How far do you commute?

I wallow in the luxury of living ten minutes from work by car.

I bathe in the luxury of sweating for 30 minutes to get there by bicycle and 40 minutes home when I'm completely knackered.

Fuel is never ever going to get cheaper.

Just live next door to work and buy ear defenders.

Nime

I work close to Heathrow and live 35 ish miles away in hertfordshire. The drive is 35 mins at a good time and an hour and a half at the worst time thanks to the M25! My typical journey is 45 mins and i find that quite acceptable. Time to hear the news on the way in and enough time to unwind to some good tunes on the way back. The downside is that with 34 miles of the Journey on Motorway im held up at least once a week by some sort of accident.

Hawk

I did a 36 mile commute from South Hamshire to Basingstoke for about 9 years - it took from 40 minutes to an hour - on one occasion it took over 5 hours to get home.

It took me about 2 years to get used to the hours involved - leave home at 7am back home at 8pm, I lost Saturday mornings as I was to tired to do anything - life was just work. The only redeeming feature was long trips way which reduced the daily commute, but meant more work to catch up at the weekend

When my offce was moved to near Heathrow which would have involved a 90 to 120 minute commute each way,
technology came to the rescue and I was able to work from home (apart from the days I had to appear in Paris, Atlanta or Tucson or somewhere else)

So my advice would be to minimise commute time and maximise private life time. Commuting time is lost time.

Remember the old saying :-

No one has ever in their final words on their death bed " I wish I had spent more time at the office" - I would add that no one has said that they wished that had spent more time commuting.

Just my view

And congrats Jonathan on completing the pilot training course - I hope you have many happy landings

1.93 miles from work according to my bike computer. I'll never be able to drive, so have no choice!

No idea as Jonathan flies me between Tofino, BC to Vancouver,BC as and when needed

If only!

10 miles, 40 (+a lot often, - sometimes) minutes on tube or 40 minutes on bike into West End (half along canal, some thorugh parks).

There are some pleasent areas to the North West of Heathrow though not cheap (nothing in SE is), avoid any place that has good train links to London as costs will be higher. Only problem is that communting is not that straight forward as M25 is often required though the Chilterns are pretty nice countrysidewise, a bit more crowded then Downs. Of course further from Gatwick.

Matthew

Oh my, I thank what ever deity may or may not exist that I have gotten out of Watford.

I work about 11 miles from my home, I can do that journey at 8.15 am in 22 minutes.

My commute = 11 miles, 15 - 40 mins, depending on traffic queues in one or two places.

Your journey - It is really down to one factor -would you have to go on the M25? This so variable and stress inducing you have to think twice about doing it! I have the luxury of not having to go near a motorway.

DS

Buy the house you want, work where you want and adapt to the commute by either buying an iPod or a comfy motor.

Look at the time schedule and factor in your free time accordingly.

Love your job, your wife and your life.

Life is too short to regret - have a smile, always.

Mt Grumpy (but working in it !)

i,m in the RAF, live on an RAF base in N.Yorkshire and can see the hangar where i work from my bedroom window. What a sight first thing in the morning. Total commute= 2.5 minutes by pushbike. some of my colleagues however, commute from st Helens via rochdale.

quote:

Originally posted by long-time-dead:
Buy the house you want, work where you want and adapt to the commute by either buying an iPod or a comfy motor.

I'll second that. I work 73 Km away from home -one-way! You gotta find a good job to pay for that expensive Naim stuff with Canadian dollars!

But I love my car (an Acura TL) which has a great sound system (by the way, neither company will say it, but I suspect Naim's been been working on it!) and I enjoy the drive...

Way to go Claude !

Life with a smile - spend the 24 hours a day the way YOU want to !

Jonathan

congrats on completing your training! Good to hear from you.

My experience echoes that of many on this thread - some of my commuting in uk was 50 mins driving if on the road by 0625 (do I miss the A406/A40/M25/M4? - NO!)... plus my wife's continuation by train to Newbery... and the trip home could be 3 hours or more on a bad night (snow, accisdents, you remember the drill), and I too largely enjoy driving. We ended up feeling as though we had no life, and weekends were for recovering only. On reflection I should have bought a better car sooner.

I now have the comparative luxury of a ten minute drive, or 30 minutes walk, or (when the bus gods allow) 18-odd minutes by bus, commute. Without resorting to appartment living. The additional time I have in my life does seem to disappear, yet I have the pleaseure of spending it on family and friends, rather than with the chancellor of the exchequor or OPEC. Subsequently I drive a banger, no longer get my thrills from pedalling a car, and pedal the cycle more often.

