52 years old corporate to legacy?
#11
New Hire
Joined APC: Jul 2018
Posts: 1
I started my aviation career older than most and now I'm a 52 year old 4000+ corporate King Air pilot. My current 91 job in in question and I'm considering putting in for either a fractional or maybe one of the legacies. Am I too old to shoot for the big boys? Should I keep my expectations lower and more realistic?
My biggest concern is that I'll bust out of the AA or whoever's program and then no one will hire me.
At my age and my experience should I just give up on the idea of flying for the big boys and settle for the mediocre fractionals or even the bottom feeder options?
I need the brutal honest opinions.
Thanks guys.
My biggest concern is that I'll bust out of the AA or whoever's program and then no one will hire me.
At my age and my experience should I just give up on the idea of flying for the big boys and settle for the mediocre fractionals or even the bottom feeder options?
I need the brutal honest opinions.
Thanks guys.
May I ask you a question?
Firstly; I think you should go for it. Nothing ventured - nothing gained and you have a lot of experience and should the worst come to worst or you 'bust out' (which I don't think you will), you can continue flying the King Air. It seems like a no lose scenario.
My question is; do you think I am too old to pursue a career in flying at 47 with the view to getting a job?
In retrospect, I should have kept up my hours in my 20's to keep chipping away - even the minimum - but, I was young and life took me in a different direction. However, I am now in a different situation and can more easily afford the training.
I have no delusions of grandeur and will not be aiming for the airlines but, what options would be available to me within 5 years? Is it possible to secure a job flying smaller aircraft in some capacity or am I kidding myself?
Thanks and good luck.
#12
Thanks guys. I'm not big on the regionals if I can avoid them only because at my age I don't have a whole lot of time to wait for the move to majors. Plus whatever move I make if from a $100k job so stepping down that far is very hard on the family. The reason I'm thinking of the big boys is because I would only have to take a step back on salary for a year and then the sky is the limit. Gama would be alright if I just wanted to maintain status quo.....just talking outloud you know.
I'm not saying 9E would be the one, but I wouldn't write off the regionals for pay unless you've already done the research and know that it won't work.
#14
My question is; do you think I am too old to pursue a career in flying at 47 with the view to getting a job?
In retrospect, I should have kept up my hours in my 20's to keep chipping away - even the minimum - but, I was young and life took me in a different direction. However, I am now in a different situation and can more easily afford the training.
I have no delusions of grandeur and will not be aiming for the airlines but, what options would be available to me within 5 years? Is it possible to secure a job flying smaller aircraft in some capacity or am I kidding myself?
Thanks and good luck.
Once at a regional, the lower and even middle tier majors are starting to feel the crunch, so you could likely get hired at one of them after about 3 years and 2000 hours in a jet. In fact it appears some of the ULCC/LCC might prefer older pilots, since they are less likely to jump ship to a large legacy (the real pay advantage of the big legacies kicks in many years down to the road, so older pilots don't benefit as much from that).
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