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COPY March 26, 1962 TO ALL EAL MEMBERS Gentlemen: The attached letter on Flight Time Limitations was approved by Mr. Edward Hodson, Acting Chief, Safety Regulations Division Flight Standards Service, FAA, in a letter to me dated February 27, 1962. After receiving approval of the attached letter in a telephone conversation with Mr. Hodson, on February 20, 1962, copies of the approved letter were made and given to Captain R. W. Rivenbark for his perusal. This was done in accordance with an agreement made between Captain Rivenbark and myself at a System Schedule meeting prior to the start of this project. The Company disagreed with the FAA's interpretation of the application of 40.320 (c) on page 6 of the letter. On Friday, March 16, 1962, a group of Company representatives along with an ATA representative met with the FAA in Washington to state their objections. As a result of this meeting, another meeting was held in Washington, on Tuesday, March 20, 1962 with Mr. Tom Basnight-ALPA, Mr. Grady Stone, Chairman of the MEC Schedule Committee and myself in attendance, in addition to the above mentioned group which had met on the previous Friday. At this meeting the FAA presented written letters from 1953 to 1958 to show that they had consistently interpreted the application of 40.320 (c), and maintained that their interpretation would stand and that the Company must comply until such time as they could get the rule changed, or an exemption approved, or a Federal Court ruling. Following the above meetings, Captain Rivenbark has distributed the attached letter to the Base Operations Managers. Also, the Company has revised several trips which were scheduled in violation of 40.320 (c) effective on the April 1st, 1962 bid. In addition to the interpretations contained in the attached letter I have just received from Mr. Basnight a ruling on the application of 40.320 (c) to irregular operation of a trip which appeared on one of our domicile bid sheets for March, 1962. This ruling was given by Mr. Virtis McKay, Chief of the Air Carrier Inspection Division, FAA, who was present at the March 20, 1962 meeting in Washington. On this trip a series of three flights were scheduled within a period of 23 hours and 35 minutes for a total flight time of 7 hours and 59 minutes. Following the last flight in this series a 4 hour and 35 minute layover was scheduled followed by a return flight to the domicile scheduled for 1 hour and 47 minutes. The question: If the pilot arrives by his last layover point with 8 hours and 1 minute or more of flight time, can he fly the return flight of 1 hour and 47 minutes to his domicile. Mr. McKay ruled that since the pilot has flown over eight hours in the series of three flights within the consecutive 24 hour period, he cannot fly the last flight in the combination or any other flight until he has been given 16 hours free of all duty (17:15 layover on EAL). In this case, to fly the last flight in the combination, legally it would have to have been scheduled for completion within the consecutive 24 hour period in which the pilot exceeded 8 hours of actual flight time. The subject matter of the attached letter is somewhat complicated and difficult to clarify in writing. However, I hope that it will standardize Company scheduling practices under Part 40.320 system wide. Also, that it will prove of value to the individual pilot in understanding the proper applications of Part 40.320 of the CAR. Sincerely, Clyde Muirheid, Chairman EAL - MEC CM:pb