It's all about a happy medium. Are you likely to move airports often, or relocate to other air-hubs internationally? In that case perhaps living for the moment in the form of housing within an hour's worst-case commute (which should be considerably shortened in your commuting time zones) of Heathrow, and enjoying the time you have with your family. All could change in a few years - you could find yourself working in Asia, USA, Pacific... what an adventure!

So what equipment are you likely to be flying? Best of luck in your job search.

regards

Me: 1.5 miles/5mins when the taxi is parked outside the day driver's house.

Zero when it's outside my house.

Tasha: 22 miles/between 40 and 90 minutes depending on traffic. West Brom has to be the WORST possible place to commute to from anywhere, given that it is situated close to the busiest stretch of motorway in Europe and by where the M6 and M5 join. All alternative routes are just a case of out of the frying pan and into a choice of different fires.

Think about it. Anywhere else you are either commuting in a smaller built-up area and/or there is better public transport enabling you to get there.

OK, let's look at the public transport options:

The nearest railway station is 2 miles/7 mins away. There are trains direct to Birmingham New Street or Stafford.

From New Street (one hour away) you can get a connecting train to Smethick Rolfe Street station. This takes approximately 20 minutes including the wait. At the other end there is a ten-minute walk along a dodgy route where muggings have been frequently reported.

You can also go via Stafford and Wolverhampton but the journey time is roughly the same and with two changes instead of just one the chance of some kind of delay can only increase.

Total journey time on a good day: 97 minutes.

This was the only option when the car went in for repair after a collision with a fox near Quinton...

The alternative would be to live closer and pay nearly double the rent for a shoebox-cum-shithole. (Please see my location below)

West Brom sucks. Fortunately a new job in Telford awaits...

Guys,

Some really good views here and you're right commuting as a pilot is easier than as an office worker due to the weird times of day pilots work and the fact that they typically work for only around 16-18 days per month and some of their trips are of several days duration.

The M25 could be avoided - we currently commute from Chertsey and do the journey exclusively on back roads so we could come in on the M3, A3 or M4 corridors and pretty much avoid the M25 I guess by using our existing back-route.

Many thanks to everyone for the congratulations on the pilot training! It's been a heck of a thing to do and there were times when it seemed impossibly difficult! Most of the top airlines (like BA etc) will only take applications from highly graded referred candidates via the leading training schools. I'm fortunate in that I managed a pretty good set of results so have been referred to an airline and am waiting to hear if they want to interview me. I'm debating what to do in the meantime ie maybe to try for a short term IT contract (or far less lucratively do a load more hi-fi writing!)

Rico - it's difficult to predict what airliner I would be flying but the Boeing 737 is a common starter aircraft, although some airlines would put you straight onto the Scarebus A320. I've done 40 hours Boeing 737 sim so far which was a highlight of the course - those simulators are fantastic fun to fly and very realistic indeed.

I'm still debating the commuter option but we will keep looking. The problem is that Chertsey has great facilities, is an easy commute and is reasonably attractive. However, it doesn't have enough peaceful countryside around it and seems to be filling up with people who are rude, aggressive and thoughtless - we're just too near the 'Staines massive' I'm afraid.

Part of tha eppeal of the Sussex area is that all the men are like David Niven and all the women are like Celia Johnson!! I think the only radio station you can get down there is 'the Home Service'!!

Jonathan

quote:

Originally posted by Jonathan Gorse:
...Part of tha appeal of the Sussex area is that all the men are like David Niven and all the women are like Celia Johnson!! I think the only radio station you can get down there is 'the Home Service'!!

We live currently in Limpsfield near Oxted, which is 10 minutes from J6 M25 and is in Surrey but on the borders with Sussex and Kent. We love it here.

We are very close to Gatwick and commutable to Heathrow. Stanstead is also within 1.25 hours, which is very handy with our frequent Ryannair trips to Cologne (although these days we tend to go Easyjet from Gatwick). Stanstead is, I understand, expanding rapidly.

I know exactly what you mean by your David Niven/Celia Johnson comment and I entirely concur. Where we are is very much like a 50s time-warp.

Congratulations on your training and good luck with the move.

