nick1975

Hi Everyone- I want to become a pilot but I just turned 43!

I've been in the IT industry for over 15 years and am tired of what I have been doing and also don't like my line of work that much.

I am told if I start within the next 3 months I will be a pilot by age 45! and retirment age for pilots is 65!

Will any airline hire me? and if they do what will be career look like in terms of stability and income?

Much obliged,

Nick

JohnBurke

Absolutely airlines will hire you.

I know someone who just hired on at age 63.

Age 45 puts you twenty years from retirement. A lot can happen in that time, and you've got plenty of years to be furloughed, mergered, downgraded, or sold down the river.

Atrasaty

How times have changed. A few short decades ago everyone said I was crazy to start a pilot career at 25.....and I was, but I did and I wish I hadn't. It's a different world now, at least until single pilot operations followed by drones replace us all. Go for it.....it's the best timing in generations to embark.

nick1975

JohnBurke and Atrasaty: Thanks for your quick responses, it instantly restored my confident.
So you are both pilots?
After graduation how do I find a job and what will be my starting salary?

galaxy flyer

You can be a pilot by 45, but gain the 1,500 hours to hold an ATP, and go on to have the 1,000 to 2,000 hours of 121 time necessary to be considered by a major airline is another story.


Gf

AirBear

Better save up a lot of money before embarking on a pilot career. The pay is pretty dismal until you get your 1500 hours in (a little less with certain types of schools). Flight Instructing is the most common way to build hours. I don't have first hand experience in this area so will defer to those that do, but I have read a lot about this for many years. (I was Military straight to major airline to regional airline to private jets). Other jobs you can get after 200-300 hours of flying are pipeline patrol and aerial survey. You might get a corporate jet job once you pass 500 hours but they're pretty competitive.

Once reaching 1500 hours the regional airlines will snap you up, they are critically short of pilots and this probably will not change. With signing bonus's and such you can make $50K and above the 1st year, maybe less the 2nd year.

Check this forum out on this board:

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/part-91-low-time/

They would have current info. Also, consider keeping your IT job and fly part time until at least 500 hours if there's anyway you can do that.
I'm pretty sure you're not going to make what you're used to until breaking the 1500 hour mark.

nick1975

AirBear, Thanks for reply!

I don't need to go through college, I have a M.S in Systems Eng.
So what are some of the good pilot schools?

nick1975

Thanks!!
Are you a pilot?

742Dash

In that case, have you considered looking for a job/location that you would like, even if it is a pay cut?

And then start flying as a hobby. Take up sailplanes. Or set a goal to flight instruct part time. In the longer term even do some part time charter work.

You are at a point in life where major changes can be very dangerous, but you may have a lot of options that are not as extreme as starting over.

Aviation can be rewarding, but it is also a high risk career. One set of chest pains and you find yourself applying for work at Home Depot -- and not their flight department. Major spasms in the economy tend to be very brutal to newer pilots. It is also a long path from starting training to the right seat in a semi-reasonable job.

rickair7777

Pretty much everybody on these forums is a pilot, most are airline pilots.

As others have said the industry opportunities over the next 10-15 years will be unprecedented (due to mandatory retirements and reasonably optimistic long-term economic outlook for airlines).

Do a lot of reading here on APC. Almost all of the questions you can think have been answered. If you find older info here or elsewhere, bear in mind that MUCH has changed in the last few years, anything older than five years may not be accurate.

You are not too old, could likely make it to a major airline before age 50. The "typical" person who succeeds in airlines usually has a college degree, could have chosen business/sales/law/medicine, is personable and is athletic (or was an athlete in school). That last is by no means mandatory, but you do need some confidence and ability to multi-task under stress (and of course some hand/eye coordination). People who didn't get very far in the real world will typically not fair so well in aviation either (there are exceptions, and I've met them).