I personally knew of one FAA certified flight surgeon who never ever took a blood pressure on pilots, he just wrote in an acceptable reading number; another who because he had beginning dementia, was removed from a hospital medical staff roster but moved to another state and continued pioy physicals; and two in different states who my hbrother went to (recommended by pilots) who took my brother’s money, passed him on the physical and never touched him!
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Informative POST, Sis/Nurse.

I fly with a pilot all the time who can barely walk. Bad knees. And as a result, he’s also overweight. Upon arrival into the hotel for the overnight, he requests a room close to the elevator so he doesnt have to walk far. Further reducing his physical activity to exercise. Eats airport food and breathes heavily when he walks. I admire him alot and fear for his health. I wonder how some of these pilots pass their physicals.

John, there are FAA mandated regulations in this industry. One being MINIMUM REST for crews. This is NOT something that is negotiated at the bargaining table. All airline companies MUST abide by these FAA RULES. Care to know or see that YOUR pilot worked a 13 hour day and got 9 hours on the ground in a hotel. Subtract time going to the hotel, getting up 2 hours before departure and they equates to maybe 6 hours sleep. It’s starting your day, FATIQUED.

We KNOW that night work, rotating work hours, and lack of rest promote the release of cheicals that promote heart disease. We in the aviation business also know that the FAA Flight Surgeon system is a bad joke- all too many of these MDs are easy to bribe (they do the work ofr the money-$125/exam CASH- not for the altruism of protecting passengers) or are retired or semi competent to begin with.

I personally knew of one FAA certified flight surgeon who never ever took a blood pressure on pilots, he just wrote in an acceptable reading number; another who because he had beginning dementia, was removed from a hospital medical staff roster but moved to another state and continued pioy physicals; and two in different states who my hbrother went to (recommended by pilots) who took my brother’s money, passed him on the physical and never touched him!

The FAA only cares about the perception of safety – not the actual implementation of safe activities to prevent pilot fatigue or assure excellence in the flight surgeon program.

ALPA has the power currently to put model flight, duty, and rest requirements into place if it was really serious about these items. When push comes to shove, however, these issues always take a back seat to lifestyle and pay during negotiations. It’s all about the money.

The rest situation, as described by Capt. Prater, is accurate. Federal regulations allow for these inadequate rest periods, and they do occur. But they don’t occur every day. Pilot schedules tend to be mix of longer and shorter duty days and longer and shorter rest periods. Pilots are generally not working 14-16 hour days every day, followed by the bogus 8 hours of rest called for by federal regulations.

The problem of commuting pilots is very real, too. Pilots deny themselves adequate rest rather than change their lifestyle. Many do it on a regular basis. Further compounding this is the way in which the FAA has turned a blind eye to conflicts with military reserve flying. There are still siginifcant numbers of airline pilots who serve their country in military reserve units. None of the military flight time is figured into any of the flight or duty time limitations for commercial pilots. The FAA simply gives a knowing wink to the Department of Defense. This arrangement allows reservists to fly all night back from war zones, land, change uniforms, and report for work at an airline with no rest — and that’s perfectly legal and acceptable to the FAA.

Fatigue is a problem in the airline industry. It needs to be addressed comprehensively. Unfortunately, both airlines and pilot unions tend to be selective in the issues they want to address. The FAA, an agency whose senior leadership (with the exception of the newly appointed J. Randolph Babbitt) is surpisingly devoid of any practical aviation experience, is ill-suited in both knowledge and temperment to promulgate regulations that will address the fatigue issues comprehensively.

After reading some of the moronic comments made by the legislators being addressed by Capt. Prater, I suspect that they will do a lot of grand-standing, and perhaps introduce more ineffective and costly legislation. We will likely wind up with complicated changes to the rules that will not make us safer, will cost a lot of money, and leave everyone unhappy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_re_us/us_pilot_dies

Hmmm…can’t help but wonder if fatigue had anything to do with it. He was, after all, 61 years old. How many people in their 60’s can work for 20 hours straight on 4 hours sleep?

Now, you know why airline employees have such a contentious relationship with management. One interesting note here is that now that the pilot retirement age has been changed to 65, I wonder if there will be a correlation between age and the acumulative effects of LACK OF SLEEP (not reduced sleep). Furthermore, the MINIMUM REST PERIOD used to be a rare occurrence decades ago, nowadays, it’s common. Nice to know that the FAA is allowing the airline industry to sidestep the crew’s important ADEQUATE rest period in the name of profits.

So as I read this statement, the union has done a disservice to it’s membership by allowing the “the complete absence of negotiated work rule improvements at many carriers.” Last time I checked, negoiating work rules is the job of the union not the FAA or the government.

Furthermore, I’m not sure that the pilots would want the change since the current financial situation has “[forced] pilots to accept even more flights or face their own financial crisis.” Wouldn’t a reduction in available flight hours result in an situation that results in a “financial crisis” for pilots? Last time I checked, financial stress increases not decreases fatigue.

When I read the last paragraph it sounds to me that the union has failed their membership. Pilots are being asked to do “more with less” which has become the mantra for most US businesses. Having failed to negoiate better work rules at the bargining table, the union is now looking for the FAA to do their bargining for them.

Interestingly, I didn’t see any studies or NTSB reports quoted. Wouldn’t that be a strong argument? “The NTSB recommended in XXXX after the crash of flight XXXXX resulting from pilot fatigue that the FAA reduce pilot work days to X hours per day.”

My neighbor is a PIC (captain) for a regional airline. Her airline allots schedules through a “bidding” process. She intentional bids for ugly schedules like those mentioned in the article in order to spend more time at home. As the primary bread winner in her house, she has to fly x hours a month to pay bills. She doesn’t agree with external regulation of her hours because they would force her to spend more time away from her daughters to make the same amount of money.

So this seems to me to be more of an issue of pilots work rules changing, like every other employee in corporate america, and being asked to do more with less than an issue of safety. Maybe the unions should take their fight to the bargining table. At the same time, based on their statement and the talking with my neighbor, pilots don’t seem to want a change in work rules that lowers their income for a given time away from home.