I had the same thought and plan to check it out. Don't want to take any short cut that jeopardizes the value but if it works and I can save a few bucks....

You'll learn VNAV on the line. It should be more incorporated into training, but it is what it is. You'll be comfortable with it by the end of IOE and you'll pick up a few tips and tricks from other pilots along the way. Don't be afraid to ask questions even after OE. We are a very friendly pilot group after all!

Looking forward to the day when I can play on the team rather than just read about it from the sidelines. Patience....

First of all- Congrats on changing careers. I did it a few years back (Engineering to Pilot), and it is straightforward. The water is fine here, the pay is low, but will eventually catch up. (FWIW- I'm in my late 40s as well, and did the switch-- with no issues).


You do need your CMEL, and as people have said here, just go straight to commercial- no need to do private level. Add on the CSEL down the road. Once you have that and roughly 25 hours multi you'll be very marketable. Also, make sure you have the other ATP min requirements (night flight, etc). This is the right time to do this, there is substantial movement coming in the next few years.


As for the folks saying that engineers can't adapt to the airline world-- they are 100% wrong. I'm not sure what your background in engineering is, but the FMS programming and VNAV are really not that difficult, and your engineering degree indicates that you can approach the learning in a systematic way. If you have experience in programming or using software, I think you will have no problem managing the systems. The only difficult part in general is the large amount of information to process in short order- the "drinking from the fire hose". This can be mitigated pretty easily by being proactive in your studying and staying ahead of the workload.


Please feel free to PM me- I can tell you more if you like and what to expect.



Mustang304

Thanks for the good advice. I do feel that, as engineers, our brains are less likely to atrophy than some other professions as our careers move along. I'm a freelance factory automation engineer, so designing (and subsequently staring at) complicated control screens and understanding systems is part of the gig. In any case, I'm looking forward to the challenge of a lot of new learning. Just please tell me that my days of doing laplace transforms ended and died during my engineering education. Some things I definitely don't miss.

Would you know which regional?

I am in that category of GA pilots learned part 61 for all ratings with no glass experience. CFI and CFII. I left my career of many years to fly.

1600 hours 50 Multi etc...

I like how 210av8r got a job offer 10 weeks from this post hating on him lol

Thats gangsta

210av8r got the call?

That's great. Assuming a Stockton boy can survive a Minneapolis winter.....

He got a TSA call, but still.

As for mini.. I remember rolling up to our gate at night in the winter and all the rampers had ski masks, and call me whatever, but I was like.. "what is going on here?!?! Did we just rob a bank??" Then I did my walk around... I came back in the jet bridge coughing and wheezing talking trash saying how I couldn't wait to get back to cali, lol. I was like genuinely ****ed haha. The gate agent was like what's this dudes problem and kinda chuckled.

My norcal lungs couldn't handle it

Thanks for the kudos! Yep, I have been hustling to meet the qualifications - and have been enjoying every minute of it.

Flying around the SMF area a lot, always get a tingly feeling in my stomach when I hear a CPZ on freq.