Am I too old?
02-14-2017, 05:11 AM
#1
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Joined APC: Feb 2017
Posts: 5
Am I too old?
Hello, thank you for taking the time to read this. I am 28 years old, and have been a journeyman pipeline/natural gas facility welder/small business owner for the past 8 years. I do not have any college education. My wife and I had our first son as teenagers and I've always just done what I had to do to put food on the table. Flight training was (what I thought) unrealistically expensive and out of reach. When talking to my oldest son last week about what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said a welder. Just like his daddy. He then asked what I wanted to be when I was his age....now I realize how incredibly hypocritical it is of me to tell my boys to follow their dreams when I haven't done it myself. So the time has come where I'd like to pursue my dream. Where there's a will there's a way but obviously you all know the industry better than I. I have absolutely 0 flight training and no college education. Is becoming an airline pilot a realistic dream to pursue? Thank you in advance to any response.
02-14-2017, 05:40 AM
#2
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Joined APC: Apr 2016
Posts: 83
Coincidentally, I had this conversation with a friend in his late thirties a few months ago.
Here's the short answer: you aren't too old. However, your total lifetime earnings as a pilot may well fall short of your total lifetime earnings as a welder.
Why? Well, you'll have to borrow money to get your initial training, and your pay as a new-hire pilot will be low for several years while you build time and get the college degree you need to land a job at a major airline. The good news is that if you can hire a responsible manager to run your business (your wife, perhaps?), you won't have to meet your financial obligations to your family based on your pilot salary alone.
Practically, there are several good companies and universities out there with solid flight training programs. I suggest that you look into ATP Flight School (https://atpflightschool.com/equipment/index.html). I earned my Airline Transport Pilot Certificate and FE Written there many moons ago and I was happy with my experience. Once you get that done, you can take those certs and your real-world experience to your local community college or state university and bank college credits based on work you've already accomplished.
Ok, so now you've done all of this, and you're working at a Regional for, basically, ramen money. [Remember: Regional Airline pay scales at the new-hire level are designed for single, 22-yr-old recent college graduates who are sharing an apartment with five other people.] You're taking a couple of classes per semester on line or through some other type of flexible program, and you're also doing some welding &/or leading the person you've hired to manage your business. That child you're looking to inspire? One the one hand, you aren't going to be seeing a whole lot of him. On the other, he'll see you setting an example as a man who sets goals and achieves them.
On a personal note, I was in a slightly different position in my late thirties. I was doing well in the world of systems engineering and technical program management, but I hated my work. I did the math and found that my lifetime earnings would take a massive hit if I switched tracks to become an airline pilot. I did it anyway, I'm now a captain with a major airline and I'm happier than I've ever been. I'll take happy over rich any day of the week and twice on Thursdays.
Oh, and one of my kids came up to me the other day and said, "Dad, I want to be an airline pilot." I can't wait to take him flying.
Here's the short answer: you aren't too old. However, your total lifetime earnings as a pilot may well fall short of your total lifetime earnings as a welder.
Why? Well, you'll have to borrow money to get your initial training, and your pay as a new-hire pilot will be low for several years while you build time and get the college degree you need to land a job at a major airline. The good news is that if you can hire a responsible manager to run your business (your wife, perhaps?), you won't have to meet your financial obligations to your family based on your pilot salary alone.
Practically, there are several good companies and universities out there with solid flight training programs. I suggest that you look into ATP Flight School (https://atpflightschool.com/equipment/index.html). I earned my Airline Transport Pilot Certificate and FE Written there many moons ago and I was happy with my experience. Once you get that done, you can take those certs and your real-world experience to your local community college or state university and bank college credits based on work you've already accomplished.
Ok, so now you've done all of this, and you're working at a Regional for, basically, ramen money. [Remember: Regional Airline pay scales at the new-hire level are designed for single, 22-yr-old recent college graduates who are sharing an apartment with five other people.] You're taking a couple of classes per semester on line or through some other type of flexible program, and you're also doing some welding &/or leading the person you've hired to manage your business. That child you're looking to inspire? One the one hand, you aren't going to be seeing a whole lot of him. On the other, he'll see you setting an example as a man who sets goals and achieves them.
On a personal note, I was in a slightly different position in my late thirties. I was doing well in the world of systems engineering and technical program management, but I hated my work. I did the math and found that my lifetime earnings would take a massive hit if I switched tracks to become an airline pilot. I did it anyway, I'm now a captain with a major airline and I'm happier than I've ever been. I'll take happy over rich any day of the week and twice on Thursdays.
