Many moons ago, I attended ERAU with the intention of becoming a professional pilot for a major. One financial catastrophe and seeing the writing on the wall for the majors later, I dropped out in my 2nd semester as a sophomore. I was an FAA checkride away from getting my PPL at 45 hours. I. Loved. Flying. To this day, it is the one thing I can look back at and say, "Now THAT is something I am REALLY good at."

Fast forward almost 20 years. I'm now 40 and employed as a corporate web site developer/designer. It's a fair enough living (~$70K), but I'm at a juncture now. I'm anything but passionate about this job (especially at this particular company...). For my 40th birthday, my incredible wife hooked us up with 2 hours in a 172. The instructor has become a terrific friend of ours (retired USAF, etc.). It was like riding a bicycle, and rekindled my passion for flying, coincidentally at the same time I realized how much I'm completely unfulfilled in my career at this point. I really want to fly, and I want to do it daily-ish. At ~$70K, I can't afford to do it on my own, so I may as well try to get paid for it, and fly some pretty cool stuff, to boot.

I know I'm far too old to even think about flying for the majors, or even a regional. I'd be completely happy flying King Airs for small company, charter or wealthy family. I'd be tickled pink to fly for NetJets or something along those lines.

Knowing the above, is it remotely possible for me to make a career change? I know it would probably take quite some time to get close to what I am taking home now, but I am willing to sacrifice that for a fulfilling career doing something I truly love. But if the chances of that happening are close to nil, then I'd like to know that before I make serious moves toward making my dream a reality.