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Q400 captain reported his company practice of swapping between am and pm reserve duty periods without regard for crew sleep cycles. Pay loss is also an issue when calling in fatigued.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 878630 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201003 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0001-0600 |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Q400 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Parked |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types |
Narrative:
I made numerous small errors over the course of the day and had to be removed from the trip due to fatigue. This is the third week in a row that my schedule has been changed from the am shift to the pm shift. The company continues to ignore recommendations to stop this practice. My schedule consisted of three days with early am wake ups followed by a swap to the pm shift with two days in excess of 10 hours each. Day four was over six hours of block and 12 hours of duty. It is just a matter of time before we have an accident. Fatigue and scheduling are the only topics of conversation when you walk into a crew room. The company claims to be addressing the issue. But; we need immediate change in order to avoid disaster. It is common to hear pilots say that they cannot afford to call in fatigued due to the company's policy of withholding pay as punishment. This bid; I could lose well over $500 due to the company's scheduling practices. Should we really be encouraging airline pilots to fly while fatigued by threatening to take away pay if they refuse? I have been working the am reserve shift for about four years and almost never complain. We need someone to step up and put a stop to these fatigue issues now!
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Q400 Captain reported his company practice of swapping between AM and PM reserve duty periods without regard for crew sleep cycles. Pay loss is also an issue when calling in fatigued.
Narrative: I made numerous small errors over the course of the day and had to be removed from the trip due to fatigue. This is the third week in a row that my schedule has been changed from the AM shift to the PM shift. The company continues to ignore recommendations to stop this practice. My schedule consisted of three days with early AM wake ups followed by a swap to the PM shift with two days in excess of 10 hours each. Day four was over six hours of block and 12 hours of duty. It is just a matter of time before we have an accident. Fatigue and scheduling are the only topics of conversation when you walk into a crew room. The company claims to be addressing the issue. But; we need immediate change in order to avoid disaster. It is common to hear pilots say that they cannot afford to call in fatigued due to the company's policy of withholding pay as punishment. This bid; I could lose well over $500 due to the company's scheduling practices. Should we really be encouraging airline pilots to fly while fatigued by threatening to take away pay if they refuse? I have been working the AM reserve shift for about four years and almost never complain. We need someone to step up and put a stop to these fatigue issues now!
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.