Places to live near CLT
 

I live in DFW and we are looking to move to somewhere affordable with a milder climate and a chance to do more outdoor activities. CLT seems to be the only base that fits the bill. We don't have kids, so schools aren't really an issue, but are looking for something with a view and an acre or so of land. I am willing to drive as far as Asheville, but have been looking on Google maps at stops along I-40 into Charlotte. Black Mountain, Old Fort, Marion, Morganton, and Hickory have all come up. Asheville seems to be slightly out of our budget.

We will plan to go to the area a couple of times for a week or so to scout it out, but just looking for some general suggestions, as we know nothing about it. Thanks/

Give us a budget range and what activities you enjoy.

450-650k, mainly hiking/walking the dog on trails, stream fishing. No hunting, no boating.

Indian Land/Fort Mill SC or Waxhaw NC

Depends on when you were hired and what fleet...I'll give advice based on that.

i would not necessarily call CLT affordable anymore. Fort Mill, Mooresville, Davidson, and Belmont are nice areas, but very expensive now. Troutman and Statesville are about 45- 1 hr drive to the airport without traffic which is only a couple hours out the day. If you are looking for true hiking and outdoor activities you need to go west from texas. Not much public lands around here that are scenic like the mountain west and high desert. There are public lands for hunting close and plenty of lakes for fishing and recreational boating. The further you go outside of CLT area prices get a little cheaper as expected.

[QUOTE=GRDWN3Grn;3921726]i would not necessarily call CLT affordable anymore. /QUOTE]

I got some saddddf news for you. Ain’t nothing “affordable” anymore. Any municipality with a major airport, serviced by a legacy isn’t going to be affordable.

Any place “affordable” is going to come with its own headaches.

Those damn Californians..

We need new pilot domiciles...

PIT. Embrace Tradition!!

Places to live near CLT
 

Jules Winfield. I sent you a private message about a home that will soon be available in the area that is about 40 minutes from the airport. Contact me if interested in looking before it is listed and goes on the market.

Why not Phx.

I personally don’t think of PHX as a milder climate than DFW. Also, still have WB option at CLT. First two thoughts I have.

He said he wanted to leave DFW for a more pleasant climate, not the surface of the sun.

I dunno, I think there's a significant part of the year that I like the PHX weather better than DFW. Work the IMAX game such that your three months off are during the summer and get a summer house up north.

FWIW, that is a bit tongue in cheek. I don't IMAX and I don't want to live in PHX.

PHX low temps are DFW high temps...

Its a dry heat tho….

Phx is boring and depressing as well. Everything is a different shade of tan or brown and it's full of sand and rocks. Scottsdale is nice but at the end of the day it's just a nice stripmall surrounding a mall. But to be fair that's like 75% of the country, Jeremy Clarkson said it best....

Can't say that CLT summers are anymore pleasant, swamp @ss galore. But at least you get some hills to hike and the outer banks.

I wish AA would do something real crazy like open a domicile/hub in BOI or COS or RNO. Outdoor lovers can dare to dream, alas we still only care about the sunbelt cities that will dry up in the next 10-15 years.

God I’d love a COS or BOI base. Miami and Dallas are too flat 😆

The nice thing about an airline is you can shift your product to where the demand is pretty easily.

well they just announced some more services to SMX, SUN, MSO and SAF.

Idk about that, there's pretty good demand in NYC and LAX and yet we can't seem to shift our focus to compete there 😏

Unfortunately, look at the equipment it's on. I appreciate that we are trying to branch out, but we seem to only announce new routes and want to compete with regional aircraft.

Wait.. is that why AA has quarterly vacancy bids? Because we're flexible? Is that why Day 1 pilots get base bids over pilots already online?

Or we could, you know, get the company to run monthly vacancy bids, get rid of MBE whilst accomplishing the same thing, and be more flexible as an airline? You know, things that most Major and Regional airlines have?

That seems too logical.

Most majors and regionals have monthly bids?

Delta does…who else?

Add SkyWest to the list. They have monthly vacancy bids (probably because they have 20 pilot bases). They also updated the seniority list daily—Idk why they update the SL once a year here.

I've wondered that too, why only once a year?

The company’s backbone is a mainframe system designed in the 60s.

AA used to have monthly bids but the new JCBA got rid of it, guessing the company was pushing for it because of the large training churn involved coupled with all the retirements coming down the pike.

Not seeing how monthly bidding would create training churn when coupled with seat locks/withholding.

when someone retires from a group 4 plane it creates a lot of training events

Increasing the frequency of vacancy bids would improve pilot quality of life. Something to consider for future bargaining aspirations.

When a pilot retires, that training event would have to happen anyway, no? I just fail to see how a monthly vacancy bid doesn't just allow the company to be more flexible whilst also benefiting pilot quality of life.

And the fact that you can get an awarded bid for a new plane and then get withheld for another year is absolutely absurd. The company either wants flexibility, which is allowed through a monthly bid, or they are just absolutely terrible at planning training. Which, for some odd reason, seems to be an AA specific problem.

A monthly vacancy bid also would fix seniority getting bypassed with new hires, being that new hires are getting base offerings that 2-year pilots can't even get, but APA doesn't care about that either. But dem pay rates, right?

This has nothing to do with having a vacany bid every month. That retirement was going to happen whether we have monthly, quarterly, or yearly vacancy bids.

At least you’re paid the higher rate (if applicable) when withheld. My Delta and FedEx buddies say it’s more complicated at those places and you could go a long time before training yet not paid the higher rate. I’m sure the DeltaForce will pounce momentarily to DeltaSplain to us the finer points.

Doesn’t help of you’re going 737 FO-320 FO, of course.

I sent a Sound Off proposing 6 vacancy bids/year, prelim awards posted within 24 hours after bid close, final awards 7 days after bid close (allow people a minute to get their days off requests in, mil leaves, etc), and any seat lock begins on the withhold date if withheld. I’m sure it was filed in the circular bin like my other Sound Offs.

Unless there are a certain number of displacements involved, the Delta PWA requires "conversion" to your new category 150 days from the award. You're either trained and there, or you are pay protected.

You just couldn’t help yourself. Did you get itchy all over, a little hive rash, and decide, “I must set AA masses straight?!” Anyway, thanks for the PWA info.

Yes and there are a lot of them. We already almost can't keep up, adding more training to the mix will just make things worse.

I'd love to have bids every month but I'm also realistic in wants. I'm hopeful that after the large wave is done it will come back.

Most here don't realize the pay and work rules were so bad back then trading something like 12->4 bids a year seemed like a no-brainer.

A lot of what? Retirements? Again: retirements happen regardless of how many vacancy bids there are. The company can withhold you for a year for anything that requires training. After that training you are locked for 2 years.

Pilots just wanna switch bases maybe seasonally or get into the base they want instead of watching new hires get awarded their seat. People moving around in the same seat is meaningless.

Monthly bidding won’t create mass training backups unless it’s grossly mismanaged.

Exactly, whether there's 3,6,12 bids a year... it doesn't change the number of training events a year the training department has to do. Not with seat locks.

I'm aware. Still shouldn't take that long to update a seniority list.