havick206

At Envoy I’ve almost always been able to have a line or trip trade into sequences that are outside bad traffic.

rickair7777

I try to do that in socal. If a trip starts or ends during rush hour, I just go to the gym or a movie. Or take a nap.

JayBee

I spend less hours per week commuting than I did in my previous 9-5 job life.

As others said, who cares is the biggest commuting quality you can have. I don't stress about flight loads one bit.

Excargodog

Attitude is everything....

https://youtu.be/g56lsXDX2rw

TheAshtar

Pick your poison. Live where wifey wants and commute to work. Or drag her to a shi++y town to live in base (away from family and support) and commute to see your kids after the divorce.

Snuffaluffagus

Yup, my girlfriends entire family (and mine too) live in the same city as us. No way I’m gonna pull her away from her family and friends to a city where she doesn’t know anyone and I’m off on a 4 day. Then I’ll come home to ask why the plumber is always there...

TheWeatherman

Yup, as long as your family is happy then commuting is pretty tolerable. When you family is not happy and you are on the brink of divorce, for example being gone 20+ days a month due to work and commuting missing multiple family events and your children's activities, well then commuting becomes a living hell.

sflpilot

Can't argue with that. Honest but accurate.

rickair7777

Pilot self-defense:

1) With kids, only live in a location (big base or easy commute) where YOU are at least OK with hanging out long-term in the event of big-D.
2) Ensure that local law will "anchor" the family to that location, ie shared custody occurs at that location UNLESS both parties agree otherwise.
3) If the relationship is struggling DO NOT move somewhere to make her happy unless conditions 1) and 2) are met.

I've seen this one play out many times, wife is unhappy, pilot agrees to move back to Podunk Falls to be near her family, she drops divorce papers as soon as enough government paperwork is done to establish residency (DL, lease, mail forwarding, etc). Boom, you're now anchored to almost 20 years of trains, RJ's, and automobiles to see your kids.

Many of them become vicious psychotics at divorce time, and will leverage every possibly advantage to punish you and extract as much money from you as they can. The kids becomes pawns in the game, and you end up trading away your money and QOL for their welfare, and to salvage some sort of relationship with your kids. She knows you're in checkmate if the family is anchored where she wants to be, bonus points if it's a difficult commute. You can quit the airline, but only if you have skills to make enough money for alimony and child support.

Most heart-breaking story I ever heard involved a pilot friend in the above scenario, mom was bragging to friends and family about how much she was making dad suffer with the geography, deliberately change dad visitations at the last minute, no shows, etc. His eight year old daughter observed all this, and in tears told dad that she didn't want him to see her because it was so hard on him. She promised they could resume their relationship at age 18. He didn't see her regularly for years, but the silver lining was that the state in question allowed minors to pick the custodial parent at age 14 or so. The daughter got help from a friend's parent, got a lawyer, and got her own custody switched to dad. Dad showed up soon after with a uhaul, a custody order, and a sheriff's deputy to collect his daughter.

TheAshtar

Rick speaks the truth. Eerily hits close to home.