Vader

Is commuting to northeast bases from MCO or DAB practical? At least for the first year. and how about Texas bases?

Thanks in advance,

BCDurbin

Possible, yes - Practical? Not really - plan on spending most of a day off getting to your base (or back home) unless you have a non-stop you can jump on. I fly with an FO that commutes from MIA - he does have one direct every day on Eagle that he can jump on - but after that it's through CLT.
IAH from FLA shouldn't be any less or more difficult.
Most schedules will get you at least 3 to 4 days off in a row.
Have Fun!
BCD

Window_Seat

Why commute to Colgan when everyone else is hiring? If you're willing to communte go to XJT or Skywest.

SharkyBN584

Commuting to/from Florida...well...it sucks. A lot. You and every other pilot, pilot's wife, pilots brother, pilot's next door neighbor that swung a buddy pass, pilots estranged daughter, pilots flight attendant girlfriend, etc. will be fighting for those seats. At least you can hit on the daughter and try and swing a letter of rec when the DNA test proves it's yours. You'll sign up for the jump seat three hours in advance and try and dissuade anyone with an ID badge from going near your gate. You'll start figuring out the term "Outstation Commuting" very quickly. After you spend your day off in ATL trying to get on DAL you'll understand. The trick is to figure out what cities you can get to MCO from that no one ever uses. Example - Tri Cities on Delta, BHM/BNA on Southwest, etc. etc. ATL and any other major hub should be avoided like it's the plague because the flights are oversold by 562 seats. The ones that actually do have seats available will have a Non-rev list longer than people signing up for free lap dances to the live version of "Free Bird", and they all have Priority Dates from the 1920's which vastly outweigh your 2007 date of hire. The nice thing is you get to compare the service between DAL, US Air, Southwest, Airtran, Air Jamacia, Norwegian Air, Florida Coastal, and Frontier because you'll use all of them on one commute. Hell, you might find yourself trying to swing a ride from a Commercial Pilot Applicant at some FBO just for the hell of it. God only knows...End Rant.

As far as doing it on Colgan...I saw my buddy that did it about 6 times in 8 months when he was commuting to SYR. He eventually quit (although I think it was for reasons beyond just the commute).

bintynogin

Wow. From jumpseating to hitting up the daughter. Creative. LOL. You missed out being on the Maury show for that DNA test.

SharkyBN584

You'd never make it. You'd get bumped on the flight from MCO to Nepal to try and connect to LAX.

avi8tor4life

what's it like to jumpseat international? is that even possible?

SharkyBN584

If it's an American carrier I believe so...but you'd miss out on the free booze. You'd be better off non-reving.

Vader

Think I should be instructing a little longer... or should I?
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Instruct for about 3 more months and be able to apply to majority of the Regionals OR Start applying today to the ones that I qualify for and suck it up!??? (This could be a new thread)

STR8NLVL

As sharky pointed out, commuting from FL is very difficult. The problem is, as he alluded to, that all summer, during spring break, and over the holidays, which makes for most of the year, you'll be competing for empty seats with everyone with non-rev priviledges. However, the one ace you have up your sleeve is CASS and the cockpit jumpseat. From what I hear, though, in FL you'll still have competition.

There are at least two pilots here at Colgan based in IAH that I know fly in and out of MCO and DAB. They both complain that at times its a pain, but they both also always make it to work. I'd recommend making IAH your top pick because there are 7 or 8 flights a day on CO that will get you here direct.

Good luck,
Str8