Fatigue Management
Welcome aboard folks and welcome back to our worldwide audience and regular viewers & readers as we briefly touch on one of the most important concepts in aviation: fatigue management.
How can a pilot properly manage fatigue? If fatigue can be physical and mental, we need strategies to address each category.
Fatigue can be defined as weariness from bodily or mental exertion. In the context of aviation, this weariness can take many different forms. Here are a few bodily weariness examples: circadian rhythm oscillations (working early morning and late-night flights back-to-back), extreme temperatures (specially in open cockpit or aircraft without air conditioning), frequent pressure altitude changes (several flights a day to a cabin altitude of 8,000 feet), low water intake (to mitigate the need to use the restroom causing dehydration), to name just a few. And here are a few mental exertion examples: long duty periods while operating in a challenging weather environment, emergencies, significant unscheduled or unforeseen events, significant changes to schedule, operations in and out of extremely complex airports which you are unfamiliar with, and so on… As you can tell, the list of stressors to our physical and mental state are extremely long and deeply impacting.
How can a pilot properly manage fatigue? If fatigue can be physical and mental, we need strategies to address each category. In order to mitigate physical fatigue, I personally deploy the following strategies: ideal health, ideal rest, ideal nutrition, ideal workout. Additionally, to mitigate mental fatigue, I use these strategies: ideal emotional control, ideal knowledge. I use the term “ideal” because I am purposefully describing the optimum, best case scenario for each technique.
The absolute best way to manage physical fatigue is to first ensure that you are the healthiest that you can possibly be. This all-encompassing approach takes time and dedication. Ideally, you have the best blood work possible at the best weight possible, essentially, a clean bill of health. Next, the most important daily step is to ensure that the previous day’s fatigue does not carry over to the next day. The most effective way of ensuring a successful reset of your own “stress meter” is by getting a full night of high-quality rest. Look for another article on that subject at a later date. Lastly, I ensure that I have proper nutrition throughout the day. Proper nutrition is an entire multi-billion-dollar industry by itself. To keep it short, here is what I do: I fast daily (16 hours without food, 8-hour feeding window), avoid processed foods as much as possible, intake large amounts of leafy greens and vegetables, some kind of protein (mostly fish and occasionally chicken), tons of water, trying to keep everything low glycemic. Lastly, the ideal workout on the road, is the one that you actually do. Honestly, it does not matter what you do, just do something. I prefer a 60-minute treadmill session where I walk uphill (3% to 7%) at 3.3 MPH. After being strapped to seat all day, I am in desperate need to keep my body in motion.
The best way to mitigate mental fatigue, is to first address physical fatigue! If you show up well rested with a clean bill of health, you are very well prepared to deal with a tough day. Moving on to my mental readiness strategies: thou shall compartmentalize. You must keep all the emotional ducks in a row and lock up those that could disrupt your focus. Be highly pragmatic and focused. Our brains are hard wired to allow emotions to override our logical selves, this is a survival mechanism. In order for us to think critically, we must keep our emotions in check. Lastly, have ideal knowledge. In this case, ideal knowledge is a very wide-ranging concept. The knowledge of a bush pilot out of Alaska, is very different from a pilot that flies out of the Bahamas, that is very different from an airline pilot flying the Boeing 777. Each individual type of flying will require its own individual type of knowledge. For my profession, in order to calmly operate some of the world’s most complex machines, in the world’s most complex airports, consistently and safely, you must study and know exactly what you are doing. It is through the certainly of this hard-earned knowledge, that you can keep your emotions in check and have the confidence needed to fly safely.
All in all, the primary objective of fatigue management, is to ensure that you are fit for duty. From the first hour of flight, all the way to the sixteenth hour (or more if you are international) of work, you must be ready to deal with any emergency that may come your way. That’s the job.
Fly safe!