rotors stopped" at the end of the final flight, and includes the time required to complete any duties assigned by the air operator or private operator or delegated by the Minister prior to the reporting time and includes the time required to complete aircraft maintenance engineer duties prior to or following a flight; (temps de service de vol)

I was hoping some of you might be able to shed a little more light on the subject. Thanks in advance with all your replies.

LastSamurai

[. .]

I believe it starts when you arrive at work. Your rest period can be cancelled by a phone call from dispatch or crew sked though.

[snaproll20]

this is another example of the vagueness of the CARS.
My understanding is that you start your duty day at the time before takeoff designated in the Company Operations Manual.
This seems to vary company to company from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
It seems reasonable to suppose that the complexity of the flight may determine this start time.
For instance, if you are jumping in a helicopter for a VFR jaunt 10 miles or so, on clear day, then time for quick pre-flight may suffice ( 10 minutes???)
If however you are going on an IFR to the U.S. and have to research weather, file flight plans, send off the necessary Customs information, stock the commisary, do the walkaround, arrange for fuel, etc etc, then 1 hour may not be enough.

In determining whether you have caused an infraction on duty time, an inspector might have to conduct a "reasonable" expectation of how much time you would have required to perform your duties.

Hope that helps.

Incidentally, an old friend of mine considers washing and cleaning aircraft other than the normal quick tidy-up should be counted as duty time, so if your employer has you grooming and cleaning, it should be part of your duty day if you did some flying.

[Spokes]

I may be a bit naive, but could it be that your duty day starts when you show up for duty? Please say it is that simple.

[Flaps 1 Billion]

703 duty day can start as early as 15mins prior to engine start

[CD]

Slightly different definition in the current advisory circular...

"flight duty time" means the period of time that starts when a flight crew member reports for a flight, or reports as a flight crew member on standby, and finishes at engines off or rotors stopped at the end of the final flight, except as provided in subsection 700.16(1), includes the time required to complete any duties assigned by the air operator or delegated by the Minister prior to the reporting time, and includes the time required to complete aircraft maintenance engineer duties prior to or following a flight; (temps de service de vol). Subsection 700.16(1) requires Commuter and Airline operations, other than those conducted with a helicopter, to include in flight duty time 15 minutes for post-flight duties.

Appendix A - Definitions
AC 0091R - Flight Time and Flight Duty Time Limitations and Rest Periods

[flynfiddle]

A good rule of thumb for when your Duty day starts is generally 14 hours before you crack a beer open at home after your day is done.

Just kidding .. sorta

[Hot Fuel]

I may be a bit naive, but could it be that your duty day starts when you show up for duty? Please say it is that simple.

Yes it is that simple, a company op's manual might stipulate a given time period prior to scheduled flight time that you must report and it might vary from company to company but it all equals the same thing. Your flight duty starts when you report, show up, call it what you want... it starts when you arrive to begin performing any work related to the operation of the airline. That includes chief pilots, training pilots, ops managers etc that are in the office at 07:00 and run out to do the 6 hour trip that came up at 17:00 hrs.

Sounds like somebody is confusing duty day vs. duty rest and the interuption of the latter.

[prop2jet]

When you report for duty and when you are required to report for duty are 2 different things. If you report at 5:45 and are required to report at 6, then your duty day starts at 6.

As has been previously pointed out, your Ops Manual will specify the amount of time allocated for pre-flight preparation and this can vary from one operator to the next.

If you are called at home to operate a flight, determine when the flight is scheduled to leave, then apply the required pre-flight duty time to the departure time to get your required reporting time for duty day calculations.

[Cat Driver]

Jeeesses H. Chreist.

Please Please may I never be sitting in an airplane with some moron up front who does not have enough intelligence to determine when he is to fatigued to fly safely and has to get even more fatigued trying to search through the rules to confirm he is to tired to fly...... written by morons who fortunately do not fly.

Cat