I am considering switching careers to flying, but I am fairly tied to living where I live right now which is around 1.5hr to PDX via car. But I am only 20 or so minutes from EUG.
If I were to start with Horizon, they service Eugene. Would it be worth it to fly from there to PDX? Or at a 1.5hr drive is it better to just deal with the drive? (I kind of despise driving but don’t mind longer trips were I can read a book)
I guess the question is how long of a drive would it take to get you to switch to commuting via flying?
I’ve never commuted (nor will I) so I’m not the authority BUT I do know many many pilots who do and the answer is both and maybe? Commuting for an airline is not like commuting to the office where you need to be there Mon-Fri 9-5. They’ll be days when you have the first flight of the day and there’s no earlier flight to get you there. Then it’s a choice of driving that morning or flying in the night before. Even if it’s not the first flight how many EUG-PDX flights are there a day? What happens when the weather craps out or the flight cancels for a mechanical? Commuting is a choice and it’s up to YOU to get to work on time. I suspect if you ever get to the point where this is a reality (after actually learning to fly) you’ll end up doing both.
If you were to be hired by Horizon, I doubt you’ll be in PDX in the beginning. PDX is a very senior base. New hires typically start in MFR or BOI if they fly the Q400, and SEA if they fly the ERJ. In that case, you’d most definitely be flying to get to those bases.