Sounds great! Easy! Yea...no...that's not the entire story. SC is for 14hours and assigned at all times in the day. 1400 SC is a 0400 release. Kind of hard to fit in movies and a walk in the part at midnight. You'll need a hotel or crash pad for many of your SC assignments.
Good luck!

 

Thanks to all for the great advice and recommendations. For the one suggestion to look a little further south, the issue is there's really not much at all as you move south of Albany until you get to NYC suburbs (northern Westchester/Putnam). Then home prices and taxes - holy cow! But we are looking at places on the south side of the Albany area to shave off a few minutes. It looks like it might work out well. And hopefully the reserve part won't be for that long. Lastly, I do have some family options within about an hours' drive so hopefully won't need a hotel/crash pad that often.

Thanks again for all the advice and first hand experience! Good to know about the unreliable ALB-EWR flight schedule as well.

Jim

 

Stick with the driving. On the 73 you will have a line in less than 6 months at the current rate. Most of the time on reserve you will be long call and a 2.5 hour drive is a non issue. As far as short call you have several things going for you. NYC pilots have a special consideration for traffic and are given some leeway for getting to work in a short amount of time. Don't make a habit of being late though, especially on probation. If your bag is packed and you are basically ready to walk out the door on SC I think you will be fine sitting at home. 90% of the trips I get assigned off short call I get more than 2.5 hours notice. I would say 3-4 hours notice is typical. Constantly keep an eye on your schedule on CCS when on SC and you will almost always know you are going to work before 2.5 hours out.
Good luck and welcome!

 

Time to spare go by air, time for duress try express!

 

Pick up a used TDI (Jetta, Passat, etc.) for the drive. You'll get MPG in the 40s and push 700 miles per tank.

 

Great news and good to know. If all works - and I get an EWR 737 - and we make the move I'll still plan on prepositioning myself a bit closer while on probation. But hopefully like you say it will be short lived. Really great to hear how positive everyone says about this type of commute. It's helping with the decision process!

 

Yeah, the Grand Cherokee Overland w/ a Hemi V-8 is comfortable but will get expensive fast!

 

The EWR to ALB commute is done on the Dash 8 Q200 and Q300. The Q200 is almost always weight restricted and the jumpseat is rarely usable because of the weight restriction. I would highly suggest planning to drive. Check out eastern Pennsylvania (Bucks County), lots of beautiful towns and just over an hour drive to EWR. Lower taxes than NY as well.

 

We've all done it. The point is, find something to do or whatever works for you.

 

I'm afraid you're seriously underestimating the driving time between EWR and Albany. I'm in Albany right now, and it took me two hours from Harriman NY! It's an additional hour from EWR to Harriman with good traffic flow, which is hardly the situation in summer. I think you're looking at a 3.5-4.0 hour commute.