Charter Extension at the End of a Duty Day
You hold a Ghana CPL(A) and fly a Cessna 208B Caravan for a GCAA-approved AOC holder based at Accra (DGAA). You reported for duty at 05:30 and have since flown four sectors - Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Kumasi, Accra - logging 7 h 20 min flight time and 11 h 40 min on duty by 17:10, with two 45-minute ground breaks. At 17:15 the operator's sales office calls: a mining client needs a return charter Accra–Takoradi–Accra tonight, block time 2 h 10 min, departing 17:45, and asks you to cover it because the rostered pilot has gone sick. The company's GCAA-approved flight time limitation scheme, which you have not read since induction, is in the operations manual on board; no rest facility exists at Takoradi. You feel tired but not unwell, and the client has threatened to move the contract to another operator.
1. Before you answer the sales office, what must you establish - and from which source?
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Source first, memory second. Flight time limits are not set by your licence, your rosters or the sales office; they come from the operator's flight time limitation scheme approved by the GCAA, which the operator must hold and publish (the Ghana aviation safety regulations require this, in line with ICAO Annex 6 practice). So:
- Open the operations manual (corporate/Part A) and read the limits you have forgotten: maximum flight time in any 24 hours, in 7 days and in 28 days; maximum duty period for a report time of 05:30; minimum rest before the next duty; and any extension provisions.
- Do the arithmetic on the proposal: 2 h 10 min block plus a 30 min turnaround puts you at roughly 14 h 30 min duty and about 9 h 40 min flight time.
- Check the cumulative picture for the last 28 days, not just today.
- Separately confirm the aircraft is serviceable for a night flight (landing light, instrument lighting, pitot heat, alternator) and that you are night-current and medically fit.
Only then is there a decision. 'I feel tired' is data to weigh, not a reason to push on.
2. The arithmetic shows the extra flight would breach the maximum duty period in your company scheme. What is your legal position, and what should you do?
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The pilot-in-command has final authority over the flight and may refuse it; that authority is not overridden by a commercial request. A duty that would exceed the approved scheme is not a matter of personal preference - if you accept it, both you and the operator are in breach, and the operator's AOC is at risk.
Practically:
- Tell the sales office that the request is operationally impossible and that acceptance is not yours to give.
- Refer the decision upward to the duty operations manager or the nominated postholder for flight operations, who may only authorise what the approved scheme permits.
- Record the refusal, the time and the reason in your personal log and notify operations in writing.
- Do not accept, then 'adjust' the times afterwards. Falsifying flight time records is a licensing matter, not an administrative one.
Also weigh fatigue itself: if you are genuinely tired at 11 h 40 min on duty, you should not be starting a night sector regardless of what the arithmetic allows. The commercial consequence for the client is the operator's problem to solve - with another crew, a wet-lease or a refusal.
3. A GCAA inspector meets the aircraft on the ramp at Takoradi. Which documents must be on board, and who is responsible for them?
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Responsibility is split, and that split is the exam point. The operator must ensure the documents are on board, current and correct; the PIC must verify they are on board and valid before flight - you cannot delegate that check.
Typically required on board for this flight:
- Certificate of Registration and Certificate of Airworthiness, with the current maintenance release/airworthiness review certificate.
- Crew licences, with ratings and medical certificates.
- Aircraft radio station licence.
- Journey log and technical log (aircraft, engine, propeller).
- Mass and balance documentation for the actual load.
- Certificate of insurance covering the flight.
- Operations manual, aircraft flight manual and, where applicable, the noise certificate.
- The passenger/cargo manifest and, for an international sector, the general declaration.
If something is missing, you do not depart: you report it, get it rectified or obtain a proper authorisation, and record the deficiency. The inspector's visit is not the moment to discover the technical log has no entry for the last 50-hour check.