Originally Posted by
ddflies
Hi everyone. I'm not a pilot or member of an aircrew. Today, I read about a pilot who built a tiny house to avoid paying for hotels when he commuted to his base airport. He'd been paying hotels $800+/month as part of his commute and wanted to save some money by creating his own tiny house. I was surprised to learn about this, so did some online searching, and discovered crashpads. This brings me full circle to wondering why this pilot, who flew out of Denver for Southwest, had to come up with his own housing solution for his commute. Are crashpads hard to come by, or is it something else? I understand that some people might prefer not to be in a crashpad. Thanks for sharing!
I read the same article you did, it was pretty neat.
Crashpads arent hard to come by these days. During covid lockdowns it was a bit more difficult because so many pilots who previously didnt need one were forced back onto reserve, so suddenly the market was flooded with pilots looking for crash pads.
You nailed it with your second to last sentence. Some people just dont want to be in a crash pad, even in spite of the financial savings. It can be a lot like a college dorm, but without the fun of being in college. I think the average 18-22 year old is probably a lot more tolerant of living in messy accomodations, sharing rooms, people coming and going at random times, shared bathroom/shower. But once you grow out of that age...different story. Lots of us want alone time on the road; we spend all day surrounded by other people and pilots, when were off the clock some peace and quiet is appreciated.