To be or not to be? (A commercial pilot)

[jontupou]

I am a 35 y/o Bank Mgr in Australia and wish to gain a career in aviation as a airline pilot. I have degrees in Business and Management and don't know if this just a dream. could a real pilot please give me advise.
Are cadetships out of the question if so how to do it? any suggestions.
Thank You

[redsnail]

There are several cadetships on offer in Oz. Qantas has one, check their website and Ma-cair/ Jet-craft have one too. To do a search for that one remove the '-' from the search query. I can't recall their websites off the top of my head.
Realistically, at 35 you have a very slim chance at the likes of Qantas and Ansett. I am not too sure about Virgin Blue and Impulse (jets). Regionals are more likely to take you on however, you will need a far bit of time, eg +2000 hours, with +1000 twin and some turbine is the current 'minimums' at the moment. There are many other flying jobs that pay ok, eg Flying Doctor, Coastwatch and so on. Bare in mind that you will probably have to leave the city to get the hours up as well. Also, the pay scales is not very good initially.
So, check out the websites of the various companies mentioned, training costs aren't cheap. For pay rates, go to the Osiris site, it is the industrial relations site.

[noaltitude]

Well..thats a tough question. 35.. thats pretty old to start out if you want to get to an airline. Maybe somewhere smaller ora regional ??

I started training when I was 28 and was told I had missed the boat as far as the airlines were concerned at that age !!

But it wasn't my thing so no loss anyway. It actually took about 6 years from first lesson to first job but a lot of that time ws spent earning the money to spend on training. I guess if you are fairly flush you could cut that time down a fair bit.

The bottom line is you either want to fly or you don't. Thats the only question. And you're the one with the answer.

If you are going to go for it my advise is to get as much advice on the way to do it as possible and then get more advice. The only thing worse than a false start is a second one

Good luck

[CrashDive]

Hi Reds, welcome to the UK !