4 ms·

Pilot rest time is regulated by the FAA in the U.S., regardless of salary. The regulations specify minimum rest-opportunity time prior to flight duty, as well

• lucasjung 15y ago
  The problem is that there are plenty of ways to undermine these rules. For example, most junior pilots commute to work because your duty station is a function of seniority and they don't want to live in the shitty places they have been assigned to. So, such a pilot might start his day in the city where he actually lives, catch a ride in the jump seat from there to his duty station and then begin his work day, which is allowed to be up to 16 hours long (the actual hours of flying allowed is less than 16, but the time from when he shows up to work to when he has to stop flying is 16 hours unless the airline imposes a more conservative limit). Depending on how long his commute was, he might make his final landing after being awake for well over 20 hours.
• encoderer 15y ago
  And what compounds the reply Lucas made just above (below?) mine here is that you've got entry level salaries for pilots often as low as $20-30k and senior pilots making $150-250k. (Philip Greenspun has a great write-up on this if you care to google for it). So when you've got that kind of disparity, you're going to have guys who are quite ambitious and willing to sacrifice long hours to move up into the more livable parts of the salary range available in their profession.