Jul
27
Today’s Schedule - July 27, 2007
Filed Under Schedule
I think I have accomplished the art of sitting around at the airport today. I have had 7 hours of sitting between my two flights.
30 in 7? It is a term that is very frequently used when pilots exceed 30 flight hours in a 7 day period. It is a federal regulation that an airline pilot cannot exceed. With all my 6 flights I was scheduled to do today, I would have been over 33 hours in looking back at the 7 day stretch. Thus, I have 30 in 7 problem. To fix the problem, scheduling had to drop 4 flights today for myself to keep me below my 30 flight hours. The whole reason behind the regulation is rest of a pilot.
Sitting at the airport for 7 hours is rest? I don’t quite understand how that can be classified as rest for a pilot, but it is legal!
My Schedule for the Day!
GSP - CLT
(7 hour sit)
CLT - EWN
(CLT - Charlotte, NC; GSP - Greenville, SC; EWN - New Bern, NC)
Bus drivers are in the same boat being regulated to the hours they can do - we once had to sit in a french motorway station for an hour so the driver could ‘rest’ but he was in the arcade the whole time.
I don’t travelling a lot but when I have to do it, I always have to wait for my flight during hours and hours for unknown reasons. I hope the main reason is not that the pilot is taking some “rest” to keep the pilot below 30 flight hours. If that is the case, I am pretty sure air companies can solve this issue by contracting substitutes to reduce their client’s wait.
I really hope they don’t contract someone else to fly outside the airline. It could be a huge safety and security risk. They need to hire more pilots, which right now is a difficult time for airlines because there is not enough pilots out there!
That must have been boring!