Q&A
What counts as a disruptive schedule, and what extra rest does it need?
When your hours of work switch between early duty and late or night duty, you need the normal 700.40 rest PLUS one local night's rest — unless you're more than four hours off the time zone you're acclimatized to.
Turns on: CARs 700.41(1) , CARs 700.41(2) , CARs 700.01
A disruptive schedule — the heading of section 700.41, not a defined term — is a duty pattern that flips between early duty and late or night duty. The three duty types are defined in CARs 700.01, all measured at your acclimatized location:
- early duty — hours of work that begin 02:00–06:59;
- late duty — hours of work that end 00:00–01:59;
- night duty — hours of work that begin 13:00–01:59 and end after 01:59.
What’s required
Going from late/night duty to the following early duty, or from early duty to the following late/night duty, the operator must provide — on top of the 700.40 rest period — one local night’s rest (CARs 700.41(1)).
A local night’s rest is a rest period of at least nine hours between 22:30 and 09:30 at your acclimatized location (CARs 700.01).
The exception
Section 700.41 doesn’t apply when you’re at a location more than four hours off the local time where you were last acclimatized. There, the time-zone rest rules in 700.42 take over (CARs 700.41(2); AC 700-047 § 4.42).
See also: Disruptive schedules (700.41) · Time-zone rest requirements (700.42)
Worked examples
Night duty → early duty
You finish a night duty, and your next duty is an early duty.
→ A rest period that includes one local night's rest is required before the early duty.
CARs 700.41(1)(a)
Early duty → night duty
You finish an early duty, and your next duty is a late or night duty.
→ A rest period that includes one local night's rest is required before the late/night duty.
CARs 700.41(1)(b)
07:00 start after a late duty
Your next flight duty period starts at 07:00. Early duty is defined as hours of work that begin between 02:00 and 06:59.
→ A 07:00 start is not early duty, so only the normal 700.40 rest is required — no additional local night's rest.
AC 700-047 § 4.41(4)(a)
More than 4 hours off your acclimatized zone
You are at an outstation where local time differs by more than four hours from where you were last acclimatized.
→ Section 700.41 does not apply; the time-zone rest rules in 700.42 govern instead.
CARs 700.41(2)
These examples are also run as automated checks against the FDP calculator.