It can be done buddy.
Mate,
I can only speak from my own experience which was this. About 3 yrs ago at the age of 33 and completely bored out of my tits with IT I took the plunge. Sold my fancy house on the hill and got my CPL. The old grey matter isnt what it was and I struggled through my exams with a lot of extra time at the library. Ran out of money and used the little bit I had to build a hot dog cart and sold them to drunks at midnight on weekends to get by. Cocked up a flight test or two and got kicked out by my longtime girlfriends house because, I guess, I had gone from being a provider to a liability. In short i went from a very comfortable, no worries but existentially angsty position to a very uncomfortable, very poor, very tenuous one. Dont forget-I am still only at flight school at this stage and yet to enter the, extremely small NZ flight market. I was crapping myself. Oh yeah towards the end of this I met my future wife and knocked her up. Genius. Life was coming at me very fast.
Too continue. I finally got my license, sold the little-but flourishing-hot dog bizzo which gave me enough to bugger off to Africa where I easily got a job banging 206`and Islanders into short, narrow, potholed, sometimes wet, sometimes baboon infested strips. Awesome flying in areas of pristine beauty.We spent two very happy years there and my son had the first year of his life there. After that we managed had managed to scrape together enough cash to get our arses home to NZ which, at the time had a few promising leads that needed following up. I had acquired about 1500 hrs.300 of which was twin in a couple of yrs. A good start.
Then it all packed in NZ. Said jobs failed to materialise and I wound up sorting peas in a giant vegetable processing factory, living with my Parents, at 37 penniless, wife and kid and yes, I had knocked her up again.More genius. So, after 5 months of this and rapidly losing my smile i get in touch with and old mate who I met in Botswana and he has a gig in St Vincent in the grenadines and they need an Islander guy with 300 hrs on type. They get to fly at night and regular IF hours. I convince the nice people at the bank to increase my credit card limit and off we go and here we are. Again, the flying is fantastic, they are paying better than in Africa so am becoming financial again and year or so of this + ATP and I am looking forward to well paid gig in big plane I figure. Our second child was born here and life, as that awful saying went, is a beach. We are seeing the world, meeting ****loads of good bastards,spending weekends in Barbados and pretty much living like milloinaires on a paupers budget. Gold.
I guess what Im trying to say here. Is that this flying gig can be as tough as **** and if you crack easily under hardship it is not for you. BUT, if you can weather the storms, retain faith in your ability to maneuver yourself out of the holes you, and life, have dug for yourself and maintain hope then you absolutely MUST and SHOULD do this thing as the rewards are enormous, certainly if you are becoming dissatisfied with the 9-5 and the galaxies of bull**** that accompanies it. After years of **** jobs and an ever increasing sense of meaninglessness creeping into my life I am, at last, happy and contented and optimistic.Its certainly not for everybody, the cash aint great but if you keep at it the cash`ll come in a few yrs. In the meanwhile, if you are not afraid to travel you will acquire tonnes of fantastic experiences way beyond the reach of yer average city dweller. Oh. One more thing. If youre significant other is a ball buster, get rid of her cos it`ll never work. My wife happens to be the queen of the planet patience and, none of this could have happened without her. IMHO Its either with a women such as her or on your lonesome that a flying career can work. So everybody thought I was nuts and certainly had some long dark nights of the soul as I wondered how I was gonna make it all work. But if I did, and I say this wilh all certainty, you can.
P.S.It will even be easier for you if you remember to wear condoms.