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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
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| Aug 23 2007, 5:25 PM EDT (current) | jimglab | 3 words added, 3 words deleted |
| Aug 21 2007, 8:31 PM EDT | jimglab | 3 words added, 1 word deleted |
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Fromfrom the Flightflight Deckdeck
by Chris Cooke
September 2007
Pilots on long-haul routes work hard to keep fatigue at bay.
Your next overseas business meeting has been planned for weeks. You board the12-hour flight to Tokyo, settle into your seat and try to get some rest. After a four-hour nap (if you’re one of the good sleepers), you’ll be refreshed enough to hit the ground running when you arrive. As you wind down, you wonder: How can pilots stay alert and awake on these long international flights?
On such flights, there are up to two extra pilots in the cockpit. When the flight is longer than eight hours, a third (relief) pilot will accompany the captain and first officer; and when the flight time exceeds 12 hours, a fourth pilot is added.
Upon reaching cruise altitude, the relief pilot(s) retire to the bunk room (for example, in a Boeing 747-400) and attempt to sleep for an allotted rest time. Depending on the rotation, either the captain or the first officer will take his time in the bunk after the relief pilot.
There will be one more rotation on a three-pilot flight, with the last pilot returning to the flying seat about an hour before landing. When there are four pilots, the breaks are longer, with the flight time split into two sections, rather than three. This satisfies FAA rest requirements, but does not guarantee that a pilot will be able to sleep.
Consider this scenario: We’ve taken off out of Los Angeles at 12:30 p.m., headed for Tokyo, and you are the relief pilot. You slept well the previous night at home, and arrived well-rested and ready to fly. You’re the first one in the bunk and will have about three hours until the wakeup light illuminates. You’re not that sleepy, so you decide to read a while until you feel drowsy.
The first 45 minutes of the flight are smooth, and you’ve just started to nod off—when all of a sudden, wham! The plane hits an area of turbulence, and you’re jolted out of your light slumber. By the time the air is smooth again, you can’t fall back asleep. Before you know it, your three-hour break is over, and you head to the cockpit to relieve the next pilot heading for the bunk.
Now you’ll be sitting in one of the flying seats for the next six hours or so, until you’re about one hour out from the destination. Needless to say, you’re going to be tired when you land in Tokyo, as your body will think it’s midnight while the local clock says four in the afternoon.
Every pilot I’ve flown with has a different way of handling jet lag, but no matter what they do, they all suffer the same fate: fatigue. To make matters worse, you and the captain will leave the following evening and fly to Bangkok without the extra pilot. That trip is usually over six hours and often departs Tokyo at 6:30 p.m. local time (4:30 a.m., according to your body). These circumstances make it one of the toughest legs to fly.
At this point, you may wonder if all this is safe. Today’s professional pilots are very conscious about rest, nutrition and exercise. Contemporary pilots rarely fit the hard-drinking, chain-smoking profile of the past, and we’re more likely to be found at the gym than the bar.
Undoubtedly, Asia and other long-haul flights are challenging. Just when you think you’ve finally adjusted to the local time zone, it’s time to reverse course and head back east. But this time, you’re in the home stretch, with strong tailwinds and the end of the trip in sight. It’s a good thing, too, because you’re leaving in just two days to do it all over again.
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