Commuting to Reserve

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Wait, are you not going to be able to hold a line? Aren’t you a pretty senior FO at JFK(for now).

No way. I think system wide I have about 20-25 CAs below me, I'm still pretty much deep reserve for the foreseeable future. On the VX side the most junior CA went to Aug 2012 hire so 6 yrs to the dot. I was hired early 2012.

I've commuted to reserve a few months. It really depends on your contract and the flights in between home and your base city.

If I had short call, what I'd consider a 2-hour call-out, I'd be in DTW (@Richman be like "LOL, about the myriad interpretations of that when it comes to 747 pilots), but if I had long call, 12 hour call-out,I was on my fat duff at home in PHX. But I had a bunch of backup plans in place between redeyes and other altenatives if I got called at 1800 eastern for an 0600 eastern show. But generally speaking at my airline and in my base and category, it seems that most of the next day assignments got made around 11-ish eastern. So basically I'd be having my ColonClear-brand oatmeal and discover I was flying the next day.

You've been commuting 20 yrs now out of PHX and for that you should get an airline medal of bravery. Some people are built well for that and go with the flow. It's not like I worry about making a flight commuting in, but the overall stresses of going to/from is a drag. For me EWR-LAX will have lots of UA frequency and even Fedex does it 2x daily nonstop. Anyway I don't think I'm built as a long term commuter myself.

 

[derg]

Not quite 20 years. PHX to anywhere is flipping amazing compared to PHX-SLC (last year on the mad dog) or MCO-ATL (first year)

Live where you want for the right reasons and everything else will work out.

But if you're living in rural Indiana because spouse can't leave her high school clique behind:

 

[Ian_J]

Not quite 20 years. PHX to anywhere is flipping amazing compared to PHX-SLC (last year on the mad dog) or MCO-ATL (first year)

Live where you want for the right reasons and everything else will work out.

But if you're living in rural Indiana because spouse can't leave her high school clique behind:

View attachment 43928

Out of curiosity, if you had to pick and move anywhere in the U.S., besides PHX, where would you go?

(K and I are pondering this question ourselves.)

 

[derg]

Out of curiosity, if you had to pick and move anywhere in the U.S., besides PHX, where would you go?

(K and I are pondering this question ourselves.)

Central coast of California without a doubt.

But I really dig North Scottsdale. (Shut up @MikeD, I'll expose your neighborhood! )

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Not quite 20 years. PHX to anywhere is flipping amazing compared to PHX-SLC (last year on the mad dog) or MCO-ATL (first year)

Live where you want for the right reasons and everything else will work out.

But if you're living in rural Indiana because spouse can't leave her high school clique behind:

View attachment 43928

But isn't this why people commute? I thought a "happy wife" was a huge reason. Happy wife could be for her job or family, and I guess maybe friends? I mean, if you are commuting out of FWA or EVV but the wife is okay with the extra time away and she is happy with your home life with how much you are home on commuting to a schedule elsewhere, then why move? As compared to say packing her up and taking her to [insert some base] where she feels disconnected, no life, but you're home more often.

I guess it still boils down to what the wife really wants and will be happy with. I can see it playing out successfully (and unsuccessfully) both ways. That said, friends you can try and make when you move somewhere else. You can't replicate family and relatives.

 

[Ian_J]

But isn't this why people commute? I thought a "happy wife" was a huge reason. Happy wife could be for her job or family, and I guess maybe friends? I mean, if you are commuting out of FWA or EVV but the wife is okay with the extra time away and she is happy with your home life with how much you are home on commuting to a schedule elsewhere, then why move? As compared to say packing her up and taking her to [insert some base] where she feels disconnected, no life, but you're home more often.

I guess it still boils down to what the wife really wants and will be happy with. I can see it playing out successfully (and unsuccessfully) both ways. That said, friends you can try and make when you move somewhere else. You can't replicate family and relatives.

Beware the wife who must be near family.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Beware the wife who must be near family.

From what I've seen at my pre-merger airline that is 80-85% commuters, I would still say "it depends." I know many a pilots that had their first kid and it's new to them, or have two/three very young kids, and they packed up and moved to the wife's family area in order to get help when the pilot himself is gone on trips. In most these cases, their individual circumstances improved and they were happier.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 but I moved to the Bay Area Sept 2012 because my first kid was coming and I didn't want to commute to reserve and the wife was on board that idea. He was born and with the exception of the mother in law that helped for about 1.5 months, we were on our own with no support network, no relatives, no family nearby in SFO. When the NYC based opened Dec 2013, I took it and we moved after just 15 months in the Bay Area. Had I known an east coast base was going to open that quickly, I would have commuted another 15 months and let the wife stay where we were close to family and get the nice/easy help available.

