How long does it take you to get from work?

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

How long does it take you from BRAKES ON to arriving home in your driveway if its not the middle of the night?

-----------

Me 84 minutes. Its 54 miles. I find this an acceptable distance because:


a) The road is fast and uncongested.

b) I can go from BRAKES ON to my car in 14 minutes usually.


Low cost short haul ops so about 420 sectors a year.


Cheers,

WWW

[Nopax,thanx]

You fly from BHX then, WWW? I don't fly, but STN to home is 42 miles up the M11/A14, takes 50 mins on a good day.

On a bad day, I get post delivered to the car.......:D

[niknak]

As an atco, I suppose my situation is slightly different as I'm always handing over to someone else rather than closing up an aeroplane.
However the following procedure is relatively universal in the trade:

1) Approaching handover time, regularly scan the car park approach road for the oncoming watch.
2) Double check the availability of other airport staff for a drinking rendevous, (this having previously been set up during the watch via the Chinese Whisper method).
3) Ensure that the gate is opened remotely to avoid delays in oncoming staff fumbling with their swipe cards.
4) With due regard to the current traffic situation, sign the watch log in anticipation of nothing occuring between the next watch arriving in the car park and them getting upstairs.
5) Adopt the "mid stairway" handover method, (a well practised method perfected over many years).
6) Leap into car:-
6a) Time to pub - 15 mins.
6b) Time to home - 25 mins.

Both 6a and 6b are a hassle free, uncongested journey as is the return leg of 6b.:D :D

[Gin Slinger]

WWW: Fast and uncongested? 54 miles in 84 minutes? Surely you mean 84 miles in 54 minutes?

[Big Tudor]

Niknak

Ah, nice to see number 4 is still in operation. Although how many times have the words "Pan" or "Mayday" been heard just as you are finishing signing the log. Oh the wonders of Tippex! :D

Back to the topic in question. 43 miles and takes 45mins on a good day. However, if GMP and the DoT have decided it's their day for inspecting tax discs, HGV's brakes, white van mans tool box, young attractive blondes with short skirts, etc, then it can take up to 1hr 30mins.

[VFE]

Nopax,thanx,

Sounds like you live in Huntingdon. Do you think it would be possible to live in Peterborough and still be based at STN on short haul ops or is it really down to what the specific airline say at the end of the day? M11, A14, A1.

Thanks,

VFE.

[Nopax,thanx]

Very close to Huntingdon....A1 is good these days, now it's a four-laner; biggest problem is the A14, between 0730 and 0900 it's a car park between Huntingdon and Cambridge.

M11's a bit of a pig at STN until the new flyover gets finished, but I reckon in the long term Peterborough's a reasonable proposition, as long as you don't mind getting through a few cars..I've been at STN since 1988;

88-90 Cortina 1.6 (blew up the engine)
90-91 Cavalier Diesel (got T-boned and written off)
91-96 another Cav (wrote it off on an LHR trip)
96-00 Peugeot 405 Diesel (traded it in for......)
00-02 another one but Turbo'd (crashed that too, courtesy of a French truck just North of STN, but got it repaired)
02 406 Turbodiesel (haven't broke it yet!)

Total mileage about 500,000 in commuting!

Don't see why the airline would mind as long as you arrive on time for your planning!!

[VFE]

Thanks for the quick reply nopax,thanx!

Would be my dream job to fly out of STN with GO-FLY and still be able to live in da Boro'!

Best of luck with your future cars mate! ;)

VFE.

[OzExpat]

Me 4 minutes. Its 0.54 miles. I find this an acceptable distance because:

a) The road is slow and dangerously potholed.

b) I can go from BRAKES ON to my car in 20 minutes usually. The extra time here is because I usually have to pull a B350 out of the hangar to put the 200 away, then put the 350 back in there.

I'm not sure where the rest of the original post is going but the longest sector I do is around 2 hours. Shortest to date, in the current job, is about 25 minutes - enough time to get up to A150, get over some pretty big hills and come down again, about 75NM away.

