I enjoy visiting public parks. We have some really great ones on our overnights. I also go running, hiking, and exploring.

Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for those lost RDU days😎

Whole crew can play "Beat the Breathalyzer". Stop drinking at T-12h (or whatever your airlines limit is) , who gets closest to 0.02 at showtime wins.

Updating apps.

Haaaaa! Best post of the thread🤩

Knitting socks. Makes the 14 hour legs go by quickly as well.

Knew an FO who did that (female).

Must be new, last time I used airline apps it wasn't there and I would remember because it applies to me.

It is not, at least not any more so than other extra-curriculars. That's been a fact because I've been around a couple decades and never heard of it before (and I would have noticed because that's a box I could check).

Now it's possible it's a new thing... I can see that as being possibly a diversity filter for HR. They probably can't select for specific languages, but in the US about half the people who check that box will be spanish speakers, and about 80% of those will count for diversity.

It would make sense to weigh a language more heavily than a degree in political science or psychology, but I'm pretty sure they don't.

Even when out on the outskirts of town I’ll try to catch the local bus or light rail into town and just see where I end up. A park or local shops and restaurants. Either way, I’m outside and walking and exercising. I do this job because I like seeing places, so I make a point of it. My kit bag turns into a handy backpack, so if I end up somewhere I can take a nice hike, I’m prepared.


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Spending your free time doing something you don't actually want, to try to please an ******* HR department is a sucky way to live. Do something you enjoy that you can spin favorably.

I got into this job because I used to like seeing places, but being on the road 25 days a month has pretty much killed any enjoyment I got out of travel. How do you keep it fun? It’s rare I have time to go further than the immediate vicinity of our hotels and usually they’re not by anything interesting.

Yup, totally agree.

Geocaching is a good way to turn boring places into not-so-boring places. Most hotels have at least a couple of caches nearby, and difficulty ranges from "that was easy" to "where the **** is that thing." All that you need to start is a phone and the app.

Pokemon go is surprisingly diverting, especially if you have a kid/nephew/etc who’s also into it

Oh good idea! I used to be into geocaching way back in the day (when you had to use a stand-alone GPS and print off the directions and clues ahead of time).

You can still do it the same way! A standalone GPS usually gets you better coordinates than a phone GPS anyway.

Check into your room, put your stuff away, sit on bed worrying about your debt/income ratio, if UA will ever call back and if Jimmy Johns is still open. (It never is) Call the wife who isn't that interested where you are and say goodnight. Then turn the TV on doze off to a rerun of ice road truckers until you remember you forgot to plug in your ipad. Get up and do that, but now you're not tired anymore. Show time in 4 hours. Rinse and repeat.

That goes for me too. Updating my Big Six apps on my regional EFB is one of my guilty pleasures on the road 😁

Holy cr&p!! That’s it exactly except Rick and Morty instead of IRT😁😁

My dreams are crushed.

Regionals will crush your dreams, it's a race to get out before you burn out.

No wonder you are so miserable.

Good grief. What a bunch of sniveling whiners. Get out of your %^*+#* rooms and enjoy life. Your Airline is sending you places, enjoy them. Is every place Paris, Hong Kong or London? No. But there is stuff to do even on a regional budget and in “Fly Over Country”. One of my favorite overnights was one in OKC when my crew went to a minor league game in Brickyard. It was maybe $5 to get in and I bought the beer. Hot dogs were also cheap. Another time an all female crew “made” me go to a fashion exposition in Montreal as “punishment” for me making them ride bikes with me to a brewery. Another time an all gay crew took me around to gay bars. Not my cup of tea, but it was a memorable experience and they bought the beer for a change.
It’s funny, the regional pilots who won’t leave their rooms are the same ones who stay in the hotel when we go to Hong Kong, Istanbul and Tokyo. Life is for the living. Put down the video games and go out and live.

Excellent post. I do enjoy the long layovers and go out pretty frequently. I was more referring to short stays which are the majority.

Recommend the later. Most mainline planes have 120V outlets so you don't have to worry about charging your EFB.

One of my more memorable layovers while at the regional was the day I found a regulation size frisbee for a dollar at the grocery store down the street from the hotel. Bought the frisbee and a case of beer. Went back to the truck-stop hotel we were staying at and the CA and I spent the entire evening throwing frisbee in the vacant lot behind the hotel while drinking that entire case of beer. Simple pleasures, y'all. :D

Exactly.
Filler.

Read. Study a little. Rather than cramming once a year I try to do a little hear and there. If you have major minimums and have your apps in knock out some tech questions.

Excellent advice for some one that actually likes people

One time on a cross country flight we overnighted in Roswell, NM. There isn’t much to do in that town so a few of us took the rental truck and a case of beer out into the desert to look for UFOs. LoL it was a great time and we were treated with an exceptional lightning storm.

I like to wear orange pajamas and pretend I'm a prison inmate and flush those sugar packets down the toilet like they're contraband for the full experience.

Make pruno in your bathroom sink on long overnights.

http://www.blacktable.com/gillin030901.htm

The catering cart opens a whole bunch of opportunity now.

When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

I remember geocaching back in 2002 before smart phones existed. You actually had to own a hand held GPS to do it!

I don’t like people, but I still get out and do stuff. When I was at the regionals, I did lots of hiking, and even did some pretty cool mountain biking a few times. If nothing else, I’d go for really long walks and explore/take pictures of weird stuff I found.

Now that I’m at a major and fly only international trips, I have long layovers and still go hiking, check out cool museums (recently found an amazing car museum in Tokyo), find weird street markets, etc. Most importantly for me, I love exploring and sampling the different types of foods!

A lot of our guys like to just go out and drink and may not even get past the local Irish/western bar. As I grow older, I’m finding that to be pretty boring and horrible for sleep. Anything I can do that isn’t that is my goal.

This is pure GOLD right here.

When I am with a crew with good chemistry, I'll do the same. I also have found that the only truly unique thing about anywhere I go is the local food. I'll ditch my crew if they suggest the "Outback" in Hong Kong. No body got time for dat.
Sadly though, it is truly a global economy and 99% of the stuff you find can be had cheaper on Amazon or Ebay. I try to look for the hand made stuff to bring home.