Places To Live MCO/FLL
 

Wife and I are giving some serious thought to the idea of moving to one of our bases, with her and I both leaning more towards Florida. Obviously this leaves us with two bases, MCO and FLL, but my question for those that live there is locations/towns/areas that are popular among our pilots.

Currently an FO, so if you have options that change based on income, lets keep that in mind, however I would love to also hear about spots that a slightly higher CA pay scale might afford. Our kids are older and out of the house now, so we have that going for us.

I dont mind a 2 hour drive, so that is kind of my limit in terms of distance from base. I have heard the west coast area like Tampa Bay/Sarasota are doable, but would also like some ideas on the east coast.

Any help or ideas, personal experience etc would be appreciated.

Thanks

I live in Treasure Coast area. It is fairly affordable even though the house prices are through the roof.

45min drive to PBI, 1:20 to FLL and about 1:30 to MCO.

Hard to give advise! Florida is so versatile. The question to be asked would be what do y’all like to do? Have kids? Need good public schools? Into water sports? To many variables and or crowds you may want to be around and or avoid.


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Won't go wrong in Florida... Born and raised... MCO based twice... 1+30 drive from MCO gives you ALL sorts of options... Easy drive to east coast Cape Canaveral/ Cocoa Beach... South to the country side... Good hunting and fishing... No state income tax... Fair priced housing... Single free standing home or Condo what ever fits... Being you say the kids are grown makes it easy not having to worry about schools... MCO you won't go wrong... Just my 10 yen...

Kam-pai

I’m not spirit (yet) but am hoping to get hired with MCO. I live in the Viera area over by Cocoa/Melbourne. It’s a great area but house prices are really on the rise. I have about a 40 minute drive to the airport. Lots to do around here, I just need to get a golf cart to really fit in with everyone

Also where are you coming from and what are you used to and like about it.

Places To Live MCO/FLL
 

A lot of pilots live in the Merritt island, cocoa beach, Melbourne area. I’ve heard Mt. Dora is also nice and I’m sure there are plenty of areas in the city of Orlando that are decent. Just depends on what you want. Do you want the nice big new home or do you want to live near the beach? Would you prefer something small and walkable to restaurants and bars, maybe a fixer upper? How much money do you want to spend? Too many variables to answer this.

Not sure about SoFlo.

There are a couple places that are nice in SFL. Boca Jupiter off the top of my head. Everywhere else you either want to be a young partier or moving in from Latin America. Couple places on the SW coast fit the 2hr drive criteria to FLL.

Thank you for all the great replies, we will start checking them out. If it helps, we like the idea of being able to walk to restaurants, stores etc but are not married to that idea. Would also eventually like to have a house that has access to the intracoastal, but again, not a deal breaker.

Regardless, much appreciative for all the info and should be a great starting point for us to start looking.

How are the schools in the Melbourne, cocoa, vero beach area? Is there anywhere on the space/ treasure coast better to look at? The mrs and I are planning a move to base in a couple years and will have kids that will need a good elementary- high school.

There are some other threads on this:

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/f...aces-live.html

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/j...o-suburbs.html

I’ve been told the Merritt Island schools are really good.

Schools beach side are pretty good. Mainland side not so much

Unfortunately, airline pilots are mostly priced out of saltwater waterfront now in most of the state. That’s sad isn’t it? $1m is about the price of entry for saltwater now and that doesn’t buy much.

I live over in the Clearwater part of Florida. Its about a 2 HR drive to the lot in MCO on a normal day, 1;30 mins at 4 in the AM, and about 2.5-3 Hrs during bad traffic or just every time that its not dark out. I4 is evil and it may deter you from living over in Tampa and driving into MCO if you have other options. I do the drive about once a week and hate it. Its nice having the car at the lot at the end of the trip, but I end up commuting out of TPA to our other bases often and sometimes I enjoy the downtime and not having to fight through traffic. YMMV.

If you’re going to do the west coast, Naples is a truly incredible community. Older population, super safe, entirely very wealthy, very expensive and manicured, 70 min drive to FLL across the Everglades, minimal traffic

I would NOT commute from the Tampa area to MCO. Interstate-4 is the most infuriating strip of pavement on plant earth and it’s easily a 3+ hour drive with traffic on I-4, and that’s if you can escape the Tampa traffic. I-4 ALWAYS has heavy traffic

I’d recommend Orlando. Communities like Windermere, Horizon West, Avalon, and Winter Park are hard to beat, all within 30 min of MCO. Money goes farther here than in south FL, also.


southeast Florida is it’s own animal entirely, I’ve lived all over the state except there. I like to think of it as a hot-and-humid version of SoCal, not really a fan myself but a lot of people love it

i just moved here, but Viera high school is rated really well, and everyone around Melbourne/Rockledge rave about it. I think the middle schools around Viera are better than those on meritt island and Rockledge.

Awesome thanks all for the school information, glad to hear there’s some good options in the area!

