Take a look at Clarksville TN. About 30 to 40 minutes north of Nashville. TN has no state income tax so worth the extra drive time to stay south of KY. Clarksville is a military town so there are plenty of things to do and prices are cheap.

yep. Been there, done that, 5 hours is my max, 4 isn’t pleasant but only twice a month... no big deal. Invest in a car you enjoy driving and be prepared to pop for a hotel room or find a rest stop if you’re too tired when you get back to base. Like Rick said, it’s not worth dying over.

That being said, CVG is a fun town. I actually prefer the Kentucky side, Covington is cheap and there’s plenty to do. Lots of cool old houses. Mainstrasse is a blast.

The key thing is the willingness to stop on the way home if you’re tired. Often a quick catnap at a rest stop or gas station mid trip can help.

easy, live in base

Plus, Southern is positive spacing him to CVG. No brainer. It’s not like it’s a regional 4 on 2 off schedule where you have to lose half of your 2nd off day to commute back to base and get a hotel. If you could be home for a week or two at a time, losing that half a day for a transcontinental commute with a confirmed ticket isn’t even a blip. Road warrior frequent flyer business travelers do that kind of stuff several times a week.

I guess a few issues could exist that I wouldn’t like. For example, I live in PHX and there aren’t any nonstops to CVG at the moment (I think DL used to do one a day, but it looks like ATI is the only one right now). Obviously that’s not ideal. So a route reduction or cut would suck. If I lived 2-3 hours from CVG and my flight was cut, then it’s a wash because the drive time is going to be the same as airport/park/security/flight/deplaning/get to the cargo terminal. Also I don’t know what time the trips start, and how early they book your arrival. If you fly 3 hours across the country and then have an hour to change into uniform and show, I guess that’s not bad. If you fly in from across the country, have 5 hours till show, and show time is midnight, that’s rough. So I think that would be the big deciding factor for me as well. Ties into your driving end fatigue comment. I guess if you had a long drive home and you’re tuckered out, maybe on can go nap in a crew room before the drive. My commute home got me in between 2300 and 0000, but I had a 4 hour flight to nap and then a quick 30 min drive home.

Yes we get positive spaced to CVG, but that wasn't the point. On the other hand, most of our trips or more than half at least, on my fleet, start somewhere else, so living in base is not the real deal. It'd make more sense to live in Chicago or Tampa actually, but cost of living is a killer. Anyways, thank you all for your input.

Our CVG long overnight hotel is a block from Mainstrasse. Lost days in CVG can get real messy :)

Second this and if you're single its a college town too. It's actually a pretty fun little gem.

Deutschland is utterly amazing.

Check out Sabaton, Nightwish, Epica, Smash Into Pieces, and Within Temptation for more amazing European metal

For the few months I was still working, I was driving to JFK from ORF, 370 miles, about 6 hours if you go in the middle of the night.

Pre Rona, I could sit long call at home, but with the understanding that there was a window of a couple hours when if I did not get on the last plane out, I had to drive.

I would usually end up driving once or twice a year.

I may have been singing Sabaton on the drive.. A lot.