Aside from the point-to-point stuff, most of my operations are within 100 feet vertically and horizontally of various lumps of terrain. And I can be in that situation for anything up to 2 hours at a time.

Still, I suppose someone has to do it!

[Roger de Rofton]

When I used to work out of STN, I'd come down the A11 and leave at Stump Cross then use the old A11 route through Newport etc to avoid the M11 and the perennial gridlock when the lights failed with monotonous regularity on the A120 flyover/M11 STN exit. Saved loadsa time and usually about 5 mins quicker anyway as I wasn't stuck behind lorries, one doing 35mph and one overtaking at 35.1mph for about 10 miles!!!!!!

RdR:)

[Nopax,thanx]

We've been doing that just lately, Rog; the roadworks have been adding 15-20 mins into STN, so the extra 10 mins of the old Newport Road gives a net saving - good fun road to drive too, as long as you don't get behind the school bus........

as to the HGV's, I had me best (or worst) one yet last week - it took one SEVEN MILES to overtake another........he learnt a few new hand signals from the rest of us....;)

Thanks for the message, VFE - it was averaging one write-off every five years, so I think I'm alright for a while.....going backwards at 70 mph is a scary experience!

[fireflybob]

Well the straight answer to the question is I work from home so I don't have to commute anywhere!

However my record when I was flying from EMA was Brakes On to Home in 30 minutes, on a bad day it might be 40 minutes.

When I was flying from MAN it was a different story - 71 miles and didn't I get to know that route well!! In the middle of the night 1 hour 15 minutes was possible but it could be over 2 hours given the rush hour. I did this for three years and vowed never ever again to commute such long distances to work as a) it's very expensive b) fatiguing and c) stressful.

I find it quite horrifying when I hear how long some crew members spend commuting to and from work. Yes it all depends whether you are long short or short haul etc. but given the fact that the traffic seems to get worse everyday and the lunatic driving which one seems to witness on a regular basis it's not a recipe for longevity.

[machone]

me 60 miles 50 mins on good day 95 mins on bad day. just enogh to keep current.

[SuperRanger]

00:00 Brakes ON
00:25 ODC
00:40 Crew Coach to Hub
01:25 Car Park
02:00 Home

[Pandora]

4 miles from LHR as the crow flies, and it can take me anywhere between 30 mins brakes on to home to 2 hrs. 26 sets of traffic lights between home and LHR don't help,neither does rush hour (which seems to last for so much longer on the A4), and not even the drastic measure of selling the beautiful big scary car I had to buy a motorbike. So I have come to the conclusion I can sell my house, move to somewhere cheaper, still be within a guaranteed 2hrs drive and move away from the hellhole that is just outside of Southall. In fact, anywhere outside of London. This is all a bit more possible now my name is on the fleet transfer list with the magic numbers which denote a training course for something bigger with fewer reports per month. :D

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

SuperRanger - it takes you 1hr 25min to go from Brakes on to your car?!?

One thing I love about flying from BRS rather than STN is the ability to go brakes on, pick up case, walk down airstairs, stroll accross the ramp, amble to the crew room and find my car just outside the front door all in 14 minutes.

Are you longhaul and at which airport?

Cheers

WWW

[Mooney]

Brakes on to car park- 15 mins. Home in 25. STN- Home 12 mins. Never any traffic to make it more than 13!

After a long time commuting 2 hours to work- never again

[Fil]

Whoa Pandora, that is almost as long as I need.

45 miles to LHR from a Northerly direction of which only 1- 1.5 miles is not at least a dual cow-which-weigh

leaving
before 0600...40-45 mins
0630 -0700....1hr -1:15
0700-0830.....1:45 - 2:15
0830-0915.....1:15-1:30
0915-1600....55 mins
1600-1800...1:10
1800-onwards...45 mins

On the return, so long as I don't leave between 3pm and 7pm it generally takes 1hr to 1:10.

only 3 (three) sets of traffic lights

no speed cameras (that I know of) except for the variable speed limit part of the M25.

