No Rest For The Wicked Fast Cargo

After the New York aviation accident involving Colgan Air flight 3407 the government was swamped by protests from the families of the victims, these protests were aimed at getting the rest and training requirements for pilots changed. Before the requirement changes pilots were getting hired by airliners with very little hours this has been changed so that pilots are required to have 1500 hours of flight time before getting their Airline Transport Pilots certification.

Another rule change is that the rest period for pilots doesn’t begin until they actually check in to their hotel where as before the rest period began once you left the aircraft which is unfair to pilots because it could take an hour or two in order to get to your hotel eat something and finally fall asleep. Therefor while the pilots may have been off duty for eight hours in reality they only got about four hours of actual sleep. Because of this pilots were showing up to work and were seen yawning while boarding aircraft. And in the case of Colgan they were so tired they had no idea what was going on. Another incident involving fatigue like this was the Lexington Kentucky accident the pilots were so fatigued that when they arrived for work they boarded the wrong aircraft and began to pre-flight it.

Cargo carriers are exempt from these new rules partially because they do not carry passengers and partially because if they were exempt, then a lot of new pilots would not be able to get entry level jobs. Currently the cargo companies follow the old style of rest and training rules where they take fairly low time pilots and train them. However the pilots are only given eight hours of rest when they are off shift, this time does not include time to the hotel/home or time to eat just time from getting off the plane to getting back on.

I feel that part of the reason that the cargo carriers are exempt is because it is considered an entry level position in our professional field. If the cargo carriers were to be a part of these new rules it would limit the number of pilots in the industry and it would also increase the time it would take for less experienced pilots to get the time they need in order to go work at the airlines and other passenger carriers.

However I do feel that the cargo carriers should have to follow the new rules (at least the rest requirements) as a measure of safety. Many aviation accidents have been linked to cargo carriers and the fact that the pilots were fatigued. While admittedly the new rules are made more for the safety of passengers aboard aircraft it is still unsafe for the people on the ground if an airplane was to crash on the ground. While I feel that the rest rules would be good for the pilots of cargo carriers I feel that the hour requirements should still be up the that particular airline so that many young pilots such as myself can get an entry level position as a pilot there so that we may gain time and experience.

If the cargo carriers were to be made a part of these new requirements I would have to look elsewhere for beginning employment opportunities. Right now one of the easiest ways to get flight time is to fly for a cargo company because they take young pilots like me in and train us so that we gain hours fast and get into the airlines in decent time. However if it were to become part of the new rules we as pilots would be required to spend more of our money gaining time so that we could even work at entry level jobs placing us even more in debt.

For more information about the duty requirements checkout this page which lays them out and compares the new and old rules.

http://aviation.about.com/od/Regulations/a/Faa-Final-Rule-Pilot-Duty-And-Rest-Requirements.htm