5 ms·

Home Is Where the Parking Lot Is [video]

75 points by wdr1 10y ago

mstrem 10y ago
With my dad being an airline pilot and having grown up in the "pilot community" I must say that this style of living is probably by far the exception rather than the norm. My family, and all my parent's friends (most of which were pilots or air attendants), all had what you could call normal a house with normal lives etc. etc. By most means life was pretty much the same as anyone else.
- Symbiote 10y ago
  That was after he had a child — do you know his living arrangements before you were born, or perhaps before he was married? How often did your dad sleep away from home? That could vary a lot, some schedules must plan to return home every day, but for longer routes that's simply not possible. [1] says "Short haul pilots for low cost airlines typically start and finish their day at their allocated base", "between 2 and 6 flights a day", but "Long haul pilots fly all over the world and can spend a lot of time away from home. Trips can last from a few days to over a week" [1] http://www.flightdeckfriend.com/airline-pilot-job-realities http://www.flightdeckfriend.com/airline-pilot-job-realities
nxzero 10y ago
It's not uncommon for airline employees to have non-standard living arrangements, though seems more common to use apartments with 4+ people to a room with beds filled based on first come, first serve; basically time-share like low cost version of AirBnb. Using trailers and employee parking lots sounds expensive for the employees and airlines too. Beyond that, guessing it's noisy and that theirs not much of use close to the parking lot.
- smoyer 10y ago
  My sister-in-law was a flight attendant for United Express for a while and shared a two bedroom apartment with seven other women. It worked great 95% of the time since most nights over half of them were away.
Lio 10y ago
Makes me think of Hero Protagonist from Snow Crash living in a storage lockup on the edge of LAX.
- retbull 10y ago
  Isn't it Hiro?
  - DigitalJack 10y ago
    yes, but clearly a pun.
  - Lio 10y ago
    Doh! Yes of course you're right, it is Hiro Protagonist. I just typed comment without thinking! :)
digi_owl 10y ago
I find myself reminded of a theater comedy where a guy is dating multiple flight attendants. The comedy comes from none of the ladies knowing about each other, and his carefully laid out schedule being disrupted by canceled flights.
- dmckeon 10y ago
  Perhaps "Boeing, Boeing" - done as a film in 1965 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058981/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058981/ and in multiple stage and film versions.
- madengr 10y ago
  Ha ha, that was a good play. I believe it was the introduction of the jet engine that fouled up his scheme.
galfarragem 10y ago
Being able to walk to your job will provide you more happiness than a lawn and a very long commute. Time and peace of mind are often underrated.
- mc32 10y ago
  I'd love being able to walk to work. On the one hand it's very medieval -pre industrial revolution kind of thing, on the other hand you're right next to work... I don't want to be a five or ten minute walk away from work when someone thinks I'd be the ideal option to come in on off hours b/c I'm so close by.
  - dccoolgai 10y ago
    I walked to work over 10+ years over the course of 3 jobs (10-30 minutes, depending) - I remember when I started thinking that would be a problem, but it really wasn't. Over that time there was maybe once or twice where I got called because I was close (and it was a true emergency, so I didn't mind). I found the benefits of having co-workers over for barbeques/drinks/etc. made me very popular in the office and outweighed any other drawbacks from being close. The 10-minute walks were also nice for unwinding mental state from work. It's just a lot more calming to walk (even on a busy sidewalk) than to cram in mass transit or sit in traffic.
  - cujo 10y ago
    Not only does that likely happen a lot less than you think, but you'd probably still be off the clock more if you count your commute drive time.
  - clock_tower 10y ago
    If you're beginning to wonder about this sort of thing, I'd strongly recommend reading up on Really Narrow Streets, on the New World Economics website. The author has more or less managed to quantify what makes Old World cities so liveable, and he's beginning to get some traction among urban planners. You might also find his discussion of the Industrial Revolution spirit -- what he calls Heroic Materialism -- interesting; I think he makes a strong case that the pre-industrial shouldn't automatically carry negative connotations.
et-al 10y ago
Thanks for sharing this video. I was worried it'd be about another employee who's taking advantage of their company perks (lifehacking..), instead it's an insightful video of people who are living in unconventional arrangements probably due to things outside their control. While everyone interviewed seems to speak of freedom, I feel like their body language and state of their living quarters say otherwise. You have one person who breaks down when he mentions he's been there for 11 years. Why? The workers seem like they're making the best of their situation, dealing with it, but not necessarily reveling in it the way #vanlife Instagrammers would have us believe.
- miketery 10y ago
  Even before the one guy broke down. You could tell the way he was repeating him self - "I'm happy here" "I'm happy here" it was very unhealthy and then he couldn't hold it anymore. Seems to be a lonely lifestyle.
atourgates 10y ago
I wonder about the practicality of essentially "boondocking", on a permanent basis. You'd need to run a generator for electricity (solar power would work, but I didn't see any panels), and you'd need to go somewhere occasionally to fill up your water tanks, and dump your sewage. But I suppose, if you're only home a couple nights a week, you're not using tons of electricity, water or sewage capacity in any case. I wonder how laundry works? Maybe they take care of that at hotels when they're overnighting on the road? EDIT: From reading responses here[1], it looks like the average is about 4-weeks for a single person, obviously reduced by half for every person you add. If you're just a single person, only there 20% of the time, it seems like you might really only be dumping and filling your tanks every 4-5 months. [1] http://www.irv2.com/forums/f93/how-long-can-a-class-a-boondock-144264.html http://www.irv2.com/forums/f93/how-long-can-a-class-a-boondo...

