Originally Posted by
CLazarus
I have an easy commute, 1+10 flight time to base with upwards of 20 flights a day into base. On a good weather day with light loads I'd arrive in base one hour prior to show time (and still have a legal backup flight available that gets me in prior to show). I have to leave my house to catch my commute one hour minimum prior to scheduled departure (I can reach the gate in just under 45 minutes). So, on an absolutely perfect day, I leave my house a little over three hours prior to show. Much more typically, I leave home 4-4.5 hours prior to show. Sometimes, I'll leave as much as 5-6 hours prior if the weather sucks, there is a gap between primary/backup flights, flight loads are heavy, or I'm expecting heavy traffic en route to the airport.
The bottom line is, if you live inside of three hours drive time to base driving is almost the sure answer. Inside four hours, and it is probably still the answer on most days.
I posted the above in a different thread not too long ago. At 4.5 hours drive to EWR with minimal traffic, you'd be leaving the house roughly 5-6 hours before show time if you drove. If you flew out of BTV, MHT, or BOS I'd hazard that you would have to leave the house at least 5-6 hours before show time to have a contractually compliant backup commute flight. I'd also consider flying into JFK and LGA under some circumstances so you'd want to think about how to get across town (hypothetical example - 0600 flight from BTV to EWR with next EWR flight 3 hours later that will not get you in prior to showtime. But there is an 0630 flight to JFK usable as a backup, since you could take almost 2.5 hours to get across town).
If you lived next door to BTV or MHT, you would probably fly most of the time year round. But since you have to drive 1+ hours just to get to either location from the Norwich area, I think driving is going to be the winner most of the time because of the flexibility and reliability (especially if you bid for LGA trips, which means you probably want the Bus out of training). In the fall and spring when the weather is good and loads are light (don't forget to consider them roundtrip!), I think you'd probably fly. Get yourself a cheap, economical used car with low miles and I think you'd be pretty glad you did.