14 CFR Part 121: federal flight duty time regulations.
AC-120 FIT: As a complement to issuance of the NPRM, the FAA issued a draft advisory circular (AC 120-FIT) on fitness for duty.
Air carriers: a commercial carrier utilizing aircraft as its means of transport; an airline, as for passengers or freight.
Airport/standby reserve: a defined duty period during which a crew member is required by a certificate holder to be at, or in close proximity to, an airport for a possible assignment.1
Cargo airlines: air carriers with flights for the purpose of delivering goods to locations.
Charter airlines: air carriers that provide nonscheduled passenger flights.
Circadian rhythms: daily (24-hour) rhythms instantiated in microbiology, physiology and behavior that control the timing of the sleep-wake cycle and influence physical and cognitive performance, activity, food consumption, body temperature, cardiovascular rhythms, muscle tone, and aspects
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1Federal Register, “Notice of Proposed Rule Making: Flight Crew Member Duty and Rest,” September 14, 2010, Volume 75, Number 177.
of hormone secretion and immune responses, as well as many other physiological functions.
Commuting: the period of time and the activity required of pilots from leaving home to arriving at the domicile (airport—in the crew room, dispatch room, or designated location at the airport) and from leaving the domicile back to home.
Crash pads: temporary living arrangements shared among groups of pilots.
Crew pairing: a flight duty period or series of flight duty periods assigned to a flight crew member which originate or terminate at the flight crew member’s home base.2
Crew Resource Management (CRM): the application of procedure and training through a team management system designed to address the challenge of optimizing the human/machine and human/human interfaces. Includes all groups routinely working with the flight crew who are involved in decisions required to operate a flight safely.
Deadhead transportation: transportation of a crew member as a passenger, by air or surface transportation, as required by a certificate holder, excluding transportation to or from a suitable accommodation.3
Deadheading: term used when travel is provided to members of a flight crew in order to position them appropriately for duty. According to FAA regulations, deadheading is considered to be part of their work, or duty time.
Domicile: the airport where a pilot begins and ends a duty period.
Duty: any task, other than long-call reserve, that a crew member performs on behalf of the certificate holder, including but not limited to airport/ standby reserve, short-call reserve, flight duty, preflight and postflight duties, administrative work, training, deadhead transportation, aircraft positioning on the ground, aircraft loading, and aircraft servicing.4
Duty period: a period that begins when a certificate holder requires a crew
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2Ibid.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
member to report for duty and ends when that crew member is free from all duties.5
Fatigue: a physiological state of reduced mental or physical performance capability resulting from lack of sleep or increased physical activity that can reduce a crew member’s alertness and ability to safely operate an aircraft or perform safety-related duties.6
Fatigue risk management plans (FRMPs): the airline carriers’ management plans outlining policies and procedures reducing the risk of flight crew member fatigue and improving flight crew member alertness.
Fatigue risk management systems (FRMSs): a data-driven and scientifically based process that allows for continuous monitoring and management of safety risks associated with fatigue-related error. It is part of a repeating performance improvement process. This process leads to continuous safety enhancements by identifying and addressing fatigue factors across time and changing physiological and operational circumstances.7
First officer: the member of a flight crew who is second in command to the captain.
Fit for duty: physiologically and mentally prepared and capable of performing assigned duties in flight with the highest degree of safety.8
Flight crew: the people involved in operating an aircraft in flight, includes pilots, flight engineers, flight navigators, and cabin attendants assigned to duty in an aircraft during flight time.
Flight duty period (FDP): a period that begins when a flight crew member is required to report for duty with the intention of conducting a flight, a series of flights, or positioning or ferrying flights, and ends when the aircraft is parked after the last flight and there is no intention for further aircraft movement by the same flight crew member. A flight duty period includes deadhead transportation before a flight segment without an intervening required rest period, training conducted in an aircraft, flight simulator or flight training device, and airport/standby reserve.9
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5Ibid.
6Ibid.
7Ibid.
8Ibid.
9Ibid.
Gateway basing: the airline arranges a flight (when necessary) from a specified gateway city to the departure city of the pilot’s first flight, and the pilot is responsible for the commute from home to the gateway city.
Home: the pilot’s residence.
Home basing: the airline arranges a reserved seat on a flight from the pilot’s home location to the city from which the pilot’s flight departs.
Hub: a focal airport for the routing of aircraft and passengers.
Hub-and-spoke: a system where many flights converge on one airport (the hub) at about the same time so that passengers and cargo can connect conveniently to a flight that is going to the ultimate destination (a spoke).
Jumpseat: an additional observer seat on the flight deck available to other pilots by courtesy of the captain.
Long-call reserve: a reserve period in which a crew member receives a required rest period following notification by the certificate holder to report for duty.10
Long-haul: flights are that involve long distances, typically beyond 6 hours in length, and often are nonstop flights.
Mainline airlines: air carriers that predominately operate scheduled service in jet aircraft with more than 90 seats and often provide intercontinental service.
Nonrevenue travel: free or reduced-rate (nonrevenue) travel.
Overnighting: assignment by an airline for a flight crew member to spend a required rest period at a location that is not the pilot’s domicile, normally including prearranged accommodations and local transportation; see also layover.
Part 91 ferry: a flight with no paid passengers or cargo aboard, performed to position an aircraft to a desired location such as to perform its next
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10Ibid.
revenue flight; alternatively, a flight of an aircraft that is not airworthy, performed under provisions of a “ferry permit.”11
Part 121: This phrase refers to most passenger and cargo airlines that fly transport-category aircraft with 10 or more seats.
Regional airlines: air carriers that predominately operate scheduled service in aircraft, both jet and turboprop, with 90 or fewer seats.
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11Federal Aviation Administration. (n.d.). Special Flight Permits. Available: http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/field_offices/fsdo/phl/local_more/media/ferry_permit.pdf [June 2011].