Oh, and one of my kids came up to me the other day and said, "Dad, I want to be an airline pilot." I can't wait to take him flying.
02-14-2017, 06:18 AM
#3
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Joined APC: Feb 2017
Posts: 5
Thank you very much for the reply! I understand what you're saying about lifetime income potential. Honestly, I fell into the welding industry and if making a few hundred thousand or a million less over my lifetime means fulfilling a dream career, so be it. It'd still be a life worth hanging my hat on. I will look into the ATP flight school link you provided. A few more questions if you wouldn't mind answering...Is it possible to get on with a regional company while getting a bachelors degree? Is there a specific bachelors degree I need to obtain? And, in your opinion, if I chased this dream while still maintaining my business part-time, how long do you think it would take? Again, I really appreciate your time!
02-14-2017, 06:56 AM
#4
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Joined APC: Apr 2016
Posts: 83
Originally Posted by tclay1988
Thank you very much for the reply! I understand what you're saying about lifetime income potential. Honestly, I fell into the welding industry and if making a few hundred thousand or a million less over my lifetime means fulfilling a dream career, so be it. It'd still be a life worth hanging my hat on. I will look into the ATP flight school link you provided. A few more questions if you wouldn't mind answering...Is it possible to get on with a regional company while getting a bachelors degree? Is there a specific bachelors degree I need to obtain? And, in your opinion, if I chased this dream while still maintaining my business part-time, how long do you think it would take? Again, I really appreciate your time!
Degree requirements vary from airline to airline. I don't think you need a Bachelor's Degree to get hired on with many of the regionals, but I'm uncomfortable with giving you blanket advice on this issue. You're probably closer than you think to an Associate's Degree based on your work experience alone, and that certainly wouldn't hurt.
There is no specific bachelor's degree you need to attain. I've flown with engineers, historians, economists, you name it. You may wish to consider pursuing something that will allow you to build on your practical experience, like business or structural engineering. That said, there are many respected universities that offer bachelor's degrees in aviation-related fields. I advise only that you consider avoiding really fluffy subjects, like tissue paper sculpture or something (Cue someone interjecting: "Hey, I majored in tissue paper sculpture and I'm now a FedEx captain!").
Regarding timelines, there are too many variable for me to assess to give you a good timeline: do you live in the wilderness north of Juneau somewhere, or are you in a major metropolitan area? How many hours per week do you need to work to keep food on the table and a roof over your family's heads?
I am, however, ready to make some firm recommendations:
1. Run a Google search for flight schools in your area. Call some of the schools and make some appointments to speak with their people and get some real numbers attached to the pursuit of your goals.
2. Run another Google search, this time for aviation programs at colleges and universities near you. Make some calls. Get some hard info.
3. Assuming you live within driving distance of a community college, make an appointment with that college's admissions office to find out about AA or AS degree programs, possible aviation-related programs, and college credits the school may award you for your work experience to date. Assuming you're a fully licensed welder, you may already be halfway to your Bachelor's Degree.
4. This is the fun one: buy a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Steam. Buy a good joystick (like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Thrustmaster-.../dp/B001CXYMFS). Do all the lessons and missions and go through the simulator's virtual flight school. A home simulation won't make you a real pilot, but the skills you build will knock a measurable amount of time off of your time-to-train.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Please keep in mind, however, that I'm just a stranger offering free advice on the internet. At the end of the day, you're going to have to do your own due diligence.
02-14-2017, 07:19 AM
#5
Prime Minister/Moderator
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Engines Turn Or People Swim
Posts: 39,480
You'll be fine, and your timing with the state of the industry could not be better. Employment opportunities are on track to be historically unprecedented over the next 10-15 years, based solely on mandatory age 65 retirements, not even considering economic growth.
The flip side is that while the outlook has never been better, it's still the airline industry which has been historically cyclical and full of unpleasant surprises so you never know what will happen. But there should still be enough retirements to minimize the impact on your career of a run-of-the-mill economic slowdown, or an increase in retirement age to 67. Age 67 could happen, but it won't go much beyond that, at some point civil liberty idealism will crash on the metaphorical rocks of biology (hopefully before an airplane crashes on real rocks).
That said...there's a lot of info here on APC about career changing, most folks doing it are older than you, some are much, much older although they have different career expectations than you do.
