Back to Career Pilot?! Help!
 

I am 34 years old with a Bachelors in Aviation from OU. I left ExpressJet in 2011 with 3000 TT, 1700 in the jet, and 1000 pic (no jet pic). Since then I went to paramedic school, fire academy and landed a firefighter/paramedic position with a dept here in Southern California. With overtime as a straight firemen I make around $170,000 a year with a pension. I currently have a wife and two kids that I support. My wife will finish getting her Masters in Public Relations this May and with her experience should be able to get a job making 6 figures straight out of school.
I like my job now and get a lot of personal satisfaction from it, but I miss aviation and flying the jet. I would love to get back into the game. All my ratings and certs are current including my CFI, CFII, MEI (although I never got my ATP)
Should I leave a stable career that I enjoy, to go back to flying in todays aviation climate?
If so should I just apply to regionals, or is there some part time 135 flying I could do on the side?

I appreciate any and all advice and insight, thank you for reading through my mostly incoherent rant.

Also I have never had any incidents or accidents and my pria records are clean

Buy a citabria or a cub and get your aviation kicks that way.

He's in SOCAL. That $170K only gets him as far as $80K in most of the rest of the country.

Right now fastest path to the majors will be 121 regional. There are significant downsides to 135 in that regard.

With your time you could start as a DEC on day one at several regionals (including SkyWest... yes that was a pig that just flew by).

I'm not sure I'd recommend doing DEC given that you're rusty and have never been a CA before. Probably better to do 6+ months in the right seat of the aircraft you intend to upgrade on.

Doing DEC (or near-DEC) would be painful but it would likely get you to a good major within 2-4 years. You would need to go all out, apply to all the good ones, keep apps updated, attend job fairs, do interview prep. If you went full-court-press, you will get called and hired unless there's something in your background.

With most of the big four you could get based in CA very quickly, likely from day one. Pay and QOL will then be good, and only get better over time. You'd be back to your current pay within 1-3 years at a good major (minus the pension, but they have very good 401k programs).

That's the lay of the land right now, you're young enough especially given prior 121 time. Whether you should do it... only you can answer that (with input from the family).

Thank you so much for the great advice!

Rick is Skywest hiring DEC?

What's a DEC?

Direct Entry Captain

GF

Hey firefighterpilot,

I haven't logged onto this site in years until a few days ago after catching up with some buddies that are now with legacy/major carriers.

Coincidentally enough I am in the EXACT same position as you. Same age, wife & kids, BS in aviation, same amount of total time with 1000 TPIC, left XJT in 2011 (LAX/ORD based) and got on with the fire dept. Sounds like you stole my identity! : )

Like you I enjoy my job, my crew, getting to do some good in the community, and of course driving the big red truck! But the love of flying has never gone away. I'm also looking to see what the best decisions are careerwise since this industry has changed quite a bit since we left. I'm interested to hear what your thoughts and plans are after researching the current hiring opportunities. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you ever want to chat and bounce ideas off each other!

-PacNW

That’s awesome man. Do you work in California? You need a few more post before I can pm you. It’s a tough decision for sure I just don’t think I can afford working for a regional again like I did in my 20s.