Fatigue Management Practices in Business Aviation Kevin Gregory

BASS 2013: Fatigue Management

Fatigue Management Practices

in Business Aviation

Kevin Gregory


The Flight Plan

• Fatigue is a safety issue• Fatigue in business aviation• Managing fatigue• Fatigue management: case study• Fatigue management practices


Fatigue is “an unsafe condition that can occurrelative to the timing and duration of work

and sleep opportunities”

(Institute of Medicine, 2009)

Got Fatigue?


The Fatigue Issue

Operational Factors• Time zones• Length of duty periods• Early report times• Backside-of-the-clock• Changing demands• Workload• Reduced rest• Layover hotels

Physiological Factors• Acute sleep loss• Sleep debt• Circadian disruption• Hours awake


ALERT

ASLEEP

Reaction time

Memory

Mood

Vigilance

Communication

Judgment/ decision-making

Fatigue: A Performance Issue


Fatigue in Business Aviation

• NASA Fatigue Countermeasures Program• Survey of almost 1500 biz av pilots• 61% common occurrence• 85% moderate to serious safety issue• 71% “nodded off” during flight• 13% unable to fly scheduled trip

due to fatigue• 79% received no formal company

training that addressed fatigue issues

Rosekind, MR, Co, EL, Gregory, KB & Miller, DL. Crew Factors in Flight Operations XIII: A Survey of Fatigue Factors in Corporate/Executive Aviation Operations, NASA/TM–2000-209610


Fatigue in Business Aviation

• Owatonna, MN: Hawker Beechcraft, 2008

– Factors: sleep loss, early start, insomnia

• Birmingham, UK: Challenger, 2002

– Factors: sleep loss, circadian disruption

• Hawaii: Rockwell Sabreliner, 2000

– Factors: long duty, multiple time zones, night ops


Science-based Policies/Practices

(duty/rest)

Education/training

Mitigation Strategies

Reporting & Monitoring

Shared Responsibilities

Tactical Fatigue Tools

Fatigue Management


FRMS: Fatigue Risk Management

• Proposed as alternative means of managing fatigue in operations

• Science-based• Data-driven• Integrated into existing organizational

safety and health processes• Continuously improves: feedback,

evaluation and modification


Fatigue Management: Case Study

• NY-based biz av operations

• Rotor, business jet

• Long, daytime operations (early AM reports)

• Backside-of-clock operations

• Some long-range ops



• Objectives:

– Better understand fatigue risks in operations

– Better manage identified fatigue risks

• Science-based approach:

– Data-driven

– Objective/subjective data collection during ops (focus on sleep and performance)

– Policies and practices review


Measuring Sleep/Performance in BizAv Ops

• Objective and subjective data collection

– Quantify sleep and performance associated with operations

– Include days on and off duty

– Phase I: daytime ops/rotor wing (9 pilots)

– Phase II: backside-of-clock ops/fixed-wing (7 crew members)

– Identify fatigue risks; develop mitigation approaches


Actiwatch

PVTDaily log

Measuring Sleep/Performance in BizAv Ops


• October-November 2011

- Data collected up to 23 days

- Goal: 7-8 flight duty periods (FDP) per pilot (total of 28 FDP)

- Overall compliance high

• General information

- Age ~50 yr; 27 yr flight experience

- Fatigue ‘moderately’ an issue during typical duty day

Measuring Sleep/Performance in BizAv OpsPhase I: Rotary


• Flight Duty Periods

- Average of 12.6 hr (range = 3.5 - 17.5 hr)

- Average ~7.9 flight segments per FDP

- Flight segments: 15 min avg (max = 1.6 hr)

- Break time on ground: 1.8 hr or more




D1

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Local Time: 0600 1200 1800 0000

Sleep/nap periods Flight Duty


Duty

Duty

Sleep/Rest



# of sleeps

Sleep Latency

(min)

Total Sleep (hr)

Sleep Efficiency

Prior to FDP 55 12.2 5.1 79.5%

After FDP 47 12.1 6.4 78.3%

All days off 67 13.0 6.2 78.1%





• FDP: >12 hr, ~8 flight segments

• Mid-day break (2/3 had rest opportunity)

• Some successive duty days

• Sleep: 6.2 hr for days off

• Sleep: 5.1 hr when prior to FDP

- early 5 AM wake time

- evening ‘wake zone’



• Sleep debt across duty weeks- during 2 FDP week: >2 hr

- during 3 FDP week: >5 hr

• Performance- consistent levels overall

- maintained across FDP

- individual variability

• Strategies used- Caffeine (mostly coffee)




• February-April 2012

- Data collected for a period of 9-15 days

- Days on & off duty: pre/duty/post

- Collected: 32 FDP’s

• FDP info

- FDP: 9 hr avg (range = 3-18 hr)

- 48 flight segments

- Flight segments: 84 min avg (range = 20 min to 4.2 hr)

- Ground transport time associated with FDP

Measuring Sleep/Performance in BizAv OpsPhase II: Fixed-Wing



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Time: 0600 1200 1800 0000

Sleep/nap periods Flight Duty


# of sleeps

Sleep Latency

(min)

Total Sleep (hr)

Sleep Efficiency

Pre-trip 11 12.8 6.1 84.3%

Flight duty 16 13.8 4.9 83.6%

Other/Away 5 13.4 6.4 81.2%

Post-trip/Off 16 9.8 6.8 85.4%



• Daily sleep

- Average ~5.8 hr during trip period

- 7 nap periods documented: Average ~90 min

• Cumulative sleep debt

- Avg ~9 hr by trip end (max = 12.5 hr)





• FDP: 9 hr

• 6.8 hr for post/days off

• Sleep: 4.9 hr during trip- morning ‘wake zone’

• Sleep debt builds up across trips

• Performance: consistency maintained

• Strategies used- Caffeine and exercise




Policies and Practices Review

• Flight ops and helicopter ops manuals

• Flight, duty and rest scheduling

• Education and training

• Fatigue mitigation strategies

• Healthy sleep

• Other


Policies and Practices Review

• Duty, flight and rest policies consistent with recommended

guidelines

• Break/rest provision within max/extended duty

• Limitations on reduced rest periods

• Recovery rest following extended trip periods

• Call-in fatigue policy

• Risk assessment tool with fatigue factors



• Daytime/rotor ops

- Alternating FDP days allow for ‘recovery’ sleep opportunities

- Mid-day break period

- Strategies used

• Backside-of-clock/fixed wing ops

- Blocks of days off prior to/following trip periods

- Afternoon nap opportunities

- Strategies used

- Duty periods <10 hr



• Include fatigue education and training in initial and recurrent

training efforts

• Compensatory rest period for maintenance following extended

duty

• Limits on consecutive duty days

• ‘Fit-for-duty’ policy

• Expansion of fatigue factors in risk assessment


• Education/training implemented with subset of pilots– Baseline knowledge level = 66%; post-training = 89%

• Timing of tasks to facilitate sleep opportunities

• Consecutive day provisions

• Raised awareness/better rest management

Fatigue Management: Case StudyImplementation


• Cultural change• All aspects of operation

(maintenance, dispatch, etc.)

• Ultra-long range

• Ongoing monitoring

• Best practices

Fatigue Management in BizAv OpsOther Considerations

Thank you!

Kevin Gregory

[email protected]

www.alertsol.com

Fatigue Management Practices in Business Aviation Kevin Gregory

Documents

flight duty period

helicopter flight personnel

flight deck

objective sleep data

duty periodblue

types of days

callin policy

sleeplight blue