Commuting
When Flying for Bar Harbor in the 80's we were required to live within 1.5 hours of our base...sucked, along with the $800 P/M salary..but we were safe (and yes, I remember Auburn/Lewiston), but by gosh, what a LEARNING experience...
My Captains had 2000+ hours and when we merged with PBA...oh boy...try to get this wealth of knowledge from a flight school...
All of this experience gained has made me a (in my opinion) a very safe, if not superior, pilot because I am not afraid to "stand down" if it "doesn't feel right"...
Tired we were, yes, stupid we were, not!!!
As an aside...I'm not saying the flt crew of Colgan was "stupid", but as I learned from some very experienced EAL Capt's (when I was still an F/E on the 727) just because the MEL says you're "legal", that doesn't mean it is safe...
Same with FAR's and crew rest, etc...