Guy Leitch

There are some subjects which create massively heated debate and then just go quiet. So, for a bit of excitement, I thought I would prod one of them back into life.

A particularly inflammatory topic is airline pilots comparing their flight time to pilots who fly short charters, crop sprayers and helicopter pilots.

Airline pilots who have 20,000 hours may have logged thousands of hours while they are sleeping in the bunk. In stark contrast, charter pilots typically have to do all their flight planning, make command decisions and fly many sectors without a moment to relax. That is real flying, and intensely demanding. The same with crop sprayers and of course, helicopter pilots. The contrast with airline pilots snoring happily in a bunk could not be starker.

Most airlines operating ultra-long haul routes have to load four pilots to allow the pilots to sleep, (while still logging flight time). The standard procedure is that the same pairing of pilots will fly the takeoff and landing while the other pilots supervise the autopilot for the cruise.

Most long-haul wide bodies have bunk beds available for both the pilots and cabin crew – but the fun police have made sure they are separate. If no bunks are available, passenger seats in business or first class are reserved for the pilots – which dents the airline’s prized business class revenue.

Even before reaching top of climb, the pilots who flew the takeoff will head to the bunks to sleep. In the cruise, sleeping is typically distributed evenly amongst the crew before all the pilots return to the flight deck about an hour before landing.

A long haul (non-SAA) pilot provides more detail: “For example, on a flight of 14 hours, a crew of 4 will be allotted. The company will allocate a primary PIC (pilot in command) and FO (first officer), with a Cruise Captain and/or FO. There are a multitude of qualifications in terms of P2 (second pilots) who must be a regular First Officer. Experienced P2s may however be qualified to be Cruise Captain. To be an inflight relief first officer, a lowly ranked P3 pilot may not be at the controls below FL200.”

Once all the hierarchy has been sorted, the long-haul pilot explains, “The crew will generally divide the cruise into equal parts. Allowing time for takeoff and climb to cruise altitude, establishment in the initial cruise altitude, (there will usually be step climbs later in the flight as fuel is burned off) and then allowing descent preparation, approach briefings etc, a cruise time segment is established. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say a 14 hour flight time is planned, allowing an hour to get from takeoff to cruise altitude, then an hour for descent preparation and the actual descent and landing; that leaves 12 hours.

‘The crew will then divide 12 hours by the 4 crew and allocate each member 2 x 3 hour rest segments. They will then decide amongst themselves who takes which rest segment when, based on factors such as who is already tired, what time zone their “body clock” might be in, and so on. After deciding this, each member will get 2 x 3 hour rest segments, allowing for the operating crew to be at the controls for the takeoff to cruise altitude, then descent preparation and landing.”

CONTROLLED REST IN POSITION

Not all pilots get to sleep in bunks – some can actually sleep behind the controls. This applies to short haul flights when there are only two pilots on board.

Controlled Rest In Position (CRIP) allows one pilot at a time to get up to 45 minutes of sleep in the cruise. ‘This is to promote a higher level of alertness during periods of high workload, for example the descent, approach and landing. The principle of controlled rest is to allow the pilots to boost alertness and energy. It’s the equivalent of a “power nap”.

Here is an example of permitted pilot CRIP sleeping: Two pilots are operating a night flight from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam. They sign on at 20:00 on a Monday night. The flight is planned to leave at 21:00 with a block time (flight time and taxi time at both ends) of 04:30, giving a scheduled landing time of 01:30 in the wee small hours of the morning.

The turnaround time on the ground at Dar is 1 hour, meaning the return flight departs at 02:30. Again it’s a block time of 04:30 back, giving a scheduled landing time of 07:00. The pilots then go off duty at 07:30. This is if all the flights are running on schedule. Effectively they lose one night’s sleep and this will affect their performance.

Ideally controlled rest should be between around 10 – 20 minutes as this limits you to the lighter stages of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Sleeping between 30 and 60 minutes can result in sleep inertia when you wake up, which will leave you feeling groggy, similar to a hangover.

There are set rules that have to be followed when pilots take CRIP, such as:

  • It must be agreed to by both pilots
  • It should be limited to a predefined period between around 10 – 40 minutes.
  • Only one pilot should take controlled rest at a time and that should be in his/her seat but with the seat pulled back, away from the controls.
  • Once the resting pilot wakes, she should avoid operating the controls for a set period to ensure she is fully awake and alert. She should also be awake for at least 15 minutes before any high workload situations such as initiating the descent.
  • The resting pilot should ensure the operating pilot is adequately briefed to enable the other pilot to carry out their duties during the single-pilot operation.

There is of course always the risk that the non-resting pilot may also fall asleep, especially if she has no one to talk to. To reduce this risk, the cabin crew are told that controlled rest is taking place and regular contact is made between the operating pilot and the cabin crew.

There have been a number of high-profile incidents where both pilots have fallen fast asleep and missed their reporting or descent points. And so, increasingly airliners also have an alarm if none of the controls / switches / buttons have been touched for a while.

One of the most notorious examples of ‘sleeping pilots’ was Northwest Airlines 188. The crew insisted they “became immersed in a conversation about a new crew scheduling programme” and were studying their laptops. Nobody was listening to the radio or monitoring navigation and they overflew the destination by 100 miles. A flight attendant noticed that they should have landed by then and notified the pilots. They had been out of contact with air traffic control for almost two hours.

The FAA came down hard and stripped the pilots of all of their licences. They had to start over again as student pilots and re-gain private, instrument, multi-engine, commercial and ATP certificates from scratch. The captain retired early, and the first officer was offered retirement but declined and was dismissed from the airline.

This colossally embarrassing failure would probably have been avoided if the FAA approved ‘power naps’. South Africa, the U.S. Air Force, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, New Zealand and Turkey, allow crews to take a short catnap for up to 40 minutes.

Studies show that a short nap of just 15 minutes significantly improves the performance of a fatigued pilot. Qantas, Air Canada and Air France have specific procedures for CRIP and it is regularly practiced.

An airline captain writes, “Consumers are mostly against this procedure while about 75% of pilots favour it. I’m among those pilots. I’ve flown with first officers who have dropped off to sleep en-route and had trouble staying awake, even during descent and approach. Therefore, if a crewmember needs 15 minutes with their eyes closed, I don’t object. It’s far better to have them alert for the critical segments than alert during cruise.

“In my opinion, allowing reading in the cockpit gives the crew a diversion and actually sharpens them up for the descent and landing. Making the copilot stare out the window or at the unmoving dials does nothing but dull the senses until she’s in a stupor. Better to let the crew entertain themselves a bit while en-route and then have them feeling rested and ready for the approach.

“An interesting side note is that flight attendants are also prohibited from recreational reading in flight but they do it all the time. I don’t object to it at all.”