Originally Posted by geosync

You know I'm sort of in your boat- will be 40 this year, in aviation on the business/claims side. Fly a Cessna as part of my work(technically not professionally). I've been thinking about making the leap to pro flying and I'm running out of time. The sheer earning potential in pt 121 is a huge draw, but at this point I'd have to take a pay cut for probably 5 years tooling around at the regional, as well as be away from my family. But through my current job I see the full spectrum of aviation, from airline to ISR to Ag to UAS(RPV) to corporate. There is a lot of good flying out there outside of the airlines.

You can potentially do a mix of that- some corporate flying/ISR in a similar platform(King Air, PC-12). In fact, you can fly and manage one or 2 King Airs/CJs/PC-12 part 91 for people/companies. You can offer the full spectrum- flying it, and of course, maintenance management, which is key. I'm considering this route myself since I'm a com multi/A&P. Seems like you can make decent coin(low 6 figures). At the same time you can look into the Ag flying.

So you have options, and the family business to backstop you, so hell, look into all of the options and figure out which you like best/most viable.