Pilot Duty Times
The amount of time that a pilot is on duty is highly regulated. The following is a synopsis of the rules they follow.
Domestic Flight time: 8 hours in a 24 hour period. This can be increased to 10 hours with the use of a co-pilot.
International Flight time: 12 hours in a 24 hour period. However, once the aircraft lands in the US, the 8 hour rule takes president.
Duty time: 14 hours in a 24 hour day. This includes pre-flight and post flight operations of the aircraft.
If a pilot can receive 10 hours of rest in between flights, he or she become new again, and their flight time clock re-sets itself to zero. The rule is a maximum of 8 hours in a 24 hour period.
If the pilot flies beyond the 8 or 10 hour limit due to weather, the rest period increases to 16 hours instead of the normal 10 hours.
Also, pilots can fly only six consecutive day in a row before they are required to take 24 hours off.
Air Charter Operators write their own operations manual. In this manual, they describe how they will operate an air charter. They may elect to reduce the number of hours a pilot can fly as well as increase the number of hours of rest. Once these changes are in their operations manual, they become Federal Aviation Regulations that must be complied with.