Rest Periods

[SCLcrew]

Hi, I work in a large South American airline, and I have some serious doubts about our resting periods. Hope someone can answer to me. We are supposed to work 10 days in a row and have 96 hours (not 4 days!!) of rest. This periods besides the hours you get after each flight. Here goes another... we have a very long haul route to europe, the flight is 14 hours non stop to MAD, and once there we only get 26 hours on Spain... Is this normal? Here goes the last one. While being on call (about 3 times a month) crew management has the right to tell us with as little time as 15 minutes, that there will be a van picking us up. Hope to hear from other exoperiences.

Have nice flights!! http://www.crewstart.com/ubb/images/icons/smile.gif

[traveler]

Well, we (KLM) have two books on the matter.
1. CAO. That's an abbreviation in Dutch and stands for something like "collective labor agreement".
It is negotiated by our union every one or two years or so, and it contains our WRR.
Work and Rest Regulations. Surely you have something similar.
2. The Law. Published in our Basic Operations Manual. Every crewmember has one at home and there is one available in the cockpit. This specifies the maximum work times allowed for a given situation. It is usually less restrictive than the CAO and when you go over, you are illegal. You can use it as a guide when you're checking a specific example. Cause you know a lot of factors matter, like the time you reported for duty and what did you do before that.

Now, about the numbers; (KLM cockpit crew)

10 day's strait - By CAO not allowed
- By Law: normally 180 hrs, minimum 160 hrs.

Long haul by CAO requires two local nights before returning. (this may be waved if crew agree).
By Law after 14 hours duty time the standard minimum rest is 14 hours, this can be shortened but will effect the next work period severely.
14 hrs flight is about 15 and a half hours duty though (without delay), than 15 hrs is required.

Reserve duty: be at the crew center 1 hr after the call. Transport is your own problem.

Hope this helps you. If you don't like your deal talk to your union.
If you don't have one give ALPA in the States a call.