Career prospects for a 'career changer' . . . . . aged 42
Hi chaps,
This thread isn't meant to be a wind-up - please trust me!
The background to it is actually pretty similar to one posted by 'roundthebend' earlier on today on a wanabee theme. Rather than piggy-back on his, I thought I'd kick off a new thread on an age-related theme.
What I'd really appreciate please are any thoughts, opinions etc on the likelihood of being able to kick-off a flying career in the career-changing mid-40s. Judging by what I've been reading recently on this forum, prospects would seem bleak, but has anyone out there actually done it?
For info, my aspirations to pursue a flying career go back to the late 70s/early 80s via Hamble (didn't achieve the required entry qualifications) and the RAF (i.e. passed my flying aptitude tests at OASC, but failed the Officer aptitude bit!). Given the economic uncertainty and then glut of existing airline pilots (due to the failure of DanAir and others), I abandoned all thoughts of a flying career, and instead joined a high street bank. 25 years later and having worked reasonably hard to earn a comfortable living, I am now taking voluntary redundancy and therefore have an ideal opportunity to 'scratch an itch' that's never gone away.
I'm now doing loads of research into the necessaries to achieve this dream, including gaining a realistic understanding of the present job market. I'm not building my hopes up given my age and the number of much younger qualified pilots already out there seeking work. Whilst I'm in the fortunate position of now being able to fund my own training, with the need to build hours as well get the licences, I just wonder whether I've left it too late.
Like 'roundthebend', I too am married with two kids, and worry about the implications of not working for 18 months+ whilst studying. I would also not want to be away from home for long periods of time (thus ruling out a gun-to-tape integrated course, as well as any false hopes of achieving a role flying long haul).
The one thing I've not got too much info on are other options aside of flying for an airline. I read on this forum about how poorly-paid crop sprayers, banner-towers, parachute droppers, FI roles, etc are. Without sounding like a mercenary, exactly what is 'poorly-paid'?
Apologies for the length of this post. Any insights - whether good news or bad - would be gratefully received.
Kind regards.