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Options for 2nd Career in flying?

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Options for 2nd Career in flying?

Old 04-30-2009, 07:13 AM
  #1  
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Default Options for 2nd Career in flying?

I am getting close to retiring from my current position in a manufacturing plant. Been here 31 years. Can get full retirement in 4 years. I will turn 50 in August this year.

Would love to start a second career flying.
Advice? Thoughts? Pros/Cons?

Really not interested in greeting in WalMart.

A little bit about me:
I have a B.S. in Electrical Eng Tech from Purdue
I have worked as an Engineer and Systems Analyst
I just started taking lessons and have about 27hrs in.

For the 2nd career:
*I won't need insurance
*Have no desire to make huge bucks
*Part-time work would be ok. Maybe preferable. Not real sure on this one. I just know that if I get in the mood to go hang around on a beach somewhere I just want to be able to take off and go. I am very active in my church and I will continue that.
*I live in the Indianapolis area and want to stay there.

Any thoughts? Comments? suggestions? Help?
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Old 04-30-2009, 08:51 AM
  #2  
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You are a regional airline's wet dream...and a regional pilot's worst nightmare. The problem is that there are young folks with spouse, kids, mortgage, car payments who need a livable income with benefits. Too many guys who don't need much money or benefits, and management will reduce the compensation package. I bring this up so that you understand how you would be perceived if you show up at a regional.

With that out of the way...

There are plenty of opportunities in aviation for you:

Flight Instruction: We NEED good, experienced CFI's in general aviation. The typical airline-bound career builder leaves about the time he gets good. This is a highly flexible job, freelance work is common so you can make the schedule and call the shots. Once you get some hours and get checked out in more advanced airplanes you can command a respectable fee. Many students are comforted by the thought of flying with a greybeard vice a teenager. Since you will probably have to start out as a CFI anyway, you will have plenty of time to decide where to take this. The best news is that you can do it at most any airport.

Part 135: This is usually smaller freight and charter operations. The pay is usually nothing great, but it depends on the company. The schedule and working conditions vary WILDLY...many pilots build time at these places, so they are often less concerned with the long-term situation there. You would need to do your homework before taking such a job. You normally need 1200 hours, plus some ME time (100+). These jobs can usually be found at most airports.

Regional Airlines: Do some reading here on APC. One of the biggest problems for you is that everything is seniority-based, so the new-hire gets shipped across the country to the crappiest junior base on the east coast to sit reserve (on call). If you already live in NY, NJ, Philly, DC, or Chicago you could get a job at home. You need anywhere from 300-3,000 hours (and 100+ ME), depending on the market conditions.

Corporate/Private Jets: This might be a better fit. You can work for a company with several jets or a private owner with one jet. Pay and bennies vary, but you can find a decent gig if you look hard enough. A company pilot might work every day, a private-owner pilot might work once a month. If you work for a private owner, you will probably also manage the airplane (Mx, etc). You can also be a contract pilot once you have experience in one or more types...these guys get $400-600/day plus expenses. They fill in for sick pilots and also sit right seat for those owners who only employ one full-time pilot. Getting into this line of work requires networking and probably 1000+ hours of turbine time.

Finish your PPL and do some fun flying. Socialize at the airport and try to soak up as much knowledge about professional flying as you can.

Last edited by rickair7777; 04-30-2009 at 09:04 AM.
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Old 05-01-2009, 11:54 PM
  #3  
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Originally Posted by Career2 View Post
Any thoughts? Comments? suggestions? Help?
Sounds like you caught the bug.

Work at the FBO if they can deal you some reduced rental rates.

Hanger fly.

Study the Gleim written test books for private, instrument, commercial and cfi.

This bug is contagious - after you earn the private certificate, find a friend and share flight time (you'll learn how to safely and legally build flight time at half the cost.)

Don't quit.

After you earn your cfi, grab a multi-engine rating, again, share costs/time with your friend.

Get hired at a regional/commuter airline (I'm sure you know one based at KIND).

Career2, some of the best and most interesting pilots I've run into were 2nd career types (police, military, engineers...)

Watch out on these type of forums - sometimes you will see 'expert' advice from posters that have more postings than hour flown.

Don't quit...
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Old 05-02-2009, 12:50 PM
  #4  
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Default The future

In my estimation in the near future airline pilots will be either young kids with no responsibilities and over 50 semi-retired second career types. People in the middle can not afford the lifestyle and need better wages to make a middle class family life work.

I saw plenty of guys in their mid-50's who's first professional flying job was as a regional pilot.

Skyhigh
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Old 05-03-2009, 01:07 AM
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SkyHigh sees the future: These days you have to be able to 'afford' to be a pilot. That is, for all but the elite pilots, the pay is so absurdly low that only the financially secure can do such work.

Career 2, you could have been writing about me. Having started on ppl in my youth and given it up, then spending the rest of my life with the nagging feeling that flying airplanes was what I should really be doing, I started on my ratings at age 50. Began with glider, then com. glider (giving sightseeing rides) then SEL (then discovered you can use 150 glider hours for com. SEL (and save about 10K on rental fees), made friends at airport for cheap rentals, other friends were CFI, never went to a flight school, studied and passed all my written tests on my own, got the comm. MEL last year, and am now finishing up the instrument rating. Will probably finish all my ratings for around 15K.

I now have two flying jobs, one as a glider pilot and one at a part 135 cargo op. The word 'job' is something of a misnomer because the pay is so laughable. Still, I'm flying some very cool airplanes and having a blast!

I say go for it. I cannot begin to tell you how rewarding the whole process has been and how it has improved my self esteem. Not being in it for the `big bucks' (or even the modest bucks) I have experienced none of the bitterness or frustration of the many, many underpaid and underemployed professional-pilot wannabes out there. Also, being older, one's ego is not tied up in the whole thing the way it would be if one were younger.

My advice to the young starving pilots whom I know is to get out of aviation and make some money elsewhere, then return to your true love. Money has a tendency to corrupt all things; letting it corrupt one's love of flying is a tragedy.
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Old 05-25-2009, 05:55 PM
  #6  
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It can be done..... the chief pilot at last company was a jeweler by trade... one day he up and sold his business and got all his ratings...instructed for awhile and ended up flying king airs and citations .... 9 years or so later he has 5000 plus hours of flying is the CP and check airman. The CP before him did thirty years at a regular job... and during all those years flew several thousand hours .. upon retirement he started flying corporate and charter full time.. recently retired at 65 with over 16000 hours.... yes it can be done... no it wont be easy.
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Old 05-25-2009, 06:46 PM
  #7  
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It's great having a love of flying. Go join a flying club, don't become part of the problem and drive everyone's wages down.
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