Cheaper house prices and my other half only need to drive 15 mins to work.

But LHR being LHR I usually allow 30 mins from brakes on to driving out of the car park (includes usual 5 mins of 'where did I park the damn car')

[JB007]

Up until the beginning of this year I seem to have spent my entire airline career somewhere on a motorway. Spent the good part of 2 years commuting from Sussex to STN....M25/M11 - a bloody nightmare!!!

Then you wake up one morning and think "sod this".....now I have a 15 minute drive to LGW through delightful Sussex countryside....and a massive increase in quality of life....

[SuperRanger]

WWW,

yup... you heard right! i operate from KUL but park my car at SZB, which was where everything was until a few years ago, sigh! the company provides a coach service btn KUL & SZB, a good 45 mins ride (if they don't stop to refuel!!!).

one option would be to drive directly but then there will be parking, mileage & toll to consider (though not much as I'm on longhaul and operates bout 4 flights a month); the other would be to move out of KL but the missus wouldn't be too happy ;(

SR

ps: i'd really loved my short stint (7 months) in Yangon, Myanmar. Brakes on to hotel, 10 mins (not to mention being chauffeur-driven!!!)

[Ct.Yankee]

1July02
Blocks in JFK 1125lcl, thru Immigration, Customs and pick up bags 1150, out of parking lot 1210 and in driveway at 1330lcl.

[roger]

0700,1400.2200 (take your pick)
blah,blah,blah...That ones not sure what it's doing, locked it on a radar heading. No weather, nothing special to tell you, good luck, see you tomorrow.
(i.e.)2201. more blah blah blah
2202 swipe out
2203 speed home (hope the cops are not out)
2210 home sipping wine
2212 wife goes to bed
2213 playboy channel goes on.........happy days

roger ;)

[Firestorm]

From on chocks to in house about 30 minutes for 10 miles. The longest part of the operation is the walk from the crew room in the terminal to the carpark (about 10 minutes). It's good enough for me. ;)

[flapsforty]

6 hours.
On a good day.


Yes. Mad as a hatter, thank you. :D

[COWPAT]

My record from brakes on to a G&T in my hand at home is 23 minutes. That included a 5 minute wait for my suitcase and another 5 minute walk to the car. Live less than 2 km from airport.

Record from brakes on to having a beer ... about 5 seconds!

[McD]

Yes, Flaps, you and I are TRUE commuters (although thankfully my commute time/distance has been lowered considerably since our recent move).

For me the average brakes-to-house time is 4 hours. It's a small inconvenience when compared to the overall advantages of living here.

[Flight Detent]

Well,
on my final trip of the contract, it takes about:
4 hours to LHR,
at least 2 hours getting aboard,
14 hour flight to Singapore,
one hour on the groung there,
7.5 hours to my nearest major airport in Oz,
45 minutes in the car to my home in the 'Sunshine coast',

all up, it seems like ya'all are, in some ways, more fortunate!

in many other ways, not nearly so!!

Cheers.

[basil fawlty]

When I was maintenance engineering with BA at LHR I worked with a guy who lived in Perth Australia and went home once every 3 weeks or so. He used to go on the 4 days off of our (nightmare) 7-4-7-3 pattern, and would use a couple of days leave each time as wraparound "travel" days. As he was using staff travel sometimes he couldn't go and sometimes he was about 2 days late getting back!! This was about 12 years ago, when you could use staff travel for something useful!!

[JW411]

Do remember chaps that the CAA limits in CAP 371 only allow you to take 90 minutes to report for duty.

Those of you who are talking 2 hours would be well advised to rig for silent running!

[gurnzee]

10mins if I dawdle.
Do I win?
Does it count if you don't use a dual carriageway?:D