Mike, you say you have few contacts in the aviation industry. So you might not really know what you're letting yourself in for. Its not just about flying nice aeroplanes, its another lifestyle completely, wherein you sacrifice your spirit, your money, your time (especially those very early morning hours) , probably your family, possibly your life, and you get jerked around from pillar to post in a never-ending battle against everything from gravity to the roster clerk. If in the background the bank manager was smiling begnignly at you, all of the above would be easy to take, but he isn't. In fact, he's in the queue after your wife's lawyer for his pound of flesh. Which you have none of because you have been subsidizing your own salary for 2 years because first jobs don't pay so well. You fly crappy aeroplanes for dodgy companies owned by greedy moneygrabbers in any weather because there's always someone else who'll jump in and do it if you don't.
Even as you start to fly bigger aeroplanes, airlines etc, there's still the politics problems, if you're not in with so-and-so you'll be on the -200's forever. Or out on your ear. And other little things which sort of pricked the bubble, like having to fly planes with gaudy adverts all over them. Your roster is a disappointment, although the reading of it is not so bad now your wife doesn't moan anymore - she's upped and left.
Ever felt like writing a book entitled 'The Worlds Worst Hotels' because you're in a fine position to start it right from the beginning, too! Another winner, if you go to Africa to build hours like many pilots have to do these days, would be 'How I got Dysentry and Malaria' by Mike Lewis, or worse, 'Kidnapped by Rebels - the story of Mike Lewis' by A. Reporter.
But don't let me put you off by that.
Let me put you off by reminding you that in five years time, if you went into aviation, you will, if you do well, be F/O with an airline, on a pretty meagre salary, rented house, 7 year old car, and you will have spent all that money training and supporting yourself through training, call it 100 grand at the end of the day. So you're a hundred grand (with 3 years interest) down, and on a salary which is a third or very probably less than a third of what you were making as an IT consultant. Worst case scenario is you are unemployed after having spent the last 4 years after doing your training getting shunted from pillar to post from one twin piston to another, on your third remortgage. I've seen it happen many times.
After 5 years as a contractor you would have still had the hundred grand, plus you would have had another hundred saved at least. Two hundred, maybe three hundred grand in your pocket, six-grand-a-month salary, house paid for, nice car, share in an aeroplane at the local club, holiday when you want, no real limit on off days, you charge your hourly rate, you live where you want to live, you sleep where you want to sleep, the wife's happy, the future looks fine. Your future doesn't depend on a 6-monthly medical exam.
Have a word with a few insiders before you commit yourself, is all I'm saying. Find out about all the peripherals which go with taking the commitment aboard.
If you're still happy to fly, fine - spot you through the windscreen!
