Q400
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Workload; Situational Awareness; Physiological - Other; Fatigue; Distraction; Confusion
Other fatigue
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors
First of all; I am filing this report via the safety reporting system rather than the fatigue reporting system because after my last fatigue call (Dec 2012); due to the irresponsible and reckless reporting by the company of my fatigue event; I have lost all confidence in that system of reporting. I am a reserve pilot. I bid AM reserve because I prefer a morning flying schedule. Due to what I can only speculate as a lack of proper pilot staffing; I am routinely swapped from AM to PM and vice versa. I am also frequently assigned to flying out of my base which creates the requirement to deadhead to and from duty assignments. My purpose is to call attention to the practice of swapping reserve pilots between AM and PM duty shifts; requiring a radical adjustment to sleep patterns and thus putting a pilot in a situation of significantly degraded ability and performance in the airplane due to fatigue. My bid this bid is AM reserve. Day 2 I am assigned a PM day trip with a scheduled completion time of 22:28. 7 hours block time. I woke up around 05:00 that day as I am accustomed to a morning circadian rhythm. This is not a pull the plug event as I know due to experience I can get through the day ok. It will take a toll; but I felt confident I could accomplish the mission for the day. One day in itself is not cause for calling off the trip fatigued. I can recover from that. The issue I want to draw attention to is my last leg; a 20:20 departure with a 2 hour flight time is that at that point in the day; my performance is degraded. Missed radio calls; missed calls from my First Officer lack of attention; difficulty focusing; and having to make an increased effort to focus and concentrate. I completed the days' assignment without any problems but feel I would be sharper if I would be assigned flying within my original AM duty period. There are a few significant factors that go into a fatigue call. It is not black and white but rather unique to the situation. For example; circadian swaps force a sleep deficit. The best strategy I've employed has been to let myself sleep later in the morning. This catches up my sleep deficit but adjusts me to a PM rhythm. With the small number of days off between duty weeks; this makes it extremely challenging to reset my sleep rhythm back to AM. Accepting a trip from a circadian swap depends on the days' duty assignment. How long of a day? How many legs? Is there weather to consider and increased workload to fly that weather? Does the aircraft have MELs that increase workload such as an inoperative autopilot? These are some of the factors I consider when deciding whether to call off a trip. How much can I fly today before I have to refuse an assignment due to fatigue? There are some slam dunk [events] such as busting an altitude or an unnoticed engine over torque or falling asleep in flight that make it easy to know I've crossed the line between tired and fatigued. During yesterdays trip I noticed my performance degrading on the last leg. Prior to departure; I noticed my temper flaring up and my patience wearing thin when the gate boarded our flight while we were on a crew break. At that time approximately 20:00 is my normal bedtime. Departure was 20:20. When I returned to my crash pad; I found it very difficult to focus and concentrate. My mood was bad; which from personal experience is one of the indicators for how I know I'm fatigued. The drive back to my crash pad is 10 minutes and it took more concentration than usual to operate my vehicle safely. The remainder of my reserve week is now shifted to PM flying. I am dragging and my performance is not at peak. I don't feel any safety issues for today's flight assignment; but with continued circadian swaps as I am required to be back on AM reserve 2 days after having flown a week of PM flying; the requirement to call off a trip due to fatigue is almost a certainty. AM to PM is more manageable that a shift from PM to AM. If mybody wants to sleep at midnight; there is nothing I can do to force myself to sleep earlier. If my first reserve day next week is a 04:00 report; there is no possible way I can be properly rested for that trip assignment. A couple of years ago this airline had a fatigue task force which identified circadian swaps as a primary cause of fatigue. For a reserve pilot it is the norm to be swapped multiple times during a 5 or 6 day reserve stretch. Fatigue is inevitable.
An air carrier Dash 8 Reserve First Officer provided this routine fatigue report with concrete examples of the causes and effects of circadian rythym disruptions from swaps between AM and PM flight assignments.