cactus1549

Hi, I have a wife and two young kids and a Nov start date. I was wondering if I can increase my chances of spending nights at home by choosing my base wisely (we're pretty open to moving anywhere). Are there bases which tend to get more turns/more opportunities for 1 or 2-day trips as opposed to longer trips? Probably not but I thought it would be worth asking....

HighWingingIt

1-2 days typically go somewhat senior I want to say. What doesn’t go senior is “stand ups” which is where your the last flight out to somewhere at night and one of earliest flights back into base and you’re done for the day. Allowing you to spend time at home. Good pay for not flying much.

What equipment and base are you shooting for?

Turboprop

some bases are very senior to do standups.. they do pay very well about 7-hour credit to do a 35 mins flight. this is on the ERJ.. not sure about other bases on the CRJ... but its the best you can get the company to pay you, it sure beats the 5 legs a day for minimum credit.

Turboprop

where do you live now ???

it will depend on what base and airplane you are on.

cactus1549

Thanks a lot! What you say makes sense.

I put down E-175 but I'm not too fussed about the equipment (though I get the impression that the CRJ is on its way out... correct me if I'm wrong).
I'm still a little bit all over the place as regards to domicile: we're moving from abroad, with no strong ties to any particular place in the US. My wife would prefer California, somewhere like SAN. I'm thinking we might be better off in a place that's not quite so expensive, like BOI or DEN, or even ATL (the later would have to be on the CRJ).

cactus1549

We're living overseas, so we'd be moving in any case; currently we're considering SAN, DEN, BOI, ATL.

Turboprop

SAN is a senior base. not sure you will get it, but who knows.

DEN is very JR.. cost of living there might be ok as an FO, wait a minute.. if this new TA, you can live anywhere.

BOI they have very incommutable trips, early starts and very late ends.

ATL that's a CRJ base, and that base has been open and closed about 5 times.

Utah

I'd probably cross BOI and ATL off the list. Atlanta flying is just too risky. Risky as in they'll probably close the base again. Boise is a maintenance base and has trips that mainly take the first flight out in the morning and return 3-4 days later on the last flight in at night. It's a generalization but holds true for a number of their pairings. Same with the other MX bases of COS, PSP, and FAT. PSP looks like it's dying as a base as well. Down to only 11 crews.

Denver ERJ flying currently is pretty much only 3- and 4-day trips. There's better variety on the CRJ. Denver on the ERJ gives you the opportunity to work in the ERJ training department and spend much more time at home if that's something that interest you.

San Diego has a good variety of flying. However, you'll spend a lot more on housing to live anywhere near close enough to the airport to make flying shorter trips workable.

I'll add we can change domiciles monthly here as long as there are openings. You're not locked into anything. Rent for 6-12 months in Denver. And move to wherever you want. The only thing the company really isn't doing is aircraft transitions. Start on the ERJ and you won't be going to the CRJ unless you upgrade on it, and vice-versa. Once you are working here, you can also see the trips at every domicile, and what everyone is being awarded every month. It'll make the decision a lot easier.

Some other observations:
DFW is only longer trips, don't go there.

SLC CRJ probably has the highest percentage of shorter trips as the domicile probably has the fewest number of commuters. The cost of living in SLC is also cheaper than Denver and San Diego. I'm not even all that senior in the domicile and have only done a few four-day trips over the past five years. I've used my overnight bag less than a half dozen times this year.

cactus1549

Thank you very much Turboprop for the info, that's super helpful.

Thinking this might be useful for other folks, I made a seniority table which includes the latest FO and CA upgrade times in months, and the cost of living of each city.

cactus1549

Wow, thanks a lot. You guys rock - I was hesitating about asking the question but I'm glad I did now instead of trying to figure it out in my head.

I'll be solo for the first 3-4 months in any case (we missed the beginning of the school year, so I figured I'd bring them over once I've completed my IOE), so maybe I'll try DEN initially or maybe even SLC and see how that goes.