Flying Long Haul -- meal times and sleep patterns

[shon7]

For those of you flying long haul and keeping odd hours -- how do you time your meals. Do you still eat the "regular" meals as you would while living at base/ or at home; or is it as and when you feel hungry.

Similarly -- what kind of sleep pattern do you follow -- if any.

I just started a new job (non flying) which requires shift work and eating irregular meals is just killing me. Any comments/suggestions.

[woftam]

Eat when you are hungry,sleep when you are tired (no matter what the big hand or little hand said).
Worked for me.
;)

[411A]

Woftam about somes it up, and it worked for me as well.

A few guys however seem to feel that irregular hours/long haul flying is somehow different.
Well, yes it is...much more enjoyable than short haul, IMO.

A very few will find long haul very upsetting from a personal prespective, and complain to the company/fleet manager about how 'overworked' they are.

To this I say...phooey... find another job.:(

[Engineer]

Overworked underpaid and can't find another job so eat when hungry and sleep when tired :ok:

[Crossunder]

411A:

Sounds like you're really pro long haul!? I'd like to try it as well, but my colleagues think I'm an idiot, infected with the jet-virus. Could you give me some good arguments for leaving the short haul STOL ops in my DHC8? ;-)
Since I haven't tried both worlds, I cannot really come up with good arguments for leaving my present employer, but I'll tell ya'; check-in at 04:20 three days in a row, and then c/i around 15-17:00hrs the next 4 days, isn't really according to my Circadian rhythm either...

Cheers!

[angels]

shon - mere SLF talking here, so feel free to ignore.

But I must say the others have summed it up correctly. If you're hungry - eat. If you're tired - sleep.

I used to do a fair bit of frantic shuttling around the world, for example two day trips to London from Singapore. I remember flying over Iran once on the way back from one of these trips and thinking that my body clock was just passing in the opposite direction!

But reading your post again, I see you're in a non-flying job so I assume you're just having to endure -- in one location -- what I used to have to do, that is, split shifts IE 3-days of 0800-1600, day off, three days of 1800-0600, two days off, two days of 1200-2000 etc.....

If this the case, then it's going to be tough. :sad:

[Kestrel_909]

I haven't done any long haul flying though lot's of 'long haul' overnight in another job more similar than some might think to piloting:E
Eat when hungry is the best one, because you can't sleep on an empty stomach, concentrate fully and just makes it uncomfortable.

Sleep when tired, or when you can. If you've been up 14hours and have an hours break, even if your not tired now, take the rest or you'll feel worse later. Though I still can't sleep during daylight very well, don't want to waste life in bed :ok:

It can be a pain though once off for a few days or even weeks, stepping into a normal living pattern again in meal times and sleeping.

[Dan Winterland]

Eat when hungry, but often when not so you put on weight. Sleep when tired - but often have to go to work when your body says it's now time for bed, having had a great night watching cr@p television or staring at the ceiling watching the smoke detector light blink 13,462 times (yes, they were counted!). Just love watching the sun come up shining right into your eyes over India when it's 3.30am body clock time and there's curry for breakfast. When you get to your destiantion, you land like a bag of spanners dropped from a great height because it's your first landing for three weeks and you've been awake for 27 hours.

And when you eventually get home, you have just got into swing with you destiantion's timezone and your wife gives you grief 'cos your no fun in the evening and you wake up at 4am waking her as well. Just as you start to feel better, it's time to do it all again.

Yes, it's a great life!

[411A]

Crossunder,

Long haul is not for everyone, but quite frankly, I never had a problem sleeping at most anytime of the day or night, and as for meals, a caesar salad at 8am upon arriving at hotac was fine with me.

I personally found the benefits of long haul was the rather long layovers involved (in some cases, as long as five days) and the benefit of accruing flyng time in large chunks, thereby allowing increased off days.
This scenario will certainly not suit everyone of course, but for myself it was top drawer.