I know guys who have lived in a van (not an RV... a van) in the vicinity of the airport while on reserve, and others who had hot-reserve LIVE (yes sleep and eat too) at the airport for 3 days, then commute to their parents house for 1 night of sleep in their "own" bed, because with all the debt, they couldnt even afford a stupid crashpad on their pay.. and their parents didnt necessarily have a money tree, either.

Once you could say, but it's only temporary at the regionals, a stepping stone to better pay. Not anymore. Regionals are a career path now for the unfortunate ones who don't want to move to the majors, or don't have the luck. Because that's what it is... luck and nothing more.

People move all the time for jobs. My Dad and Mom moved 9 times while I was growing up. And they weren't military. If the airlines are going to open and close bases, then they will have to pay relocation expenses if they expect people to live in domicile.

Yes but when these people move in most situations it is their choice to move. Not being perfectly happy in New York, then the base closes and you have to move to Nowheresville, PA, and you don't have a choice if you want to keep that job. For many it would be the straw that breaks the camels back if they had to live in base, all while the airlines continue doing buisness as usual, already given with the instability not knowing whether you will have a job next month or not, now you won't even know where you will live a month from now.

Airlines won't pay more until they have to. Many pilots will find other jobs if they're forced to move their families to Newark for $16000/yr. Then you'll pi$$ & moan when your flight gets cancelled.

You can legally do a 16 hour duty day, get an 8 hour overnight, then back for another long day. Most commutes don't approach that level of stress...they need to fix the existing FAR's before they talk about new ones.

Ultimately there is no legal basis for either the FAA or the company to tell you where and how to spend your days off. Outlawing pilots commuting is about as ludicrous as outlawing pilots having children...I can tell you from experience that small babies are much less conducive to rest than the typical commute.

With that said, the Colgan FO's self-determined schedule was worse than worst-case legal rest. Sleep while jumpseating on multiple redeye legs does not count IMO.

Good points... but keep in mind that even close-by east coast commuting takes a long time too... For instance let's say one lives in New England. Up at 2am or 3am to drive to BOS to catch the earlier flights to the NYC area before stuff gets backed up, wait around for several hours before the trip starts in the late afternoon--- it's equivalent if not worse to the red-eye.

Also, stand-ups/high-speeds/whatever are legal and just as exhausting if not more so... especially when the airline makes you fly sometimes up to 20 consecutive calendar days (24hrs off between days every week counted as "off" days). I have seen this happen, no joke.

If you find an airline to pay for relocation expenses over and over and over without finding ways to weasel out of it (they will), I will personally grant you ownership of the Moon.

Also, again as I have mentioned, if someone in the relationship has a stable better paying job, the family is not going to move for the unstable and low-paying regional job. It's not going to happen. The pilot will commute and that's it. And the excuse: "Just quit and find another profession" is not a solution for too many reasons to count.

I find it interesting that it is not legal rest Dead Heading (good), but the ride to and from the hotel in the van is (what?) on reduced rest.
Onther thing more ailrines could do to curb fatigue and make alot of commuters happy is-Home Basing. My gosh what a novel idea! In fact there are 121 operators like Kalitta that do just that. Hmmm

Best Case Scenario: We are offered incentives to live in base. If we commute, the airlines positive space us and we are on duty while they do it.

Worst Case Scenario: Commuting is either no longer allowed or we do it on our own time and have to prove we got adequate rest before duty (i.e. hotel receipt with check in time)

I don't personally see either of these playing out. The solution will be somewhere in the middle. Basically they will find the most cost effective way to barely meet whatever regulations are put into place.

Rather than preaching to the choir here, why not address these issues to your elected officials.

Spend a few minutes you would spend here and email your senators and representatives. Let them know how bad the duty limits are, and how many times the NTSB has suggested increasing rest with no response from the FAA. Or how pressured we are when we call in fatigued/sick.

Every Senator/representative has a link on their home page to contact them. While they probably have some intern doing a quick scan, a couple hundred emails on the same issue in short order while this is in the public consciousness will likely illicit some sort of response.