Originally Posted by Mr. Irrelevant

I think what the situation with your wife's career or employment is what will answer the question for you. Is she in a stable job making enough money to offset the lack of earnings on your part until you make the same or more acceptable money? Do you live near family that can support her when you're on the road? If she is a stay at home Mom, then don't waste your time putting your family thru what it will take to make it in this career. Your times aren't the issue, they're no problem. Your responsibilities to your family seem to me to be the determining factor.

There are part-time flying jobs out there that you could possibly work until making a full-time transition later on in life. With your times, I'd suspect you've either been a part-time pilot already or have flown for quite a while. One thing to consider regarding QOL or the difference between that desk job and flying; it's one thing to fly on your own time, another to have to be up at 3am or even earlier and then be doing a pre-flight in a driving rainstorm at 4:00 in the morning. It happens! Trust me! Seeing the sunrise above the clouds after that pre-flight and departure is fantastic of course, but if you haven't done this yet as a career, that is a small anecdote as to how it is 'different' from just flying on the weekends or being a CFI in the afternoons or on a nice Saturday morning.

BTW, my real pet peeve with this industry is that management in some places has almost no regard for the employees or the FAR's unless it suits their situation. As a previous career changer, the quality of the people running the industry is quite dissapointing.

Mr. I.