I have some pilot friends who live in Vancouver (no state income tax in WA) and buy stuff in Oregon (no state sales tax, high sales taxes in WA). Probably not the cheapest areas to live in, but the farther out you get the better. I see a ton of Amflight planes on the ramp in BFI but I don't know where they come from. Send me a PM if you ever get up towards GEG.
Living in Vancouver will not get you relief from Oregon state taxes, if you earn money in Oregon you have to pay the tax regardless of residency. Vancouver has cheaper rental rates however.
I you chose to live in the Portland area I would recommend not living in Multnomah county, they have recently enacted a personal income tax which works out to 1.25% of your Oregon taxable income-on a Chieftan salary you need all the money you can get!
Flying conditions in Oregon mean lots of actual IFR experience during the winter and PDX is windy, nothing like freezing your bollocks off while preflighting.
I heard that an AMF C-402 actually hit a fish there. Yes I know it sounds strange but a pilot who was doing some rather low scud running over the water hit a fish that had jumped out of the water.
I was born in Portland, so I know the area pretty well, mostly I'm looking for what the runs are like, what time you get in, what time you get home, how much flying you do, how long the upgrades are to a 99, how many pilots are there, that kinda stuff.
First off, congrats on getting PDX, you'll love it there. The prop runs are just about split between bank and UPS. The bank runs leave around 8am and return around 8pm (a couple runs are plus or minus an hour or so). The UPS runs leave at 7, but you show at like 515 to preflight and sit at UPS for an hour waiting for freight. They get back around 5-6pm. Being the low man on the totem pole look forward to doing 413 which makes I think 4 stops each way with a layover in Ontario, OR. We're talking NDB approaches to minimums in the mountains, in the ice in the winter. Fun stuff. Block times are anywhere from as little as 2 for the short UPS runs to 5 or 6 for 413 when the wx's down. Most average about 3 or 4 hrs/day. Upgrade to the 99 is non-exsistent for the most part. The turbine guys there rarely leave. Maybe when the majors pick up again, but not anytime soon. Most prop guys wind up leaving to fly the 99 sooner (I just bolted to our Billings, MT base where turnover is high). Best of luck to you. People are great, maint is great, layovers suck (in terms of things to do). Anything else you want to know I'll be happy to help you out.
curious about routes and schedules out of oakland, upgrades from the lance assuming that is the starting point as advertised, and interview experiences.
What other equipment is in Portland besides the Navajo? How long does it tend to take to get to a turbine? What is the typical day like duty time, flight time, layover, ect.. prop and turbine?
Here's a link to a guy's career journal that has a lot of interesting stuff regarding his time as an AMF C-402 captain out of PDX from January to June of 2001:
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