Regards
Steve M

PS: It's not that we only get The Home Service, just that our crystals favour it.

quote:

it's difficult to predict what airliner I would be flying but the Boeing 737 is a common starter aircraft, although some airlines would put you straight onto the Scarebus A320.

Wow - 737 as a 'starter' aircraft. That is cool - must be a really neat prospect. Do let us know how you get on.

Hi Jonathan,

That wasn't you with the L plates flying a Dash from Belfast to Glasgow on Wednesday?

I used to live half way between Southampton and Portsmousth and my wife and I worked in central Southampton. The distance was only 12 miles, but could take up to 2 hours on a morning and a good hour and a half at night. This was due to sheer volume of traffic and vehicles either just off or on their way to the ferries. Spending so much time in the car was the final straw - hence out move, or more accurately, my wife's return and my emmigration to Northern Ireland.

We live a 33 mile commute from central Belfast where we work. At worst in the morning it can take a good hour, sometimes a little longer. Timing it right in the evening will see us home in around 35 minutes.

Jonathan,

Can I also add my belated congratulations to you for successfully completing your pilot training! I had aspirations to a similar career myself once, but fear I don't have what it takes to 'make the grade' as it were Quite apart from which the training costs are absolutely huge!!

Doesn't sound like you're too enamoured with Airbuses but I had a heli-flying instructor once who serves as captain aboard A321s and really enjoys them, and then I watched one of those airport progs the other day which featured an A330 and the pilot saying what great planes they were to fly and how incredible economically was their fuel-usage! And then of course there's the A380.......

Anyway good luck in your new career and do let us know where you begin your duties as a fully-fledged First Officer!

Commute-wise, well I live in Herts and work in Docklands so it's a daily nightmare for me, 1 hour and 45 minutes each way, and that's on a GOOD day! Thameslink rail/tube/DLR. Doesn't leave me much time to do much when I get home.

Pays the bills (and for the hifi!) though so I stick with it.....for now.

Cheers,

Jon

3.5 minute walk!

I live on the edge of Edinburgh and commute outwards. It's 10 miles door-to-door which takes about 15 minutes by car and is only slightly quicker using a motorbike (which should indicate how little traffic I encounter). How long it takes to cycle depends on whether I use the on-road or off-road route options, but 40 minutes on the road bike would be typical.

By public transport it doesn't appear to be do-able in less than about 80-90 minutes!

Traffic is a real bugger here. If I time my journey to work wrong I have to wait for the cows to walk down the lane for milking. Tends to be easy from there though!

Bruce

I suppose on the return journey it's a case of waiting till the cows come home ?


Fritz Von Hoot Hoot that's an Owl that is

JonR,

Interesting that you were considering a similar career move yourself and your commute sounds a tough one. The training costs are indeed huge (I've spent £64000 to date!) and the course is undeniably very demanding, largely due the ridiculous quantities of information you have to learn and the steepness of the learning curve on the flying side. I'm sure though you'd be able to get through it as most of us did just by sheer determination and slogging at it do don't let fear of the course deter you - leave that to your bank manager!

If you are at all interested then I would recommend a good read of the 'wannabes' forum at http://www.pprune.org/forums/ - there's a lot of good info there.

Actually no offence intended to Airbus - they build superb aeroplanes, 'Scarebus' is just their nickname in the trade! I think on balance most of us on my course had a leaning towards wanting to fly a Boeing because they're regarded as a bit more of a 'pilot's' aeroplane and there's definately something to be said for having a steel shaft between your legs rather than a sidestick!!!

Will keep y'all posted on my job hunt - if only so you can avoid flying on one of my early flights! I should have clarified that a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 would be a very nice first posting with a major airline, plenty of pilots start on smaller stuff like the the Dash 8 etc.

It's interesting but I was reviewing IT contracting options today as a stopgap and pondering the fact that rates for Project Management (my field) etc seem to be £350-£550 per day which is around 3x the starting salary for a pilot but I'd still rather fly - maybe I'm nuts!!

Many thanks to everyone for the good wishes,

Jonathan

Jonathan,

Thanks for the link and for your encouragement. Actually I've seen the pprune site before - it's got a whole load of nicknames for all sorts of aircraft! I'm 36 now so even if I could get a suitable loan my concern is it's too late for me, but who knows? I have heard of pilots starting out in their early 40s so maybe there is still a possibility....

Very sensible thinking re the contracting. After all, I'm sure the flying will be far more enjoyable and satisfying especially as you have worked so hard for it!!

Cheers,

Jon