1. Unlike fields like lawyer or accountant, you can "try out" aviation before you make the career jump and investment. Go get a PPL, then fly around for fun for a while (100 hours?) and see how you like it.
2. Regionals will hire you without a degree in a heartbeat. But you will need a four-year degree to move on to the majors (there are very rare exceptions but odds are that they won't be you). How to get it? Depends on your finances and family situation...
- Aviation university. Expensive but you get the degree and training done together, plus you get an exception to the 1500 hour rule such that you can hold an R-ATP (Restricted Airline Transport Pilot certificate) and get an airline job with only 1000 hours. Obvious downside is cost and years of school.
- Traditional flight school: You could go sign up now and start your ratings, and train at your own pace. Self-paced could allow you to train as your schedule and finances allow, and also to keep your welding gig going. You'll want to research part 91 vs. part 141 flight training (you would probably want part 61 unless you have military GI Bill bennies). You could finish ratings and probably work as instructor for that school to get your 1500 hours to get hired by a regional. You could work on the degree via distance learning while employed at a regional...you'll have a few years before you have enough airline experience to compete for a major job any way. The hard part here is being disciplined enough to work on the degree between the job and family.
To be a good candidate for majors, you'll want no significant criminal convictions, minimal traffic tickets (if you have some don't get any more), and a very high checkride success rate. Checkride failures do happen but you do not want to have more than one if at all possible, failures in general aviation flight training are more understandable because you're new to aviation at that point and the system is not very consistent. Try not to fail any airline checkrides, avoid airlines which have notoriously bad pass rates for noobs. Also younger people today have been stumbling with social media...I'm guessing at age 28 with wife, kids, and business you don't have a lot of stoopid stuff out there on facebook but you might want to clean that up and lock it down now if needed. Majors will look at that and will not hire you if they find social media evidence of outrageous behavior or fringe social/political views. If your friends are neo-nazis or ethnic agitators, better disconnect from that online now.
Seniority is everything, and it's moving fast right now so if you're going to do it, get started.
The flip side is that while the outlook has never been better, it's still the airline industry which has been historically cyclical and full of unpleasant surprises so you never know what will happen. But there should still be enough retirements to minimize the impact on your career of a run-of-the-mill economic slowdown, or an increase in retirement age to 67. Age 67 could happen, but it won't go much beyond that, at some point civil liberty idealism will crash on the metaphorical rocks of biology (hopefully before an airplane crashes on real rocks).
That said...there's a lot of info here on APC about career changing, most folks doing it are older than you, some are much, much older although they have different career expectations than you do.
1. Unlike fields like lawyer or accountant, you can "try out" aviation before you make the career jump and investment. Go get a PPL, then fly around for fun for a while (100 hours?) and see how you like it.
2. Regionals will hire you without a degree in a heartbeat. But you will need a four-year degree to move on to the majors (there are very rare exceptions but odds are that they won't be you). How to get it? Depends on your finances and family situation...
- Aviation university. Expensive but you get the degree and training done together, plus you get an exception to the 1500 hour rule such that you can hold an R-ATP (Restricted Airline Transport Pilot certificate) and get an airline job with only 1000 hours. Obvious downside is cost and years of school.
- Traditional flight school: You could go sign up now and start your ratings, and train at your own pace. Self-paced could allow you to train as your schedule and finances allow, and also to keep your welding gig going. You'll want to research part 91 vs. part 141 flight training (you would probably want part 61 unless you have military GI Bill bennies). You could finish ratings and probably work as instructor for that school to get your 1500 hours to get hired by a regional. You could work on the degree via distance learning while employed at a regional...you'll have a few years before you have enough airline experience to compete for a major job any way. The hard part here is being disciplined enough to work on the degree between the job and family.
To be a good candidate for majors, you'll want no significant criminal convictions, minimal traffic tickets (if you have some don't get any more), and a very high checkride success rate. Checkride failures do happen but you do not want to have more than one if at all possible, failures in general aviation flight training are more understandable because you're new to aviation at that point and the system is not very consistent. Try not to fail any airline checkrides, avoid airlines which have notoriously bad pass rates for noobs. Also younger people today have been stumbling with social media...I'm guessing at age 28 with wife, kids, and business you don't have a lot of stoopid stuff out there on facebook but you might want to clean that up and lock it down now if needed. Majors will look at that and will not hire you if they find social media evidence of outrageous behavior or fringe social/political views. If your friends are neo-nazis or ethnic agitators, better disconnect from that online now.
