For comparison, the commuting lifestyle affords substantially more time at home than the deployment schedule most military pilots have been on for the last decade.

 

But remember, it doesn't count because you weren't in a volunteer military...

 

Nobody mentioned that besides you.

I was asking because I was interested in his frame of reference. I'm surprised, honestly. I would not have moved annually chasing jobs, so good on his wife and kids for stomaching that.

 

Sorry misread the original post hence my deletion.

 

My kids are young.
It's my advice based on my experience.
Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Moving is a short term pain but pays dividends if you end up stuck for longer then expected. Don't let anyone fool you. Commuting to a regional job blows, if you're on reserve it'll drive you insane.

 

Not fooled by anything anyone's said. I all ready did my time commuting to a regional job (and reserve....) and later moved on to my career destination.

 

This discussion has actually been helpful. While a tend to lean toward Hacker's get the family settled solution, I'm really hoping to find something where I could also be home-based. I like ExpressJet because we would be happy in ATL. And I like PSA because we like CLT. But EJ is sounding a bit un-stable and I would be on reserve forever (would I get the hours I need to be competitive for majors?). And PSA would take me out of the running for a quick pull to AA (AA in CLT would let me drive to work from my desired homestead) and I'd have to be based elsewhere for a while first.

BL: I see both points and I am trying to weigh them both. I would be willing to pay for the extra move. I have 20 moves under my belt, so while a couple more wouldn't kill me, I sure would like to find a gig where I don't have to move the kids again, especially if I can move my self-sacrificing wife to the town she's wanted to move back to since we were married.