Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

A word of caution:

I, like you, started flying a few years later than was probably optimal (28, in my case). I walked away from something that made me miserable to pursue something I'd always dreamed of. I was single and I figured you only get one shot at life, so might as well go for it.

Got my ratings in thirteen months--CFI through multi and multi instructor. Hit the instructing gig as hard as I could--I lived at the FBO, looking to pick up scraps. I also flew traffic watch and did aircraft deliveries for a shyster broker near Phoenix. Anything I could do to build time, I did.

After about a year-and-a-half of instructing, I got a job at Ameriflight. Did that for seven months and took a job as an air ambulance captain. I had my first regional interview scheduled for October 2001 but the events of the preceding month (9/11) put the kibosh on that.

By the time the regionals were hiring again I was married with a baby on the way and I was the main earner (hell, the only earner at that time) for my household. No matter how I tried to pencil it out, I could not afford to be a regional FO. Between the commute and the starvation wages, it would have plunged my family into turmoil, and I just didn't see the upside.

I wound up getting drawn into the fractional/private jet world for the next thirteen years. Five months ago, I got hired on at Southwest and I was the third-oldest guy in my class. I've got a seventeen-year bite at the apple here. Seventeen years. Barring any unforeseen hiccups, that'll be plenty for me to put the kids through school and retire with the wife (whom I never would have met were it not for flying, or the shakeups caused by 9/11, for that matter) to a life of unambitious luxury.

So I guess my point, if there is one, is this: don't be surprised if your five-year plan becomes a ten-, or even a fifteen-year plan. This industry is notoriously volatile, and the best laid plans have a way of falling by the wayside. Do this because you think you'll love it, and try to see every job as an opportunity to learn more, challenge yourself more, take on more responsibility and maybe even have a little fun. There's a lot of flying to be done out there, a lot of adventure to be had, and if you go about it thinking you have got to check off this box and this box by such and such a time, you might just miss the whole point.

And with that, I will cede my soapbox to the floor ...