[The relationship between fatigue and the specific features of a flight shift of civil aviation flight crew]

The paper considers the development of fatigue in civil pilots in relation to the specific features of a flight shift, the duration of a flight, the size of a crew size, and the number of night flight hours. The flight lasting 28 consecutive days negatively affects the pilot's working capacity, with flight hours exceeding 90 hours, due to accumulated fatigue. At the stages "before landing" and "after landing", the degree of fatigue in aircraft commanders depends on the duration of a flight shift, peaking with the flights lasting more than 10-13 working hours. Inclusion of additional crewmen during flight shifts of more than 12 hours results in a reduction in the degree of fatigue in aircraft commanders. Night air departure and arrival are most unfavorable according to the degree of fatigue in aircraft commanders, i.e. the length of night time during flights, they are followed by a night air departure and daylight air arrival; a daylight air departure and night arrival rank third. Flights with daylight departure and daylight arrival are least of all exhausting. A night air arrival is characterized by the greatest degrees of integral fatigue at the stages "before landing" and "after landing", these are little associated with the duration of a flight shift. The existing provision, that such flights may be made thrice in succession, carries a risk for chronic fatigue. It is proposed to permit not more two flight shifts in succession during night air arrival. It is shown that it is necessary to take into account the factor of possible fatigue development on developing the regulation of flight shifts.