Seniority is everything, and it's moving fast right now so if you're going to do it, get started.
02-14-2017, 09:21 AM
#6
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Thread Starter
Joined APC: Feb 2017
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by BounceBounceBam
Hoo, now we're getting into the nitty gritty.
Degree requirements vary from airline to airline. I don't think you need a Bachelor's Degree to get hired on with many of the regionals, but I'm uncomfortable with giving you blanket advice on this issue. You're probably closer than you think to an Associate's Degree based on your work experience alone, and that certainly wouldn't hurt.
There is no specific bachelor's degree you need to attain. I've flown with engineers, historians, economists, you name it. You may wish to consider pursuing something that will allow you to build on your practical experience, like business or structural engineering. That said, there are many respected universities that offer bachelor's degrees in aviation-related fields. I advise only that you consider avoiding really fluffy subjects, like tissue paper sculpture or something (Cue someone interjecting: "Hey, I majored in tissue paper sculpture and I'm now a FedEx captain!").
Regarding timelines, there are too many variable for me to assess to give you a good timeline: do you live in the wilderness north of Juneau somewhere, or are you in a major metropolitan area? How many hours per week do you need to work to keep food on the table and a roof over your family's heads?
I am, however, ready to make some firm recommendations:
1. Run a Google search for flight schools in your area. Call some of the schools and make some appointments to speak with their people and get some real numbers attached to the pursuit of your goals.
2. Run another Google search, this time for aviation programs at colleges and universities near you. Make some calls. Get some hard info.
3. Assuming you live within driving distance of a community college, make an appointment with that college's admissions office to find out about AA or AS degree programs, possible aviation-related programs, and college credits the school may award you for your work experience to date. Assuming you're a fully licensed welder, you may already be halfway to your Bachelor's Degree.
4. This is the fun one: buy a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Steam. Buy a good joystick (like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Thrustmaster-.../dp/B001CXYMFS). Do all the lessons and missions and go through the simulator's virtual flight school. A home simulation won't make you a real pilot, but the skills you build will knock a measurable amount of time off of your time-to-train.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Please keep in mind, however, that I'm just a stranger offering free advice on the internet. At the end of the day, you're going to have to do your own due diligence.
Degree requirements vary from airline to airline. I don't think you need a Bachelor's Degree to get hired on with many of the regionals, but I'm uncomfortable with giving you blanket advice on this issue. You're probably closer than you think to an Associate's Degree based on your work experience alone, and that certainly wouldn't hurt.
There is no specific bachelor's degree you need to attain. I've flown with engineers, historians, economists, you name it. You may wish to consider pursuing something that will allow you to build on your practical experience, like business or structural engineering. That said, there are many respected universities that offer bachelor's degrees in aviation-related fields. I advise only that you consider avoiding really fluffy subjects, like tissue paper sculpture or something (Cue someone interjecting: "Hey, I majored in tissue paper sculpture and I'm now a FedEx captain!").
Regarding timelines, there are too many variable for me to assess to give you a good timeline: do you live in the wilderness north of Juneau somewhere, or are you in a major metropolitan area? How many hours per week do you need to work to keep food on the table and a roof over your family's heads?
I am, however, ready to make some firm recommendations:
1. Run a Google search for flight schools in your area. Call some of the schools and make some appointments to speak with their people and get some real numbers attached to the pursuit of your goals.
2. Run another Google search, this time for aviation programs at colleges and universities near you. Make some calls. Get some hard info.
3. Assuming you live within driving distance of a community college, make an appointment with that college's admissions office to find out about AA or AS degree programs, possible aviation-related programs, and college credits the school may award you for your work experience to date. Assuming you're a fully licensed welder, you may already be halfway to your Bachelor's Degree.
4. This is the fun one: buy a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Steam. Buy a good joystick (like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Thrustmaster-.../dp/B001CXYMFS). Do all the lessons and missions and go through the simulator's virtual flight school. A home simulation won't make you a real pilot, but the skills you build will knock a measurable amount of time off of your time-to-train.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Please keep in mind, however, that I'm just a stranger offering free advice on the internet. At the end of the day, you're going to have to do your own due diligence.
I travel quite a bit with work, but home for us is a small town in Colorado. I'll have to crunch some numbers to figure out what we'll need to get by but I think 20-30 hours a week is realistic.
