Originally Posted by Olario

An airline can look back as far as they want, so can you. I went to my local DMV and explained I needed a history from day 1. They printed me my 17 year history. It was important to me because I had:
4 speeding
2 wreckless
2 other tickets
and Revoked license.

They appreciated my honesty. All those tickets happened in a period of less than 24 months. Last ticket was 14 years ago.
I bouht a Yamaha R-1 in college and went stupid....
Got hired by Delta

Nothing, let me repeat, NOTHING ever gets erased. If it was in your record at one point in time, its still there and it is traceable. Your DMV might choose to withold that information for certain purposes, but if somebody really wants to dig they will find it.
Delta for example, as most airlines, hires a company to do your background check. Thats all they do. They know exactly where to go to find your info.
Just be honest. An FO I flew with recently just got fired right after trainning for having a background that did not match his app.