I've lived in both the MCO and FLL metro areas, and they are completely different besides the fact that both have horrible traffic with Orlando being slightly worse. I can help with any specific questions you may have but the general consensus from the pilot group is to save your money and live outside of the cities in the areas already mentioned in this thread.

Great answers all around, both this thread and the thread that was linked. I really appreciate all the help and will be reaching out to a couple of you in PM's. Many thanks.

Kids are gone? Well then eff it, why not give South Beach a look see? Great restaurants, great entertainment, not that much more expensive once you’re go in a few blocks, everything is within walking distance, outside of Ybor City up in Tampa it’s about the only “neighborhood feel” I’ve had that reminded me of Chicago.

and with the possibility of a Miami base opening up, not a long drive at all.

I never would have thunk this five years ago, but the more time I spend in SoBe the more I wish my kids were already college bound.

I have heard lots of people saying to stay away from South Florida. I will have to check it out for a day or two and see how it feels. Thank you for the advice.

born and raised in mia, living in orlando since 2002, miami is way over priced, the people are rude and the traffic is a nightmare. if you stay off i4 the traffic in orlando is not even in the ball park of south florida. if you want beachy living there are plenty of options within a 90min drive of mco.

Can anyone chime in that lives the Port Orange area?

I lived in Port Orange for almost 3 years and just moved to Daytona Beach proper last year. Port Orange is a nice town with really good convinces nearby if you live in the fly-in community or like us, around that immediate area. The biggest thing is Port Orange is just now getting out of price for the average man like a lowly regional pilot such as myself, but should be no problem on major pay. We moved to Daytona because of this as we had to upgrade the size of our home for more little ones. The biggest downside is the traffic. When we moved there, the whole county was 60,0000 people. In just a few years we have grown to 72,0000 O_O.
Daytona is a little cheaper and yes a little rougher. That being said just stay away from Holly Hill and you'll be fine. It is going through a revitalization effort right now and is getting better at a snails pace.
In short, happy little metropolitanish town with conveniences and better everything, EXCEPT for traffic and col, chose Port Orange.
Don't rule out Daytona Beach though. Look up Grande Champion and LPGA for nice safe communities in Daytona Beach if you want way less traffic and a little more affordable mortgage.
Also, coming from Daytona, once you cross to the beach side, the further south you go the better it gets, with Ponce Inlet being the best.

Two or three years ago I would have absolutely agreed with you, but uhh...have you been to sobe since the pandemic hit? It is hood rat central down there right now. I made the mistake of going for dinner recently for the first time in three years (south of 15th area) and the place is unrecognizable compared to what it used to be. Again super rough crowd and everywhere reeked of weed.

The more trendy tourist and local crowd has largely vacated sobe and moved into proper Miami in places like Wynwood and Brickell, which are both absolutely lit by the way. Also Las Olas up in Lauderdale, while having a strong white yuppie vibe, is quite nice and exponentially more clean/safe compared to sobe.

If you are okay with the luxury condo/apt scene instead of a single family home, and want safe walkability to restaurants/bars/shops, then Brickell and Las Olas just can't be beat IMO. There isn't really anywhere else in the state of Florida that will provide that for you, except maybe Tampa or West Palm.

Yes because it is essentially a tropical New York City.


It is my dream one day to live at the Spruce Creek fly-in community:

Spruce Creek Fly-in Airpark Information, Real Estate, FAQ's Spruce Creek Airport

If you like the master plan Truman show type check out Lakewood Ranch on the Northeast side of Sarasota or Nocotee which is between Jax and St Augustine.

Lakewood ranch? enjoy the i4 hell.....references posts above for the 4 hour commute from Bradenton.

done the sarasota-orlando drive more times than i care to remember, its a terrible drive.parts of i75 and i4 are parking lots. im in east orlando now and looking at moving to cocoa/merrit/viera in the next 12-18 months.

West Palm Beach is paradise…. Couldn’t dream of living anywhere else.

Used to be in Gardens. We liked it but I don't miss it much.

I was looking at Spruce Creek...the prices have gone nuts in the last year though.

Sadly that's the case everywhere, but yes, it is even worse in Florida.

If you don't have kids living with you, I'd do a high rise condo on the beach.

I’d bet many special assessments coming in the next year as HOAs do inspections and find massive repairs to make their buildings “safe”

lived in Port Orange for a few years. Absolutely loved it. Reasonably priced but I wouldn’t call it a crown jewel either. Don’t underestimate how miserable driving down I-4 will become

I just bought a house in Port Orange. I never drive I-4, always 95 to 528, super easy commute, about an hour and 10 minutes.Great schools, I’m in a cheaper neighborhood next to the Fly In. Love it.

MCO out of training?
 

About long does it take for a new hire to get MCO out of training? And then how long before they might hold a line?

Last I heard the most junior MCO pilot is #2515. Most Junior FLL is 2607. The list as of now is around 2670 total pilots. I imagine not long at all the way the hiring has picked up. Now, holding a Line not sure about that. Id say maybe a few bids after IOE you can prob get MCO