 

[Ian_J]

From what I've seen at my pre-merger airline that is 80-85% commuters, I would still say "it depends." I know many a pilots that had their first kid and it's new to them, or have two/three very young kids, and they packed up and moved to the wife's family area in order to get help when the pilot himself is gone on trips. In most these cases, their individual circumstances improved and they were happier.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 but I moved to the Bay Area Sept 2012 because my first kid was coming and I didn't want to commute to reserve and the wife was on board that idea. He was born and with the exception of the mother in law that helped for about 1.5 months, we were on our own with no support network, no relatives, no family nearby in SFO. When the NYC based opened Dec 2013, I took it and we moved after just 15 months in the Bay Area. Had I known an east coast base was going to open that quickly, I would have commuted another 15 months and let the wife stay where we were close to family and get the nice/easy help available.

Oh god, totally understand. I was just being pithy and it wasn’t a judgement on you.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

Oh god, totally understand. I was just being pithy and it wasn’t a judgement on you.

No worries. Even today with the base closure I'm still in a position that I can move if I have to. Unfortunately the same can't be said for a huge portion of the guys I fly with. Most of them are upper 40s to 50s and well established with wives in their private jobs, kid in high school, basically the worse time one could face when it comes to moving.

 

[SeanD]

Be a rebel and just commute on a duty day. No hotel or crash pad costs and it really gets the adrenaline going.

 

[Jordan93]

I have a buddy doing this with Envoy on 145. 5 days of sitting around, no flying. Back home to Texas for 2 days just to do it all over again. One turn to DTW in a month of that.

Yep. Pretty much how it is at 9E. Either no flying for the whole stretch of reserve or they’ll fly one day and it’s a deadhead somewhere to operate one leg back to base.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Central coast of California without a doubt.

But I really dig North Scottsdale. (Shut up @MikeD, I'll expose your neighborhood! )

I’m glad I was never based in San Luis, but I would like to be there someday.

 

[deadstick]

Still don't know why y'all aren't moving to Ann Arbor in droves and bidding DTW captain.

Gunshots ranged out like a bell
I grabbed my nine, all I heard were shells
Fallin' on the concrete real fast
Jumped in my car, slammed on the gas
Bumper to bumper the avenue's packed
I'm tryin' to get away before the jackers jack
Police on the scene
You know what I mean...

Detroit....Miami....same thing except one has snow and the other hurricanes.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

Yeah. Me being gone a certain amount of time on business travel is part of the reason my marriage works.

Are you finally putting in apps at 121 shops?

 

[jtrain609]

Gunshots ranged out like a bell
I grabbed my nine, all I heard were shells
Fallin' on the concrete real fast
Jumped in my car, slammed on the gas
Bumper to bumper the avenue's packed
I'm tryin' to get away before the jackers jack
Police on the scene
You know what I mean...

Detroit....Miami....same thing except one has snow and the other hurricanes.

DTW is in Romulus, which is in the middle of nowhere.

Ann Arbor is 20 minutes east of DTW, and a solid 40 minutes away from Detroit.

 

[killbilly]

Are you finally putting in apps at 121 shops?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! (wheeze, choke......) HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

No sir. I'm still working on completing my CFI, which I hope will be soon. I'm only sitting at a little over 400TT.

I asked the question in the original post because it came up in conversation with my wife and I didn't know the answers.

I'm a long, long away from having to act on the information from the question (notice I didn't ask about what bases were where? That would be way silly at this point) and it may not happen for me but I'm driving as hard as I can toward CFI, then -II and a CMEL. Along the way, the right path will reveal itself. I just want to be a good instructor right now.

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

I’m currently commuting to reserve from DFW to NYC. $265/mo for top bunk in a crappy crashpad. I spend about $40/mo in public transportation.

Sitting reserve in a crashpad is depressing.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

DTW is in Romulus, which is in the middle of nowhere.

Ann Arbor is 20 minutes east of DTW, and a solid 40 minutes away from Detroit.

You mean 20 minutes west of DTW.

 

[jtrain609]

You mean 20 minutes west of DTW.

Yeah sorry, it was early.

 

[derg]

I’m glad I was never based in San Luis, but I would like to be there someday.

Me too.


We'll meet at Einsteins every morning at 8:30, sharp, before my string of doctors appointments begin for the day!