I will do some googling and calling around this afternoon when I have an hour to spare.
It's awesome that you mention flight simulator!! Didn't think the big boys thought much of it! It's been a few years since I have tinkered with it but for years I was absolutely obsessed with it. I'll get back into it! I've got a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator X already, if that's the version on steam?
Even though you're just a stranger on the internet, I do greatly appreciate your time.
02-14-2017, 09:22 AM
#7
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Thread Starter
Joined APC: Feb 2017
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by rickair7777
You'll be fine, and your timing with the state of the industry could not be better. Employment opportunities are on track to be historically unprecedented over the next 10-15 years, based solely on mandatory age 65 retirements, not even considering economic growth.
The flip side is that while the outlook has never been better, it's still the airline industry which has been historically cyclical and full of unpleasant surprises so you never know what will happen. But there should still be enough retirements to minimize the impact on your career of a run-of-the-mill economic slowdown, or an increase in retirement age to 67. Age 67 could happen, but it won't go much beyond that, at some point civil liberty idealism will crash on the metaphorical rocks of biology (hopefully before an airplane crashes on real rocks).
That said...there's a lot of info here on APC about career changing, most folks doing it are older than you, some are much, much older although they have different career expectations than you do.
1. Unlike fields like lawyer or accountant, you can "try out" aviation before you make the career jump and investment. Go get a PPL, then fly around for fun for a while (100 hours?) and see how you like it.
2. Regionals will hire you without a degree in a heartbeat. But you will need a four-year degree to move on to the majors (there are very rare exceptions but odds are that they won't be you). How to get it? Depends on your finances and family situation...
- Aviation university. Expensive but you get the degree and training done together, plus you get an exception to the 1500 hour rule such that you can hold an R-ATP (Restricted Airline Transport Pilot certificate) and get an airline job with only 1000 hours. Obvious downside is cost and years of school.
- Traditional flight school: You could go sign up now and start your ratings, and train at your own pace. Self-paced could allow you to train as your schedule and finances allow, and also to keep your welding gig going. You'll want to research part 91 vs. part 141 flight training (you would probably want part 61 unless you have military GI Bill bennies). You could finish ratings and probably work as instructor for that school to get your 1500 hours to get hired by a regional. You could work on the degree via distance learning while employed at a regional...you'll have a few years before you have enough airline experience to compete for a major job any way. The hard part here is being disciplined enough to work on the degree between the job and family.
To be a good candidate for majors, you'll want no significant criminal convictions, minimal traffic tickets (if you have some don't get any more), and a very high checkride success rate. Checkride failures do happen but you do not want to have more than one if at all possible, failures in general aviation flight training are more understandable because you're new to aviation at that point and the system is not very consistent. Try not to fail any airline checkrides, avoid airlines which have notoriously bad pass rates for noobs. Also younger people today have been stumbling with social media...I'm guessing at age 28 with wife, kids, and business you don't have a lot of stoopid stuff out there on facebook but you might want to clean that up and lock it down now if needed. Majors will look at that and will not hire you if they find social media evidence of outrageous behavior or fringe social/political views. If your friends are neo-nazis or ethnic agitators, better disconnect from that online now.
Seniority is everything, and it's moving fast right now so if you're going to do it, get started.
The flip side is that while the outlook has never been better, it's still the airline industry which has been historically cyclical and full of unpleasant surprises so you never know what will happen. But there should still be enough retirements to minimize the impact on your career of a run-of-the-mill economic slowdown, or an increase in retirement age to 67. Age 67 could happen, but it won't go much beyond that, at some point civil liberty idealism will crash on the metaphorical rocks of biology (hopefully before an airplane crashes on real rocks).
That said...there's a lot of info here on APC about career changing, most folks doing it are older than you, some are much, much older although they have different career expectations than you do.
1. Unlike fields like lawyer or accountant, you can "try out" aviation before you make the career jump and investment. Go get a PPL, then fly around for fun for a while (100 hours?) and see how you like it.
2. Regionals will hire you without a degree in a heartbeat. But you will need a four-year degree to move on to the majors (there are very rare exceptions but odds are that they won't be you). How to get it? Depends on your finances and family situation...
- Aviation university. Expensive but you get the degree and training done together, plus you get an exception to the 1500 hour rule such that you can hold an R-ATP (Restricted Airline Transport Pilot certificate) and get an airline job with only 1000 hours. Obvious downside is cost and years of school.
