Airline Pilot Central Forums - The art of Commuting

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The art of Commuting

Any suggestions or best practices for commuting for a regional airline? Also any suggestions for how to select a regional airline? I've heard some advice such as , only go with a one leg commute with at least 4 flight per day to base as options. Select a regional based on upgrade time and commute, not equipment or pay etc. Curious what everyone with experience thinks. Thanks for your time.

To compare right now I work at a great 135 company 8/6 set schedule, QOL is great, the commute is on company dollar and time. QOL on the road is good. Downside is not much career progression in salary and equipment. Our top 15 year pay is the first year pay of an FO at one of the majors. Retirement benefits are not good. The set schedule is great, however I'm away from home the same 18 days a regional pilot is, its just predictable. My wife supports the jump to the regionals and I've explained all the negatives. Thinking of making the move to regionals to advance to majors one day with the way the industry is headed. Thoughts?

Don't just look at the regionals. Charter airlines have home basing, so no commuting. Omni is hiring like crazy and you'll be typed and flying wide body international...time that looks better than Barbie jet time. In fact, many of our new hires come from regional Captain seats.

Upgrade is running about 3.5 years on the 777 and 4 years on the 767. Guys are bailing out of Omni left and right for other airlines. The move up the seniority list has been quite dramatic of late. The starting pay is higher as well, two to three times higher than regional first year pay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYGiants (Post 2151735)

If you are going to commute, DO NOT choose a regional with outstation basing....trust me when I say that this is the best advice that you will get on this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sqwkvfr (Post 2151775)

If you are going to commute, DO NOT choose a regional with outstation basing....trust me when I say that this is the best advice that you will get on this thread.

What is outstation basing?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Packrat (Post 2151756)

Whats the min multi time required? I only have 20 multi, flying a single turbine right now. I saw on the site they want 2000 TT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYGiants (Post 2151789)

What is outstation basing?

Crew basing anywhere other than a hub...Republic has several outstation bases and a few hub bases.

Their outstation schedules start very early on day one of the trip and end very late on the last day of the trip in order to maximize aircraft utilization and minimize hotel costs, but the result is uncommutable schedules and commuting on your day off...oftentimes for two legs.

As a result, their hub bases are very senior, aside from the dumps like Newark, so upgrade in one of their better hubs like MIA, DCA, or ORD is very long.

Of all of the things that I "wish I knew then what I know now," it would be that someone had explained this to me before I jumped into the regional game.

I can't take credit for it, it was penned in this very message board years ago by RyanP. But sums it up, I'm just gonna leave it right here......

Quote:

yup.. nothing like running across Ohare with your roller bag in uniform, looking like a complete idiot, red faced and sweating.. from G-21, or worse L something, all the way to C-99 million for the 2nd or 3rd attempt of the day.. Then you see 8 other red faced sweaty pilots ALREADY at the counter. A quick look at the board also shows a crapload of stby's.. "SonnofaaaB.." THEN, you lock eyes with one of the pilot competition, preferably the weakest, slowest of the bunch (you must quickly do a uniform scan of your competition to determine if they are a serious jumpseat priority threat or not).. and now it's a showdown.. (pilot smart phones quickly searching for next available flight/gate numbers) then, another quick glance at the competition.. Who is gonna run for it?? To get the advantage on the next flight.. You hear that old western showdown music in your head.. "doodiiiiiidooooooo, bow boooow bow.." and you decide to bolt.. back from C-99 million, you bust out a 9000 yard dash to gate F gazillion for the next flight.. you feel great when you get there, you outsmarted all the other chumps trying to commute home that had NO chance in hell on the last flight.. Now, you're First in line waiting to check in, other pilots from the last gate that failed to get on start to show up eventually, you snicker to yourself "suckers".. you plop your credentials on the desk with a big cheesy smile to the gate agent.. then hear the dreaded "sorry Mr pilot, we are weight restricted today and we are asking for volunteers" *%#$@#%@&#$*!!!! Next!

Or my personal favorite.. you are first in line for the jumpseat, no competition, no line, open seats available, no standbys.. but no freakin agent to be found, so you can't check in.. hmmm, nobody is around, you scan the terminal for hostiles (other known jumpseaters).. and determine it's an acceptable risk to go pee. You come back less than 1 minute later to find a line of 35 people including 6 pilots. Gdmmmmmmmmmit! How is that EVEN POSSIBLE??? LOL

Commuters know what I'm talking about.. :) Good times..

Commuting sounds terrible...

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYGiants (Post 2152150)

Commuting sounds terrible...

Commuting *is* terrible.

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
--War Games (1983)