hifiaudio177

Thanks for being super helpful. I’m simply trying to see if I moved to Dothan it could also be beneficial to him. No need to be a d bag.

jaxsurf

There are no guarantees in aviation; there is no guarantee he gets hired by Endeavor or a company with an Atlanta domicile.

Your son is trying to fly airplanes full of human beings around for a living, sometimes in bad weather, sometimes at night, sometimes both at the same time. That takes a certain amount of self confidence. Coddling your child and making major life adjustments all in the name of making their life slightly more comfortable may not be the best thing for their personal growth in the long run.

Letting them figure out things out for themselves and gaining the confidence that comes from those experiences isn’t such a bad thing. You can always send money.

hifiaudio177

Roger that, like I said, I’m really trying to do is see if a move I am contemplating would also happen to be theoretically beneficial to him. Sounds like the answer is “ not really”. So that’s that. Doesn’t have much bearing on whether I move there or not.

DryClutch

I think you might be reading into this too much the wrong way, I think the OP is just wondering if this potential move to their retirement land that they desire for themselves, having nothing to do with their son, might also have a side benefit of being a launching pad for their young sons potential career endeavors. I'm not getting helicopter-parenting out of this scenario.

JulesWinfield

Unless you hate your son, tell him to move to a base. Pay and quality of life are unparalleled vs commuting.

rickair7777

It might work out long-term if...

Lack of pilots and new small jets doesn't end eventually local feeder service (it's possible we might see a new generation of ultra-efficient turboprops later in the decade, eventually the retirement wave will be over so they should be able to man them).

He gets hired at a major with an ATL base. I would not suggest a two leg commute for any significant period, much less a career. Commuting is a cost-benefit balance and two legs tends to drive the cost side way up.

A three hour drive is about the longest I'd care to do, but it is doable if it's easy driving (three hours of bad traffic, challenging roads, or weather will leave you tired before you set foot in the terminal). Need to add at least 30 mins for employee parking/bus drill. Might need a crash pad if a lot of early shows, late finishes otherwise occasional hotel.

He'd probably need to plan on mostlydriving, with occasional nonrev when/if the timing works. But you generally need to have a backup flight as a prudent commuter.

hifiaudio177

Thanks! So this is a bit of a morph into a different question from the topic, but are you saying to, if possible, ALWAYS try to move to base right away? IE in this example, if one were indeed to get an Endeavor job, I believe he read that Cincinnati is a likely first domicile. You are saying to move to north Kentucky or Ohio right away, and then move with the job whenever required until you get to a “final” destination in a place you can hold as a captain (obviously that is down the road a few years from that first move). So you are saying it’s worth it to quickly fully move from place to place?

loganeich

At least in Dothan, you can still get quarter beer at Cowboys on Thursday night.

chihuahua

Bases open and close all the time. CVG used to be a big base for both Comair and Delta. MEM was big base for Pinnacle and NWA. STL was a big base for TWA and their regionals back then. All gone now. It would seem to me the better idea is to find a place you actually want to live, then figure out where the best commute would be. Why move to some crap hole city, just for that base to end up closing anyway? At EDV he'd probably get NYC to start off with, ATL is having more Skywest come in, so with the 200 going away it will probably shrink for EDV. As the decades of poor management and racing to the bottom in the airlines continue to bare fruit, there will really be no certainty in the regionals, as management strings them along till they can get enough A220s to relegate the RJs to places like DHN. Have him explore the country a bit, figure out what he wants out of life outside work, then based on that decide where to apply and hope for the best.

rickair7777

I would not say that. Your initial base may well be the most junior in the system but that's not assured.

Also junior for FO is not always the same as junior for CA. If it were me, given the flexibility that I've never had, I would identify the junior most base for *CA upgrade* and move there.

There are lots of situations or obligations which can make it worth commuting... could be as simple as a girlfriend in a certain town, or really like to ski.

I would probably not commute just for climate or because you like the city you live in, at least not at a regional. If you're a passionate outdoorsman, then it might be worth commuting, if that's your gig. But no matter the climate or geography, if you're mainly going to work, drink, and chase women you can get beer and ass in any town in America...