Aviation's glory days are clearly gone.
The LA Times ran this great article on airline and airport employees who live in a LAX parking lot to save money and for ease of convenicne.
Also check out their pheneonmal slideshow.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lax-colony20-2009jul20,0,4549617.story
The LA Times ran this great article on airline and airport employees who live in a LAX parking lot to save money and for ease of convenicne.
Also check out their pheneonmal slideshow.
For about 15 days a month, Alaska Airlines pilot Jim Lancaster lives in a motor home in Parking Lot B near the southernmost runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
Every four minutes, a jetliner or turboprop roars in -- 500 feet above his front door -- for a landing. The noise is so loud it forces Lancaster to pause during conversations. But he doesn't mind. Lancaster puts up with the smell of jet fuel and screaming engines to save time and money.
The 60-year-old aviator's primary residence is a cottage he shares with his wife overlooking a quiet bay off Puget Sound in Washington state. Living in Lot B while he's on duty means he doesn't have to rent a Los Angeles apartment with other pilots or spend 12 hours a day commuting to and from the Seattle area.
"As kids we used to ask our parents to take us to the airport to see the planes," Lancaster quipped. "Now I get to live at the airport." ...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lax-colony20-2009jul20,0,4549617.story
on August 19, 2009 10:25 AM | Reply
A motor home? I would've loved to have had one of those. As a regional pilot, I slept in the back of a mid-sized family car at the airport. On $16,000 a year, it's hard to pay for a motor home. The airlines...a decent job but a terrible career.
on September 22, 2009 7:08 AM | Reply
Living in a motorhome at the parking lot looks like an act of desperation, but there is a nice RV campground on the ocean right behind the LAX airport. That maybe a better option. At least it includes an ocean view.
cheap LAX airport parking
on September 30, 2009 4:24 AM | Reply
Parking an RV at Dockweiler State Beach would be a great option if it wasn't $65/night with no transportation to work (that's nearly $2000/mo if they didn't have a 2 week limit). It is true that ear plugs cannot block the sound of a 747 passing just 200 feet above your head. But that still beats having the Loud Family in a hotel room next door when you’ve got an O’Dark-Thirty go in the morning...