Has the ship sailed for me?
10-05-2017, 05:44 PM
#1
New Hire
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Oct 2017
Posts: 3
Has the ship sailed for me?
I'll start off by giving the tl;dr version.
I'm 47 years old and have never taken a flight lesson in my life. Curious to know if I still have time left to pursue my dream of being a commercial airline pilot. If I start now, will there be any good years left ahead of me?? Or should I just forget about it and go back to my ho-hum life of being an I.T. support guy?
So now... here's the why version. heads up: it's very long. Sorry!
The only thing that ever floated my boat was being a pilot. People have asked me in the past - "how in the world do you know that is your calling if you've never taken a flight lesson in your life?". I just do. I don't need to explain it to them because being a pilot has been a childhood dream of mine since i was old enough to draw. You might be asking me why I haven't pursued this before? It's a very long story and I don't think it's exactly relevant to my story. Besides, this is already long enough, I don't need to drag it out any further.
The only thing i will say about my current life is that i'm 47 years old, single, unmarried and no money saved up whatsoever. The past several years, I've been slogging away at **** poor dead end jobs that have led me nowhere. 2 years ago, my life was thrown into chaos when i found out that my elderly parents were in grave situation - both of them were sick with dementia and they needed someone to come home and manage the meltdown situation. Being the only child in the family, I knew that "someone" had to be me. So I quit my full-time job, packed up all my stuff and moved back home to live with my parents to be the primary caregiver.
The last 2 years of my life I've done nothing but look after my sick parents - no time for anything else. And barely any time to wipe my own ass. People who have never this simply have no clue how stressful and time consuming it is. My father passed away earlier this year leaving me in a great deal of grief and sadness. My poor mother, also suffering from dementia, is now living in a nursing home and although I am no longer playing the role of full-time caregiver, I'm still very much involved in making sure that she is receiving proper care at the facility. (I've come to realize the vast majority of senior nursing homes are just total crap in this country run by greedy corporate people).
Like i said - I haven't worked in the past 2 years as I've put my life on hold to manage this crisis. I need to enter the work force again and keep up with the bills. My father's death, has forced me to re-evaluate what the hell I'm doing with the rest of my life. I keep asking myself "Do I really want to live the next ~20 years of my life doing a job that I only 1/2 enjoy so to pay the bills?". There is more to life than that - isn't there??
I know from talking with pilots (many years ago) that the road to being a commercial airline pilot is very long. Very very long. For a long while I put it out of my mind especially when I entered my 40s because I knew that it would be so long that by the time I make it to the cockpit, I would be an "old fart". (sort of anyway). So yes, it was a discouraging factor for sure.
I was recently traveling and was at O'Hare airport. I noticed 2 pilots talking near a gate and I told them of my life long ambition to be a pilot. One of them basically said, it's not necessarily too late for me and gave me a bit of uplifting news. Said something about a shortage coming up and that airlines would be hiring like crazy to fill empty seats left behind by retired pilots. (baby boomer generation).
Question is: when is that shortage expected to happen? I need the perfect storm to hit. If I start taking my flight lessons now and slowly work my way up to the regionals, it could be 8 years from now give or take a couple of years depending on how quickly I can manage to rack up the necessary certifications and required flight time. If that miss that short window of a time where the airlines will be in a hiring frenzy - my goal of sitting in the left or the right seat will be essentially over. I know there's the possibility of flying cargo, but I heard those jobs don't pay as well and have god awful hours.
The pilot that I met also said something about lowering the requirements. Typically the major airlines would not even look at you unless you have 'X' amount of flight time hours. I can't remember how many hours he said. Now with this shortage that everyone in the industry is talking about, they're lowering the bar just a tad. So instead of X, it's X minus 500-600 hours. If this is really happening now, it gives me hope that I might make it to the right seat by the time I hit 55. Even if there's a mandatory retirement age of 65, it still gives me roughly 10 years of life to enjoy doing something my heart was always into.
I have nothing but naysayers around me telling me it's foolish to switch careers at such a late age. Life is filled with simpletons who are either too afraid to pursue their dreams or come up with justifications on why it's not possible to do. I don't want to be toiling away at age 60 or 65 in an office job that I'm not totally excited about - but I'm also a realist. There are bills to pay and I can only imagine how $hitty the pay is going to be starting out. I've read comments on the internet from pilots about how they have paid their dues.
Advice?
Edit: I earned my bachelors degree in social science from a reputable accredit college, long before online universities became a thing. So that part of the equation is already taken care of.
I'm 47 years old and have never taken a flight lesson in my life. Curious to know if I still have time left to pursue my dream of being a commercial airline pilot. If I start now, will there be any good years left ahead of me?? Or should I just forget about it and go back to my ho-hum life of being an I.T. support guy?
