CRJammin

I was told by a FedEx jumpseater that your youngest captain is 33 years old. Is this true? How about UPS?

It was my dream to get hired before 30 at one of the two, but I turn 30 this year I'm now looking at 33-37 realistically I know.

FR8TFLYER

Don't know how old the youngest at Brown is but we certainly have some "moldy-oldies"! Good luck getting on, wouldn't bet on anything in the next few years.

brownie

Whhhhhhhhhhhho careeees

Albief15

At your age you still have time to go get an MBA, a law degree, start a rock band, or perhaps run an internet porn site. I'd say any of those other options will make you more money than hanging around waiting to be a rich airline captain.

eaglefly

It also is a fact that traditonally there has been only one major airline berth for every 7-10 applicants...........and that was in GOOD hiring times. With future contraction/stagnation, 7-8 out of 10 current regional pilots will NEVER make a major carrier. When it comes to these two freight carriers whose hiring is very limited even when they do hire, the odds are better of getting a call from Jennifer Aniston for a date or a knock at the door from Publishers Clearinghouse with a $1,000,000 check.

Many of these pilots still dream the dream, but for most it's too painful to consider the likely probability they'll never see it. For most, if they choose to stay in this "profession", they'll have to be content with retiring on a 70-90 seat RJ. Some will come to terms with that but others will become emotional basket cases around their 40th birthday. I assume in about 6-8 years there will be Youtube footage of late 30's regional captains (and F/O's !) sobbing like schoolgirls in various airline bathrooms or unexaplainably attacking garbage cans or Starbucks baristas.

There's a wave of mental health issues soon to come at the regionals that may thin their ranks as complete and total mental crackups begin to accelerate.

A shame it will be.

SaltyDog

On the optimistic side? If you get hired before 40, Would still have 20+ years to fly with either one.
UPS has a floating range just like the market, age of the airline, etc.
UPS looks like present time to CAPT is 13 going on 15 years. Majority of UPS pilots since 2000 were older than 30. The mean is probably in your 33-37 and have been furloughed/previous cargo operators, etc.
When UPS started in 88-89, there were a number of younger Caps. Today, Majority in late 40's to 50's, youngest is 40. A few 41 one year olds. (Very junior in seat and will most likely lose seat soon with our upcoming bids since the DC-8 was parked with alot of very senior Capts and F/O's needing a new aircraft, reason time to Capt going up as well).
Despite the low point in our cyclical industry, UPS will hire again. The retirements start moving again Dec 2012.
Good luck.

Commando

There are No "Young Captains" at UPS. Maybe 15 years ago, not now. Maybe a couple 38 or 39 year olds. Less than 5 total. And they will be FO's this fall.

So the youngest to hold there seat through this downturn is probably 42-44. Remember, it's a 13 year upgrade now. Soon going to 15 years plus.

MaxKts

What is this world coming to? Emotional Basket Case - Mental Health Issues because of why? Your plans for the future didn't work out the way you planned it! If these regional pilots or any pilot can't handle stuff that happens to other people all the time then maybe they shouldn't be flying airplanes. He11, I wanted to be an astronaut, when that didn't pan out I went to plan B. I was working on plan G or H when I got lucky and was called by FedEx. But guess what - if they had never called I wasn't going to break down and cry or beat up some poor min wage Fourbucks employee. No, I would move on to the next job I could get.

My Grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression taught me an important lesson, there is always work out there. It may not be what you like or what you wanted but, if it puts food on the table then work at it until something better comes along, if nothing better comes along at least you still have food on the table!

Freight Dog

CRJ-

I'm presently the youngest captain at UPS, and I'm 38. Like Commando said, junior captains like myself are about to lose our seats with the flush of DC-8 pilots into the rest of the fleets and loss of flying due to the economic slump. Youngest will then jump to 40 or 41.

You're plenty young, don't worry about your age. More important is your flying background and if you have any internal pilot recs. Getting widebody experience will really help your cause once hiring one day resumes.

MaydayMark

Fact ... when I was hired at Purple in '95, time to WB Capt was about 10 years (I remember sitting as a DC-10 s/o with a 10 year Capt doing IOE hoping I would one day be a 10 year W/B Capt). Well ... on my 10 year anniversary, I was in MD-11 Capt class

I suspect those days are gone now, maybe forever

Rumor mill ... I've heard one of our former LCA/ACP's (SM) was a 30 year old MD-11 Capt? I don't know that for a fact but he does look pretty young