The Pilot

[R.Perry]

We all want to make sure our aircraft's are safe to fly, and the biggest part of that is the pilot. I believe pilot fatigue has been a contributing factor in many accidents. I haven't seen anything on this forum about pilot performance, but in the commercial aviation it is a big issue and talked about frequently.

We all know not to fly under the influence and that includes pharmaceutical products that can affect our performance. But what about fatigue or just not feeling well. I recently went out to dinner with my wife and got sick afterwords, I was up most of the night, but was scheduled to work the next morning. I arrived on the job site, as I started preparing the drone for the days shoots I realized I just wasn’t tracking well. I really needed to get the flight done for my client and decided to give it a shot. As soon as I took off I realized I shouldn’t be flying, so I brought the done back and called it a day, told my client I needed to get one of our other pilots to do today's shoot.

Sometimes we tend to push ourselves when we shouldn’t. I may have been able to make it through the morning shoot without incident. But what if I didn’t? I know if I had been planning a flight in a manned aircraft I wouldn’t have considered it.

We really need to pre-flight ourselves as well as the aircraft.

 

[drummingchevy]

Yes! Remember the IMSAFE checklist from the Aeronautical Information Manual. (Was it even a subject on the 107 exam?)

• Illness - Is the pilot suffering from any illness or symptom of an illness which might affect them in flight?
• Medication - Is the pilot currently taking any drugs (prescription or over-the-counter)?
• Stress - Is the pilot overly worried about other factors in his life? The psychological pressures of everyday living can be a powerful distraction and consequently affect a pilot's performance.
• Alcohol - Although legal limits vary by jurisdiction (0.04 BAC, any consumption in the past 8 hours or current impairment in the USA), the pilot should consider their alcohol consumption within the last 8 to 24 hours.
• Fatigue - Has the pilot had sufficient sleep and adequate nutrition?
• Emotion - Has the pilot fully recovered from any extremely upsetting events such as the loss of a family member?

 

[R Martin]

Yes! Remember the IMSAFE checklist from the Aeronautical Information Manual. (Was it even a subject on the 107 exam?)

Not on the recurrency that I just took. The DECIDE decision making model was what they were stressing.

 

[R.Perry]

When I got my last annual there were several questions if I remember right.

I'm wondering if Big Brother is going to start requiring medicals for commercial drone pilots?

I just figured I would throw this out to see what others think.

 

[dronie326]

Good topic. We fly for a lot of majors and all of them will ask about our fatigue management and pilot duty time procedures. It's good to have a section about it in your ops manual.