Rest periods for long haul crews

[Todd Hendry]

Mark,
The sleep is very beneficial. But there are better rests than others depending on a few factors including sleep before a flight in the hotel. Time of departure body clock wise and local time. What stage of the trip you're on etc etc.
A good few hours rest is excellent. And getting back to the seat I generally feel refreshed. But if I don't feel refreshed straight away it only takes a few minutes to get back to normal.
Smaller breaks, say two and a half hours sometimes only really take the edge off. Especially if your break starts at top of climb. Getting to sleep then is tricky.
Hope that helps.
Feel free to ask me more questions.
Todd.

[Mark Grima]

Thanks Todd for your insights. Greatly appreciated. Not being employed in the industry, merely interested in it, it's great to hear from professionals such as your self.

I do appreciate the effects of a good night sleep prior to a flight. I travelled from Canberra to Perth on Friday morning on only a couple hours sleep. Heading back east tonight and still trying to catch up from the journey over.

Cheers

Mark

[Mark Grima]

Was thinking about domestic crews today. How many flights do they do a day (excluding the 330 crews. I assume they do a east/west return loop) and how many flying days before they have days off?

Obviously they don't have the time zone issues but I'd imagine multiple rotations a day can be punishing?

Cheers

M

[John C]

In a non QF airline 737 and Ejet crews do up to 5 sectors a day, 330 crews do 1 or 2 depending on the times.

In a past life there used to be dash 8 crews doing BNE-GLA-ROK-MKY-TSV-CNS and return in the one day and from memory the Brasilia crews added in Bundaberg to make 12 for the day. Great fun when the weather was no good.

[Zac M]

Presently I think the most Dash 8 crews are doing is 6....SYD-CBR return three times.