I am 38 and I have been with my career department for 17.5 years. I am seriously considering pulling my pension at 20 years and diving head first into this. I already have my PPL and am working on my Instrument right now. I have zero college hours though.

This will be a very hard decision for me because I have made it up to the rank of Captain and only work 8-9 days a month. I have a great crew and I really do still love this job. I too work for a department that is, more or less, a stepping stone department. I could shoot for my goal of 33 years and fully retire at 54 with a FAT pension. But firefighting is hard on the body and cancer is rampant in this line of work. Many of our retirees have died shortly after retirement, and every single one has been from some form of cancer.

I wouldn't dare make the change without my pension to help me through the regional years. But I'm also in a different place in life more than likely. If I had the ability to leave early in my career and transition to being a pilot, I pretty sure I would have taken it.

I have many friends who fly professionally. One I own an airplane with flew the 777 for American, another just got hired at Southwest after being at Skywest, several at Envoy and a cargo guy. They all hound me about stopping and going to be a pilot.

Another reservation I have is that I had a fellow Firefighter who was a Battalion Chief at a neighboring department left to fly professionally. He left without a pension and was used to the easy 9 days a month. As the sole breadwinner, he transitioned to horribly low pay, having to commute, and working 20 days a month. He lasted only a few months before calling it quits. He is now aged out of working for civil service departments and looking for other pilot work.

Think hard about it. Make an excel sheet like someone else suggested. I did this and have numerous different scenarios played out on it. I am accused of researching too much before I jump into something though...lol

Just food for though. Good luck Brother!