NJ home basing

[b6hopeful]

So....let me ask this to the fine folks that work at NJA.

As a new hire, living a 6 hour drive from TEB....is it realistic to make that drive in the night before to get in position? Would a crash pad be required or would two nights in a hotel per month be a better option? I understand that on the reserve schedule there may be a lot of back and forth, but once I could hold 7-7 sched it seems like on paper it wouldn't be too bad.

Is anyone there in this situation and what are your thoughts on it? It seems to me I could suck it up doing that for however long it would take to get home based, and after that life would be swell working there.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

 

[wanttofly]

I used to commute over 500 miles. It works to just get a hotel the night before, after you have been here for about 6 months you should have enough points built up to never pay for the hotel. The airlines that I know of off the top of my head that will allow any 135 pilot to fly: Great Lakes, ATA, Spirit. I know there are others, just not sure off the top of my head. Mesa doesn't let you most of the time. I know people who haven't been able to get passed the nazi gate agent, and once when he did the Capt denied him. Like someone else said, trying to jumpseat under the current conditions probably would not be in your best intrest.

 

[ozpilot]

So....let me ask this to the fine folks that work at NJA.

As a new hire, living a 6 hour drive from TEB....is it realistic to make that drive in the night before to get in position?

I've been at NJA for 5 years and prior to the new contract, I had to commute 3 hours to get to my gateway. It sucked.

On my last day off I would try to get some sleep during the day and then I would usually leave home around 11 pm and get to my gateway around 2am. I would then sleep on a lazyboy (thanks Signature!) at the FBO for a couple of hours before showing for duty. Show times varied from Midnight throught 10pm, but most were between 5am and 8am. On occasion during the drive to the gateway I would have to pull off the road at o'dark thirty to take a 'power nap'. Like I said, it sucked.

On the other end of the tour, the company would often get me back to my gateway close to midnight. Then I had that lovely 3 hour drive again, often getting home in the early hours of my first day off.

So to answer your question, is a 6 hour drive the night before feasibly? Only if you plan to have a good nights sleep when you get there!

I'm fortunate in that my commute is now only 45 minutes, but I share the concern of newhires who may face the situation I did. So heres my suggestion:

If your commute is 3 hours or less, drive it - but plan on finding a place where you can at least some sleep before you show for duty. The company has to give you a show time prior to 7pm of your last day off, so you can plan your sleep pattern accordingly.

If your commute is 3 hours or more, make sure the 'total' package offered by Netjets is worth the quality of life and financial sacrifices you will need to make. As far as QOL is concerned expect to travel to work on your last day off and don't expect to get home until the early part of your first day off. Expect that your 7 and 7 could easily turn into and 8 and 6 ...

For the financial sacrifice, consider buying an airline ticket to your domicle. If your on the 7 and 7 and you start with 2 weeks vacation you will go to work about 24 times a year. If a return ticket to your domicle cost $200 then that is $4800 per year (which may be tax deductible?). That is a lot of money, but if Netjets is paying you more than $5k than your current position its worth it.

I like the new contract, but it is regressive in regard to 5 domicles for new hires. Like a lot of existing pilots at Netjets, I hope that market forces dictate that it goes away.

 

[gunfyter]

I jumpseated for 2 years and bought airline tickets for 4 yrs after that. Bought hotels for 6 yrs. $6000 to $8000 in commuting expenses largely offset by the perdeim I collected.

Also I used SWA and the rapid Rewards points I collected while commuting bought two round trips for a family of 4 for the two vacations each year.

Yes you could deduct commuting to/from the GATEWAYS as they were TEMPORARY duty since your domicile was CMH. Now that the five cities are DOmiciles (CMH, PBI,DAL, LAX and TEB)... you may not claim those as temporary duty any more.

My advise is to move to your Domicile as there is NO HOPE you will get an HBA in the next 5 yrs. You can live well outside of Dallas. All the other domiciles suck as they are outside of Texas.

Also consider working for CS. They have a San Antonio domicile. Best HS football and Baseball in the nation, not to mention best pro basketball.

 

[b6hopeful]

Thanks for the responses guys. Looks like if I'm fortunate enough to be hired there I'll be moving to a gateway for awhile. Oh and for the record Texas is all hat and no cattle.