Regionals at 53?!?
 

Hi Guys,

I did my time as a flight instructor 20 years ago, went through Pinnacle ground school back in '07 before realizing that the place was a disaster and bailing before the checkride, and have spent the last 12 years doing a variety of other things.

I'm fully current now, but still need a few hundred hours before hitting 1500. I'm nearly finished with an RV-14A (should fly before year's end) and will pound out those hours flying around the country in early 2020 after finishing the Phase I test period.

I live in Orlando and am primarily thinking of Republic, SkyWest, and Envoy for short commutes to DFW or IAH. At my age, I realize that I might be better off remaining at the regional level as an increasingly senior CA vs. moving in five or six years to the majors only to be a junior FO for the rest of my career. We'll have to see how the numbers (pay vs. retirement) work out in practice, but I'm fine with staying at the regionals if it works out that way.

Anyway, am I completely nuts for wanting to go to the airlines at my age? Given that I can't afford to just retire, I'd rather fly than find an office job or continue to slog away at online consulting.

Ken

Envoy and you can retire with AA employee travel benefits for life with 10 years in.

Definitely doable, just remember you’re going to need to work very, very hard to get through initial. Make sure to show up with great instrument skills. I’ve had older students knock it out of the park and others that were let go after just a few sims. The two factors that seem to make a difference are effort (which you have control over) and instrument skills (which you can’t really improve in a meaningful way after class starts).

Good advice; I'll certainly take it to heart.

I have a decent amount of instrument time for my total hours (about 18%, approximately 2/3 of which is actual), but that's all in the past but for recent time getting current. I'm planning to get a thorough sim workout (at least 10 hours) before reporting to class. Assuming I get an offer, of course.

I’d get at least 100 hours under your belt before class. Preferably all or most while under the hood.

Just to clarify: are you saying that my total sim/actual time should exceed 100 hours or that I should plan on obtaining 100+ hours of recent instrument time (either sim or actual)?

If the former, then I'm all set and just need to be current and sharp. If the latter, then I'll make a point of finding IMC while adding hours in my RV. Actually, that's a good thing to do in either case.

I would get 100 hours of recent experience, with the majority of it being IFR. That seems to be the biggest indicator I’ve found of success among the career changer crowd. The ones without a great quick scan really struggle. You’re shooting approaches at 145 knots, the scan has to be good or everything just kind of falls apart.

Got it; thanks. As you said, my own level of preparation and effort is something I can control. I’ll do everything I can to be ready for success.

I wouldn't consider any time that I flew 12+ years ago, although legal to count towards the 1500, as very useful. It is like trying to remember something that you learned in High School over a decade later.

You need to have recently of experience to be successful. The pilots that have 1500 hours over 20 years of flying rarely pass training, especially if they have big gaps where they did not fly.

If they were an airline pilot 10 years ago and have only flown 100 hours in the past few months, they would probably be successful. Only a CFI 20 years ago, it is not as straight forward.

Go out and fly at least 100 hours of recent, good quality time (including actual instrument, some multiengine, and in busy airspace) and then re-evaluate where you stand.

Fair enough. I’ve been flying the Duchess around lately and am certainly planning to put several hundred hours on my RV early in 2020 prior to submitting any regional applications.