So now... here's the why version. heads up: it's very long. Sorry!
The only thing that ever floated my boat was being a pilot. People have asked me in the past - "how in the world do you know that is your calling if you've never taken a flight lesson in your life?". I just do. I don't need to explain it to them because being a pilot has been a childhood dream of mine since i was old enough to draw. You might be asking me why I haven't pursued this before? It's a very long story and I don't think it's exactly relevant to my story. Besides, this is already long enough, I don't need to drag it out any further.
The only thing i will say about my current life is that i'm 47 years old, single, unmarried and no money saved up whatsoever. The past several years, I've been slogging away at **** poor dead end jobs that have led me nowhere. 2 years ago, my life was thrown into chaos when i found out that my elderly parents were in grave situation - both of them were sick with dementia and they needed someone to come home and manage the meltdown situation. Being the only child in the family, I knew that "someone" had to be me. So I quit my full-time job, packed up all my stuff and moved back home to live with my parents to be the primary caregiver.
The last 2 years of my life I've done nothing but look after my sick parents - no time for anything else. And barely any time to wipe my own ass. People who have never this simply have no clue how stressful and time consuming it is. My father passed away earlier this year leaving me in a great deal of grief and sadness. My poor mother, also suffering from dementia, is now living in a nursing home and although I am no longer playing the role of full-time caregiver, I'm still very much involved in making sure that she is receiving proper care at the facility. (I've come to realize the vast majority of senior nursing homes are just total crap in this country run by greedy corporate people).
Like i said - I haven't worked in the past 2 years as I've put my life on hold to manage this crisis. I need to enter the work force again and keep up with the bills. My father's death, has forced me to re-evaluate what the hell I'm doing with the rest of my life. I keep asking myself "Do I really want to live the next ~20 years of my life doing a job that I only 1/2 enjoy so to pay the bills?". There is more to life than that - isn't there??
I know from talking with pilots (many years ago) that the road to being a commercial airline pilot is very long. Very very long. For a long while I put it out of my mind especially when I entered my 40s because I knew that it would be so long that by the time I make it to the cockpit, I would be an "old fart". (sort of anyway). So yes, it was a discouraging factor for sure.
I was recently traveling and was at O'Hare airport. I noticed 2 pilots talking near a gate and I told them of my life long ambition to be a pilot. One of them basically said, it's not necessarily too late for me and gave me a bit of uplifting news. Said something about a shortage coming up and that airlines would be hiring like crazy to fill empty seats left behind by retired pilots. (baby boomer generation).
Question is: when is that shortage expected to happen? I need the perfect storm to hit. If I start taking my flight lessons now and slowly work my way up to the regionals, it could be 8 years from now give or take a couple of years depending on how quickly I can manage to rack up the necessary certifications and required flight time. If that miss that short window of a time where the airlines will be in a hiring frenzy - my goal of sitting in the left or the right seat will be essentially over. I know there's the possibility of flying cargo, but I heard those jobs don't pay as well and have god awful hours.
The pilot that I met also said something about lowering the requirements. Typically the major airlines would not even look at you unless you have 'X' amount of flight time hours. I can't remember how many hours he said. Now with this shortage that everyone in the industry is talking about, they're lowering the bar just a tad. So instead of X, it's X minus 500-600 hours. If this is really happening now, it gives me hope that I might make it to the right seat by the time I hit 55. Even if there's a mandatory retirement age of 65, it still gives me roughly 10 years of life to enjoy doing something my heart was always into.
I have nothing but naysayers around me telling me it's foolish to switch careers at such a late age. Life is filled with simpletons who are either too afraid to pursue their dreams or come up with justifications on why it's not possible to do. I don't want to be toiling away at age 60 or 65 in an office job that I'm not totally excited about - but I'm also a realist. There are bills to pay and I can only imagine how $hitty the pay is going to be starting out. I've read comments on the internet from pilots about how they have paid their dues.
Advice?
Edit: I earned my bachelors degree in social science from a reputable accredit college, long before online universities became a thing. So that part of the equation is already taken care of.
Last edited by Floatingonair; 10-05-2017 at 05:59 PM.
10-05-2017, 07:55 PM
#2
Prime Minister/Moderator
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Engines Turn Or People Swim
Posts: 39,436
Depends. It can be done, assuming you have the money and time.
You can get training done in one year (likely less if you push hard, and ensure the flight school will not delay you). Two years as a CFI and you're at a regional at age 50, upgrade within 2-3 years (if you avoid the regionals with stagnant seniority).
