submission - Independent Pilots Association

Remarks of Dr. Dement
e: How about that the flight is going to happen. There is going to be every day in
America, pilots that report to work at 2300 or *'hatever and fly until0800 the next
nnrning. Now, what's different about the man who knows a week, a n¡onth in
advance thar this is going to be his schedule and the reserve pilot who finds out at
noon after having woken up aI 8 a.m.? WhU would be the difference?
A: You know that the time you do all of the things you can to move toward a bener
situation . . . You can never get to perfection, but the more practice, the rnore
warning, the þtter you'll þ able to handle it. Sone people learn that there is a
tirne when it's quiet and if I do this, I can pretty much depend that I will fall
asleep. It's not læ% btrt you kind of lsam th,r or you practice or whatever' But
if it's without warning, all bets are off.
e: Dr. Denpnt, you've kind of led the discussion into another area of this
rulemaking that has to do with an alternative npthod. Assuming that the pilrots in
this protected time period method were depleted, the carriers then want to give
pilots advance notice to cover any mission or ¡rny assignment. They are looking
at l0 hours as the criteria. We don't believe that to be adequate bas€d uPon . . .
Are you talking lGhour warning?
Ten-hour warning. yes. To do anything.
A: That *'ould be 10O7c wrong.
Q: tÃhy.)
A: Well. because rhe l0 hours could fall sort of toward the beginning of what we call
"clock depe ndent learning." There's no way you could sleep. And then you go
into your duty period at the worse possible tirre you could have in that situation.
Q:
What sort of tirne would you think would be adequate to give a guy enough time
ro ger an opportunity to rest so that he would be safer than l0 hours?
A: Twenty-four hours. At least a day before. rJy'ouldn't you think? I don't see how
you can ger norified as the day is beginning and feel you could depend on being
able to take a nap. If it happened every day or sornehow you know that you could
cerrainly ger rhe probability up, but it's not sonnthing that you could ever really
control. Again, there ought to be a better way.
Appendix D,pp. lGl l.
28