I dunno, people have different levels of tolerance for things. I don’t mind commuting. It isn’t always easy but I don’t mind it. Gives me time sitting in the airport to make phone calls and answer emails etc that I don’t want to do when I’m home with my family.

 

I can have the job that I want, and I don't have to trade the home that I want. If I want to live somewhere else, then I still don't have to trade the job. It's a win for me.

 

Thanks for all the responses everyone.

From what I gather everyone can agree that any commute by airplane is going to make life tough. You’ll spend more time away from home, more money on gas/crash pads and lose the flexibility to accept short notice flights on days off for bonus pay. That being said, if you have the personality to make good use of the travel time and can use that to catch up on phone calls, bills, reading, etc the commute is tolerable.

It def gives me something to think about.

If I were to commute to CLT I’d be flying on PSA a majority of the time. That’s why I mentioned PSA. If the goal was to get based in CLT would it make more sense to try to get on with Piedmont? If they only have bases in CLT and PHL I would think I would have a better chance of ending up in CLT. I guess the trade off would be more time spent driving because PSA pilots would get the jumpseat over me

 

This won’t work for everyone, but when faced with the decision in 2017, I wanted to go to a AA WO for the back up of having the flow. I listed the crew bases that were common between the regional and mainline. I handed the list to my wife and said “Where do you want to move?”

I’ve been doing flying for awhile. My simple recommendation is to live within a drive commute of your base. I’ve seen folks literally tear their families apart by trying to do a flying commute “for the sake of the family, make things easier on the wife, keep kids close to grandparents, my wife needs help, closer to my wife’s job, etc.”

The issue is once you start commuting by air, it will be a varying sacrifice on your part. It may work now, but will it work years out. If you want to stop, will your spouse then agree to move? I’ve seen spouses refuse to move or want to move often while citing your ability to commute. Even worse, I’ve seen the ability to commute used to allow ex spouses to move with the kids with little recourse because a pilot had commuted in the past.

While the ability to live where you want may seem like a benefit, IMHO it’s just not worth the hassle. There’s plenty of great areas to live within a 1-2 hour drive of a pilot base. Back in the day, the standard recommendation was to move to the largest, junior base. It’s still true now.

 

Yes a lot of good advice here. What if air service from your home airport changes in the future and you can no longer get to work? Again no one says that you have to live right outside the airport of your domicile. You’ve got a decent radius with options at most places.

 

CLT = psa, no question