Cessna Citation Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Fatigue
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors
This was Day 1. I required a late show due to having an 'after-midnight' on my last tour. The brief I received the night before was a XA40 show with an airline to ZZZ then nothing else on the line. When I checked in the next day at XA40 there was a ferry added from ZZZ to ZZZ1 and then passengers to ZZZ2. The flight was scheduled to land in ZZZ2 XM18. That would mean a shut-down of XM48 if things went off as planned. My Second in Command (SIC); had a XB25 show. While I tend to stay up late on my days off; I know [my SIC] and spouse do not. They are often awake at sunrise. When I saw the late trip I was curious how I would handle it and was certainly curious how [my SIC] would do. At some point during the morning we both received an email from [the company] notifying us we were going to be on the 'late shift' and if either of us would find that problematic to please advise them. I didn't feel it was issue for me (at that point) so I didn't reply to the email. Neither did [my SIC].When I arrived at the FBO the plane we were assigned had a maintenance issue and was grounded. The company found another [aircraft] to ferry into ZZZ so we could still do the trip. While waiting for the new plane to arrive we went inside and ate dinner. We could see the night pushing later and later and at that point [my SIC] was starting to feel like he would be too tired to do the ZZZ1 to ZZZ2 leg. I advised him to call fatigued now instead of doing the ferry to ZZZ1 and then calling fatigued so that the company would have time to come up with a recovery plan for the trip. [My SIC] immediately called fatigued and we were released to go to a hotel.[Day 2] The next morning we showed at XD00. Almost immediately; [my SIC] received a voicemail from the Chief Pilot. [My SIC] called him back and I was in the FBO listening to the conversation over speaker phone. [The Chief Pilot] started by saying; 'Well; I guess you know why I'm calling.' The tone of the conversation was one of intimidation and discipline over [my SIC]'s fatigue call. [The Chief Pilot] would go on to explain that a Day 1 fatigue after only 4 or 5 hours of duty raises red flags and the expectation is for pilots to come to work rested and ready for a full day of duty. [My SIC] agreed and explained that he was awake at XA00 even though he hadn't set an alarm and couldn't take a nap or otherwise get any 'rest' once he was awake. He didn't do any strenuous activity during the day prior to work. He explained to [The Chief Pilot] that the fatigue call was made in ZZZ to avoid a wasted ferry leg on the company's dime. [The Chief Pilot] never backed down from his claim that [my SIC] should have been rested and then proceeded to ask if there were any suggestions [my SIC] had on how to make this not happen again. I was shocked and disappointed that the company was harassing [my SIC] over this since our fatigue policy is meant to be for safety purposes and at [the company] we are 'Safety First.'Day 3 of our tour we were assigned a XA15 show. So now; in less than 72 hours; my start times for duty have shifted from XG40 to XD00 to XA15. I am tired during Day 3 but because of seeing how [my SIC] was treated; I'm nervous to call in fatigued. Sure; I have a little break today where I can probably catch a nap in the FBO but is that truly rest? The safety culture has been compromised thanks to pressure from my boss to perform a task that I may be too tired to do. Is that really 'Safety First'?The so-called 'Safety Culture' is smoke-and-mirrors. The fatigue policy; as I understand it; was implemented to give pilots a no-questions-asked way of letting the company know we didn't feel it was safe for us to perform our duties in the cockpit. However; when my SIC calls in fatigued and is immediately questioned and intimidated by our superior the following morning it certainly doesn't seem in line with the intent of the fatigue policy. If we look at the number of aircraft versus the number of crewmembers with active flying status and then match that with the number of passenger trips plus ferry legs; it's a system that's going to break. There is too much pressure of crews to do too many legs and there is no system to monitor sliding start/end times. How on earth is my body supposed to handle my start time being slid 7 hours and 25 minutes in less than 72 hours? How was [my SIC] supposed to come to work prepared to fly until almost 3am when all week long prior to his trip he'd been waking up between [early morning] each day? If safety truly is what we are about; then why is my boss calling my co-pilot and harassing him before he's supposed to go fly into weather that's at minimums in the next day after doing a fatigue call? Why is it that when the Chief Pilot called he didn't even know what our original brief or any of the following briefings were? Could it because someone above him is pressuring him to harass the pilots? If this block is for me to give suggestions then I will use it to say we need more planes; more pilots; less owners or all the above. We need a scheduling department that either starts taking bigger picture looks at our schedules or comes up with more reasonable schedules. If that's not possible; how about we have Mr. or Ms. Scheduler come in and work for 12 hours; then come in the next day and work for 8 hours; then come in at XA00am the next day and work for 11 hours; then come in [early morning] and work for 14 hours and see how they feel. Lastly; we need to stop advertising to our customers that we are Safety First.
Cessna Citation Captain reported that some assignment schedules are not considerate or take into account a flight crew fatigue elements.