75 points by wdr1 10y ago

With my dad being an airline pilot and having grown up in the "pilot community" I must say that this style of living is probably by far the exception rather than the norm. My family, and all my parent's friends (most of which were pilots or air attendants), all had what you could call normal a house with normal lives etc. etc. By most means life was pretty much the same as anyone else.

Symbiote 10y ago
That was after he had a child — do you know his living arrangements before you were born, or perhaps before he was married? How often did your dad sleep away from home? That could vary a lot, some schedules must plan to return home every day, but for longer routes that's simply not possible. [1] says "Short haul pilots for low cost airlines typically start and finish their day at their allocated base", "between 2 and 6 flights a day", but "Long haul pilots fly all over the world and can spend a lot of time away from home. Trips can last from a few days to over a week" [1] http://www.flightdeckfriend.com/airline-pilot-job-realities http://www.flightdeckfriend.com/airline-pilot-job-realities

nxzero 10y ago

It's not uncommon for airline employees to have non-standard living arrangements, though seems more common to use apartments with 4+ people to a room with beds filled based on first come, first serve; basically time-share like low cost version of AirBnb. Using trailers and employee parking lots sounds expensive for the employees and airlines too. Beyond that, guessing it's noisy and that theirs not much of use close to the parking lot.

smoyer 10y ago
My sister-in-law was a flight attendant for United Express for a while and shared a two bedroom apartment with seven other women. It worked great 95% of the time since most nights over half of them were away.

Lio 10y ago

Makes me think of Hero Protagonist from Snow Crash living in a storage lockup on the edge of LAX.

retbull 10y ago
Isn't it Hiro?
- DigitalJack 10y ago
  yes, but clearly a pun.
- Lio 10y ago
  Doh! Yes of course you're right, it is Hiro Protagonist. I just typed comment without thinking! :)

digi_owl 10y ago

I find myself reminded of a theater comedy where a guy is dating multiple flight attendants. The comedy comes from none of the ladies knowing about each other, and his carefully laid out schedule being disrupted by canceled flights.

dmckeon 10y ago
Perhaps "Boeing, Boeing" - done as a film in 1965 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058981/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058981/ and in multiple stage and film versions.
madengr 10y ago
Ha ha, that was a good play. I believe it was the introduction of the jet engine that fouled up his scheme.

galfarragem 10y ago

Being able to walk to your job will provide you more happiness than a lawn and a very long commute. Time and peace of mind are often underrated.

mc32 10y ago
I'd love being able to walk to work. On the one hand it's very medieval -pre industrial revolution kind of thing, on the other hand you're right next to work... I don't want to be a five or ten minute walk away from work when someone thinks I'd be the ideal option to come in on off hours b/c I'm so close by.
- dccoolgai 10y ago
  I walked to work over 10+ years over the course of 3 jobs (10-30 minutes, depending) - I remember when I started thinking that would be a problem, but it really wasn't. Over that time there was maybe once or twice where I got called because I was close (and it was a true emergency, so I didn't mind). I found the benefits of having co-workers over for barbeques/drinks/etc. made me very popular in the office and outweighed any other drawbacks from being close. The 10-minute walks were also nice for unwinding mental state from work. It's just a lot more calming to walk (even on a busy sidewalk) than to cram in mass transit or sit in traffic.
- cujo 10y ago
  Not only does that likely happen a lot less than you think, but you'd probably still be off the clock more if you count your commute drive time.
- clock_tower 10y ago
  If you're beginning to wonder about this sort of thing, I'd strongly recommend reading up on Really Narrow Streets, on the New World Economics website. The author has more or less managed to quantify what makes Old World cities so liveable, and he's beginning to get some traction among urban planners. You might also find his discussion of the Industrial Revolution spirit -- what he calls Heroic Materialism -- interesting; I think he makes a strong case that the pre-industrial shouldn't automatically carry negative connotations.

et-al 10y ago

Thanks for sharing this video. I was worried it'd be about another employee who's taking advantage of their company perks (lifehacking..), instead it's an insightful video of people who are living in unconventional arrangements probably due to things outside their control. While everyone interviewed seems to speak of freedom, I feel like their body language and state of their living quarters say otherwise. You have one person who breaks down when he mentions he's been there for 11 years. Why? The workers seem like they're making the best of their situation, dealing with it, but not necessarily reveling in it the way #vanlife Instagrammers would have us believe.

miketery 10y ago
Even before the one guy broke down. You could tell the way he was repeating him self - "I'm happy here" "I'm happy here" it was very unhealthy and then he couldn't hold it anymore. Seems to be a lonely lifestyle.

atourgates 10y ago

I wonder about the practicality of essentially "boondocking", on a permanent basis. You'd need to run a generator for electricity (solar power would work, but I didn't see any panels), and you'd need to go somewhere occasionally to fill up your water tanks, and dump your sewage. But I suppose, if you're only home a couple nights a week, you're not using tons of electricity, water or sewage capacity in any case. I wonder how laundry works? Maybe they take care of that at hotels when they're overnighting on the road? EDIT: From reading responses here[1], it looks like the average is about 4-weeks for a single person, obviously reduced by half for every person you add. If you're just a single person, only there 20% of the time, it seems like you might really only be dumping and filling your tanks every 4-5 months. [1] http://www.irv2.com/forums/f93/how-long-can-a-class-a-boondock-144264.html http://www.irv2.com/forums/f93/how-long-can-a-class-a-boondo...