- Traditional flight school: You could go sign up now and start your ratings, and train at your own pace. Self-paced could allow you to train as your schedule and finances allow, and also to keep your welding gig going. You'll want to research part 91 vs. part 141 flight training (you would probably want part 61 unless you have military GI Bill bennies). You could finish ratings and probably work as instructor for that school to get your 1500 hours to get hired by a regional. You could work on the degree via distance learning while employed at a regional...you'll have a few years before you have enough airline experience to compete for a major job any way. The hard part here is being disciplined enough to work on the degree between the job and family.
To be a good candidate for majors, you'll want no significant criminal convictions, minimal traffic tickets (if you have some don't get any more), and a very high checkride success rate. Checkride failures do happen but you do not want to have more than one if at all possible, failures in general aviation flight training are more understandable because you're new to aviation at that point and the system is not very consistent. Try not to fail any airline checkrides, avoid airlines which have notoriously bad pass rates for noobs. Also younger people today have been stumbling with social media...I'm guessing at age 28 with wife, kids, and business you don't have a lot of stoopid stuff out there on facebook but you might want to clean that up and lock it down now if needed. Majors will look at that and will not hire you if they find social media evidence of outrageous behavior or fringe social/political views. If your friends are neo-nazis or ethnic agitators, better disconnect from that online now.
Seniority is everything, and it's moving fast right now so if you're going to do it, get started.
I think your idea of trying it out first before I jump in is a great idea. I will setup PPL lessons ASAP.
It sounds like training at my own pace will work much better (at least for the wife's sake) I'm not sure how she'd handle me closing the doors on the company I've built for 8 years to go to school that costs 100k!
I don't mean to sound cocky but I am quite confident that I have the discipline to manage the family and schooling/training. Haven't seen a work week that was less than 70 hours in a long, long time. Countless weeks with over 100 hours.
Now before I get my hopes up too high...you mentioned criminal convictions. I have a dui (bac.093) that was pled down to a dwi. It was a stupid mistake I made more than 6 years ago. Will that completely disqualify me for employment with a regional/major airline? My record is pretty clean except for that. I have one speeding ticket from 2014 and one defective vehicle ticket for a cracked windshield in 2008.
I don't have much for social media accounts but I'll make sure they're tidy. Or deleted. Rick, thank you very much for your time and effort to respond to my questions and concerns.
02-14-2017, 12:37 PM
#9
Prime Minister/Moderator
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Engines Turn Or People Swim
Posts: 39,480
Originally Posted by tclay1988
Now before I get my hopes up too high...you mentioned criminal convictions. I have a dui (bac.093) that was pled down to a dwi. It was a stupid mistake I made more than 6 years ago. Will that completely disqualify me for employment with a regional/major airline? My record is pretty clean except for that. I have one speeding ticket from 2014 and one defective vehicle ticket for a cracked windshield in 2008.
As for majors...odds are good that you could overcome this given the length of time involved, but it could delay your career progression or limit your major airline options. Hard to predict exactly how the future will play out, it depends on the availability of pilots when the time comes.
You might want to look into american airlines regionals with flow-through programs. I think if you meet all the requirements to get hired at their wholly-owned regionals, you'll eventually flow up to american mainline.
02-14-2017, 01:36 PM
#10
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Thread Starter
Joined APC: Feb 2017
Posts: 5
Originally Posted by rickair7777
The airlines don't care about plea bargains, if you got arrested for driving impaired in any way, shape, or form that's a big strike. You'll be able to get a regional job since it was a long time ago, but you'll need to be prepared to address that issue at any interview.
As for majors...odds are good that you could overcome this given the length of time involved, but it could delay your career progression or limit your major airline options. Hard to predict exactly how the future will play out, it depends on the availability of pilots when the time comes.
You might want to look into american airlines regionals with flow-through programs. I think if you meet all the requirements to get hired at their wholly-owned regionals, you'll eventually flow up to american mainline.
As for majors...odds are good that you could overcome this given the length of time involved, but it could delay your career progression or limit your major airline options. Hard to predict exactly how the future will play out, it depends on the availability of pilots when the time comes.
You might want to look into american airlines regionals with flow-through programs. I think if you meet all the requirements to get hired at their wholly-owned regionals, you'll eventually flow up to american mainline.
