What is a crashpad?

A “crashpad” typically refers to a temporary or shared housing arrangement that allows pilots and/or flight attendants, who are based away from their primary residence or have irregular schedules, to pay for a bed at much lower cost than a hotel or apartment. Like a normal rental agreement, this living arrangement usually comes with rules. However, most crashpad agreements are very strict and may have you removed immediately if you fail to follow them.

How do I find a crashpad?

Crashpads are listed on some sites but I personally have found it much easier to reach out to pilot groups on facebook to find leads. However, if you don’t have a Facebook account, its fairly easy to find crashpads through google or by simply asking other Captains/First Officers you fly with. Chances are, someone knows a guy who is looking for tenants.

What should I consider when looking for a crashpad?

After hearing all the gripes and complaints from other pilots, this is a good list to start with:

1.      Location

2.      Number of tenants

3.      Bunks vs single beds

4.      Parking

5.      Courtesy Cars

Location:

This is an important one. Ensure you carefully consider the location of your prospect crashpad. Take it from someone who made this mistake, you will want to ensure you can get to your crashpad without breaking the bank on Uber every month. Ask the prospect landlord for the crashpad address so you can get a lay of the land. Too far, you’re going to go broke using Uber, too close and you may be hearing aircraft screaming in every 2 minutes. Some landlords know their flaws and may be reluctant to give their address out until you commit. This is, of course, a giant red flag signaling that you should probably move on somewhere else. Another location consideration is access to grocery stores or other restaurants. Try to find a place within walking distance or you will also be spending money on uber eats or even worse..eating at the closest restaurant over and over again.

Number of Tenants:

The number of tenants has a lot to do with the cost of your crashpad. In order to keep costs low (more desirable), a landlord may choose to increase the number of tenants in a bedroom. This may mean you could be in a 4 bedroom house with between 2-6 people bunking per bedroom. While it is typically rare to have everyone in the house at the same time, if you choose the lowest cost option, you may be bumping elbows intermittently when the house surges with tenants. Therefore, you may be sacrificing sleep, kitchen access, or a turn at the community washing machine to keep that cost down. The ideal situation is to look for a place with 1-2 single beds per bedroom.

Bunks vs. Single beds

Now I just want to touch on this one again real quick. Some landlords will offer cheaper rent for someone who chooses a top bunk. Its up to you if that bothers you or not. It doesn’t bother me. However, it is a lot easier to shut the light out by wrapping curtains around a bunk. If you want to take the top, but aren’t sure if you will have trouble sleeping with the light, get a good quality eye mask. ***Insert mask link****

Parking:

You are going to want to figure out if it makes sense to drive a car out to your base. If you are on reserve but 3 hours away from the airport(just outside of enough time to react within contract obligations), it might just make more sense to drive. Check with the landlord and ensure he has parking available. If more senior tenants beat you to the punch at your tiny townhome, you may want to keep looking. 

Courtesy Car:

Lastly, ask if you will have access to a courtesy car. Some crashpads are provided with a car to share amongst crashpad members. I have heard of group chats made for the courtesy car to alert the other tenants when it has been parked at the airport or back at the crashpad. The whole system works as long as you have members who are willing to communicate and help out occasionally. It might be difficult to keep up with if there are lots of crashpad tenants though.