Que, como tercer punto de prueba, se fijó el siguiente: “Efectividad de

Rest is a problem in a country where they treat people like robots. To compound this situation, you, the foreigner, have a number of sensibilities that are… shall we say foreign to them (take a gander at Fatigue below for more insights). They expect you to follow the Chinese model of being ultra-cooperative and accept whatever curveball it is they throw your way. The needs of the company, as Francis would say, are above all. There is something Vulcan about this mentality.

So, here’s an example: there are often 3-4 hour breaks in your schedule (intentionally built in or caused by delays) whereupon you are expected to go take rest at the hotel, which is not considered duty time. (The good ol’ days of 8 hours of rest minimum between duty periods— depending on compensatory of course—is long, long gone lawai.)

Before the company built its dormitory this meant a trip to the Airport Hotel. The lobby was OK, the restaurant had pretty good grub and the rooms sucked major ass. Now that the dorms are up and running, you go there: the lobby sucks, the rooms suck and the company canteen is a hepatitis case waiting to happen. Then, you’re expected to just switch off I guess, since your duty period has just been extended commensurate with how much rest you have just been… er, granted? That’s not the right word for it… In any case, you’re going to be flying through the night on a 20-hour duty period. Don’t fucking listen to them tell you it never happens because it does happen. So yeah, roll with that and let me know how it turns out for ya.

Continuing on in this vein, take a look at the following excerpts of a recent CAAC interpretation of what constitutes rest; it’s an eye opener and should cast light on the system under whose auspices you, the expat, are proposing to operate [the full text is offered as Appendix G]:

Recently, delay happened frequently, and some further delays even happened due to the limitation of crew’s duty time which caused by delay. For conducting the operation of “improving the flight delay” from CAAC, we make this announcement to notice crew’s rest time during the duty time…

C. When there are no passengers in the airplane during the large scope delay, after arranged by Captain, with at least one crewmember guard on the position, the crew members can take rest in the aircraft or in the suitable place that mentioned above, and that period will be considered as exclude from the duty time. And also, the captain can arrange the crew members to take turns to rest.

SAFETY FIRST! I cannot believe this one, it’s simply unconscionable. What a joke. OK, so the governing body (CAAC) has decided that, due to the shit system they have that causes mega delays, it’s now up to the flight crew to step in and take up the slack while complying with their extremely unforgiving system of minutiae (that nobody else follows) and operate the aircraft in an unrealistically tight envelope which is constantly being monitored? FUCK THAT.

Reading between the lines, what’s really happening here is that the company is being relieved of having to pay for hotel rooms. There is no reason for this especially with the availability of cheap-ass hotels (which probably suck badly) in close proximity of airport terminals in China. This new shit came to light after I left so I can’t really say if it was ever an issue; but, you can imagine the KTV parties the company section leaders are planning with all

Page | 125 the money they’re saving. (For the uninitiated, KTV is a brothel/bar with karaoke singing in case you need to woo your prey a little up front.)

The view from a cheap-ass Chinese hotel room that sucks badly in close proximity of an airport.

Scheduling

Take your contract and throw it out the window. Take the regulations and throw them out the window. Take your brain and… oh wait, you probably did that already, never mind LOL.

Pilot L gave me this example of a typical schedule which is totally LEGAL… or not, but who the fuck cares anyhow, it’s CHINA. TUE is labeled “Standby” in Chinese BTW, or in other words on reserve.

Page | 126 Sigh, OK duke. So what’s the problem with scheduling now…

The problem is that you will have a schedule of 7 days’ worth of flying mixed with rest, no more, no less, published on Saturday that usually* covers the ensuing week Sunday-to- Sunday. There’s no schedule bidding, no trip trading, no adding/dropping trips, etc. You will not be able to plan your life beyond a week at a time in other words. What’s particularly lovely is when you pull out-base duty that ends past Sunday… you don’t know what day you will be returning.

“But Duke, the contract says…” Oh shut up.

*Sometimes, for reasons China, the schedule will only cover Sunday to Wednesday or Thursday of the ensuing week. There is no way to tell the difference between this situation and having 4 days of rest in a row except for the fact that you will rarely have 4 days off in a row… so there is no way to tell. The company will not send out notices that they short-sheeted the ensuing schedule either. How many times did I find out when they called me asking why I was not checked in at dispatch? Many, and they never seemed to understand why; and so I got fined.