Originally Posted by
HippieAir
New to the forum and just accepted an FO offer at Republic! I live in Richmond, VA close to the airport. Looks like my two best options for bases are DCA or LGA. It looks like there are about 4 Republic flights between RIC and LGA daily, and around 4-8 total depending on the day. LGA also seems to have the potential for RIC overnights where DCA might not? Sounds like a nice way to break up a trip.
That said, DCA is a 2-ish hour drive. Conventional wisdom seems to be "always drive to work if you can." I'm skeptical thought that the DCA drive would be measurably better than the LGA commute for QOL. Would LGA yield RIC overnights regularly and/or more frequently than DCA enough to offset the potential sting of commuting? After holding a line how badly would that commute suck? That drive up 95 to DCA is not for the faint of heart, and with traffic (there is always traffic) it's regularly over the 2 hour short call reserve time limit anyway. Obviously commuting to reserve sucks but I think reserve will suck pretty bad either way. Aside from sitting reserve, which sound like it will be reasonably short lived, which sounds to be my best option? TIA!
This is really all about personal preference. When I started I was not given my first choice and ended up in LGA, exactly the same scenario for you at DCA. During rush hour, you can't really get there in two hours, especially to the gate in two hours given the parking / busing situation there. I still felt it was better to drive then commute by air to another base and give up those days off getting there and getting home. Keep in mind you'll have choice of base before you have choice of trips from your seniority, so, a lot of "commutable" trips might be hard to find. For estimates, DCA jr line holder is a Nov 21 hire. So take three months from training, that person likely had all of 4 months reserve. (this changes constantly but might help decision making for you)
If it was me, I'd take the drive. On duty days, I'd try to get early reserve, then on the front of the rush hour, reposition yourself to within an hour of DCA somewhere (coffee shop, rest stop, something like that) and hang out till after the rush hour, then start for home. On reserve if you don't have an assignment prior to two hours before the end of the reserve period, you're done. so 3a-1p reserve, I'd wake up at 3 check phone, back to sleep wake up at 5 and head toward LGA, stop short of crossing the bridges (stupid expensive tolls, like $20), wait till around 10 then slow roll home, at 11 you're done anyway. Having said this, at that time, I mostly had an assignment given to me the day before my RAP, almost never called for the "2 hour" call out, maybe 2-3 times. On the RIC overnights, a lot of our overnights are short anyway, so, you'd be able to sleep home, not likely have time for much else.
As far as
CFIsoonToBeFO information, it's partly true. The last couple classes were very heavily assigned PIT initially, I have no idea why. Most of them though were in another base before they got out of training. Here's a list of what I'm referring to, these are the jr fo's in each base now.
Class Orig Now
03/08/22 LGA DCA (IOE)
04/05/22 LGA ORD
04/12/22 PIT BOS
04/19/22 PIT SDF
04/26/22 PIT CMH
04/26/22 PIT IND
04/26/22 PIT PHL
05/10/22 LGA LGA
05/24/22 PIT PIT
05/24/22 PIT PIT
05/31/22 EWR EWR
Given the fact that the senior F/O is still in IOE, I'm going to guess the rest must still be in training. You can see where they all are already.
Do any flying at HOVA / OFP? Spent a LOT of time there while in part 91 land!
Good Luck!