AIRCREW FATIGUE MANAGEMENT

http://www.flyawake.org/documents/Watt%20Aircrew%20Fatigue%20Amended%20for%20Release.pdf


AIRCREW FATIGUE MANAGEMENT

Christian G. Watt, Lt Col, USAF


AIR WAR COLLEGE
AIR UNIVERSITY
A Research Report Submitted to the Faculty
In Partial Fulfillment of the Graduation Requirements
10 February 2009


The purpose of this paper is to examine the problem of aircrew fatigue management and provide recommendations based on the latest advances on the subject. My research method included literature research and interviews with field professionals. Much of my research led to literature written by medical professionals and aerospace physiologists, with relatively little by aviators. This paper is intended to complement the plethora of existing information on the subject from an aircrew perspective.
Research shows that aircrew fatigue is still a significant concern. The author believes that aircrew fatigue will become even more important to manage due to the increased cognitive requirements of the net-centric warrior. Further, management will become increasingly problematic as the number of air assets available to respond to 24/7 tasking and to maintain 24/7 pressure on the enemy decreases.
Research also shows that while pharmacological options are available, they are recommended by most authors as a last resort when other methods to mitigate fatigue have been exhausted. Recommendations for "sound scheduling practices" permeate the literature. Unfortunately, there is little written on "how" to do that—no readily available model for unit-level schedulers to emulate.
New technology and scheduling concepts are available to compliment the pharmacological options. These new methods address the root cause and only cure for fatigue—sleep—verses just the symptoms. The author recommends that the 335th "scheduled sleep" model be tested with actigraphs, formalized in doctrine, and integrated with a computerized program, perhaps the new Flyawake program, to make sound scheduling truly attainable at the unit level