After Colgan Air accident in 2009, the FAA introduced new flight duty regulations in order to combat fatigue and inexperience in the aviation industry. The first is that they increased the amount of rest for pilots in between flights from 8 hours to 10 hours. This will give pilots more time to get to where they are staying for the night and also any paperwork they must do before they go to sleep.
They also added the changed the amount of minimum hours it takes to achieve an ATP certificate from 250 hours to 1500 hours of flight time. (Thurber, 2013) This is a large increase in hours in order to become a first officer in an airline flying 121 operations. For many pilots out of flight school, this forces them into flying for regional airlines, flight instructing, or flying cargo operations for the beginning of their careers. Most of these starting jobs pay far less, as was discussed in the last blog, than most jobs that require college degrees.
Cargo operations are exempt from these flight duty regulations. Cargo pilots still have 8 hours rest in between flights, and can fly longer than the 8-9 hours an airline pilot cannot exceed. This means that cargo pilots can fly more hours with less sleep and do it more often than 121 operations. Cargo operations though fly a different schedule than 121 pilots. Cargo is a fast paced industry where goods need to get shipped quickly and with little notice on when they need to get moved for some operations. This makes it difficult and very expensive to have cargo pilots flying less than they are now. The FAA has not made cargo carriers follow the regulations because the cost of following the regulation (projected 550 million) would outweigh the cost of an accident within the industry. (Carrol, 2014)
Trying to balance profit with safety is always a difficult thing to do in any industry. It is especially difficult in the aviation industry because flying is inherently dangerous in itself, so with it comes a lot of safety regulations, which make it very expensive as is for the companies to operate. This makes me believe that if the cargo operators make it work, then I do not have a problem with them following the old regulations. Cargo operations are a different industry than flying passengers in itself, let alone the pace at which it must be done. Time is money, especially in transporting goods. Unlike 121 operations, cargo has to be flexible since they are not scheduled to fly from specific airports at specific times. Overall, the cargo industry also puts less people in danger than a 121 operation does since they do not fly passengers, which is another reason I feel that they don’t need to be as strict as 121 operators on rest.
These regulations won’t affect my career path very much, if at all. Since I plan on flying with the Air Force, I am already committed to 10 years after i get my wings. This means that I will have about 11-12 years to get more than 1500 hours (less hours actually for military pilots, but I’m using this number to compare to someone who came out of a flight school that isn’t part 141 certified) to get my ATP. I will still need more hours for most airlines to accept me, but I have a lot of time to build hours to reach this goal if I want to go down this route.
Carroll, J. R. (2014, March 13). UPS pilots urge more rest for cargo crews. Retrieved October 08, 2016, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/13/ups-pilots-urge-more-rest-for-cargo-crews/6402615/
Thurber, M. (2013, August 01). 1,500-hour Pilot Rule Presents Challenges And Opportunities. Retrieved October 08, 2016, from http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aviation-international-news/2013-08-01/1500-hour-pilot-rule-presents-challenges-and-opportunities
I agree with many of the things you said in your post. I liked how you said “Trying to balance profit with safety is always a difficult thing to do in any industry.” That statement could never be more true especially in the case of the new flight/duty regulations. Although the cargo operators aren’t necessarily carrying people, they are still flying in the same airspace and many of the same fields that part 121 operators are flying. Therefore, I think that cargo operators should get some kind of change in their flight duty requirements because the old ones aren’t based on the newer fatigue research. I do agree with you however, that cargo operations are definitely a different industry than flying passengers. Therefore, the likelihood of the newer regulations working is probably pretty slim.
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