But then what? You could stay at the regional and build seniority and QOL. There's some question about the long-term viability of the regional business model, but it's hard to know for sure. Short term, money will get thrown at the problem so you would be making six figures by age 55 or likely even before that.
Or you could head off to a major by age 55 and still have ten years. You'll need to have a clean criminal, training, and social media history for the majors, and decent college grades.
It's entirely possible, just depends on how much dues you're willing to pay for ten years as a regional CA or major FO (actually you could probably retire as a junior narrow body CA at a major if so inclined). Being single helps.
There are certainly older people than you entering the regionals and the majors, in some cases over 60.
You can get training done in one year (likely less if you push hard, and ensure the flight school will not delay you). Two years as a CFI and you're at a regional at age 50, upgrade within 2-3 years (if you avoid the regionals with stagnant seniority).
But then what? You could stay at the regional and build seniority and QOL. There's some question about the long-term viability of the regional business model, but it's hard to know for sure. Short term, money will get thrown at the problem so you would be making six figures by age 55 or likely even before that.
Or you could head off to a major by age 55 and still have ten years. You'll need to have a clean criminal, training, and social media history for the majors, and decent college grades.
It's entirely possible, just depends on how much dues you're willing to pay for ten years as a regional CA or major FO (actually you could probably retire as a junior narrow body CA at a major if so inclined). Being single helps.
There are certainly older people than you entering the regionals and the majors, in some cases over 60.
10-05-2017, 10:10 PM
#4
In a land of unicorns
Joined APC: Apr 2014
Position: Whale FO
Posts: 6,499
If you have enough savings/cojones to take massive debt, you can be zero to regional airline seat in a year. This requires buying your own plane and flying the snot out of it, and also getting your ratings in it.
Expensive, but this is the short extreme option.
More realistically, if you really want it. Private in 3-4 weeks, fly XC PIC for a month, IR in 2 weeks, hour build until CP for 4-5 months, CP in a weekend, hour build until 500 hours (which realistically is the minimum hour amount to find a meaningful job) another 3-4 months. Find an entry level 135 VFR job, fly around for a year, and you are pretty close to regional mins. That's around 2-2.5 years zero to regionals.
So no, it's not too late.
Expensive, but this is the short extreme option.
More realistically, if you really want it. Private in 3-4 weeks, fly XC PIC for a month, IR in 2 weeks, hour build until CP for 4-5 months, CP in a weekend, hour build until 500 hours (which realistically is the minimum hour amount to find a meaningful job) another 3-4 months. Find an entry level 135 VFR job, fly around for a year, and you are pretty close to regional mins. That's around 2-2.5 years zero to regionals.
So no, it's not too late.
10-06-2017, 01:22 PM
#7
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2010
Position: Baja Vermont
Posts: 5,178
It only takes money, maybe $75,000 to start. That’s a lot of debt (you said no savings) at an age you need savings for retirement. A lot of debt with a lot of risk, learning to fly isn’t easy and it doesn’t sound like you’ve been a student in a high pressure training environment much.
JMO, GF
JMO, GF
10-06-2017, 01:47 PM
#8
Line Holder
Joined APC: Sep 2017
Posts: 71
Too late?
It’s not. Get your private certificate and see if it what you like or have passion for. As GF said, it is expensive and it isn’t easy. If it was easy, everyone would be an aviator. The largest question for you to ask yourself is whether or not you have the disposable income...
But, is it too late? No. I got my private certificate 49 years after my first ride in a light plane.
But, is it too late? No. I got my private certificate 49 years after my first ride in a light plane.
10-06-2017, 06:45 PM
#10
Prime Minister/Moderator
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Engines Turn Or People Swim
Posts: 39,436
Originally Posted by galaxy flyer
It only takes money, maybe $75,000 to start. That’s a lot of debt (you said no savings) at an age you need savings for retirement. A lot of debt with a lot of risk, learning to fly isn’t easy and it doesn’t sound like you’ve been a student in a high pressure training environment much.
JMO, GF
JMO, GF
He has a point. Your professional and academic track record sounds a bit mediocre to date. Major airline pilots tend to be a bit on the type-A driven side of the spectrum, often accomplished in other walks of life as well. Historically about 1/3 of career-bound students make it to a major.
The good news is that the regionals set a much lower bar, so if you would be OK with spending 15 years at a regional, it might make sense. You could still shoot for a major (hiring demand will actually trend in your favor), but if your whole plane is major or bust, you will either have to hustle like never before or likely be disappointed in the end.
Just to be clear...once you get 1500 hours it will be very, very easy to get a job at a regional (but you'll still have to complete new-hire training, which will likely be the hardest thing you've ever accomplished).
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