What is a PIT Pad?

The name refers to the place where pilots stay when attending Pilot Instructor Training. But of course, other students can stay there too whether they are attending Pilot Instructor Training ( PIT ), Intro to Fighter Fundamentals ( IFF ) or Students becoming RPA Pilots.

Similiar to Crash Pads

Commercial air crew members were the first customers of the very first crash pads. Some airline crew members can make under $20,000 a year but are often based in expensive cities like New York. The nature of their work requires them to commute from their smaller home cities to big hub airports and forces them to use temporary housing every week. The airlines do not provide them with lodging for their commutes, so the pilots have resorted to sleeping in pilot crash pads, which can be found near major airports across the country. The crash pad offers pilots an opportunity to get some shut-eye on stacked bunk beds in crowded rooms, for a small fee.

These pilot crash pads could accommodate dozens of pilots at once, with triple-decker bunk beds crammed in small bedrooms. While they were cheap and convenient, it’s hard to imagine that you could get a decent night’s sleep, accompanied by dozens of your snoring colleagues in beds right next to you.