Bob,
I'm not in a dissimilar position to yourself - age 44, young-at heart, career-changer, PPL passed last October, just waiting for my final Mod 2 ATPL exam results (with Bristol GS), off to California a week on Monday for a month's hour-building and starting my CPL in early Sept. I have every intention of achieving a FO position, be it regional turbo-prop, charter/corporate market or LCC.
It does very much depend on individual circumstances as B-N rightly says. I'm going at this full-time, fortunately have the £££ to fund training (up to SSTR), my family's support and no major distractions (ie kids!) to get in the way. I did a lot of thinking before I embarked on this road and had circumstances been different, I'm not sure I'd have done it given my age. If you go for it, commit to drawing up a written 1-page training plan outlining all the steps req'd, measurables and time frames and try to stick to it.
The job market at the moment is very buoyant. There's an article in this weeks Flight International which makes interesting reading for anyone considering a career as a pilot, particularly via the FI route. Worth getting holding of a copy or accessing the 'flightglobal' www (if you can find the piece). The folllowing is an extract:
....the European instructor shortage may be worse than that being being experienced in the USA. UK carriers in particular are taking guys straight out of training with as little as 250hrs flying because the demand is so great. Then 'they're all being sucked upwards' as airlines at the bottom of the industry lose pilots to bigger carriers.
Newly licensed pilots with barely 200hrs instruction - 150hrs in the air and the rest on simulators - are getting jobs as FOs on Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies (says Earp). Moreover, airlines are hiring pilots at age 40 and 45, which never used to be the case. The result is 'people aren't looking at instruction as a career any more'.
Clearly the older you get, the more deep thinking you need to do re the '+s' and '-s' of going down this route. It can absorb a hell of a lot of money and age prejudice unfortuantely seems to exist among the larger carriers. If your head and heart seem to be saying the same thing, then maybe it's worth a shot. But do your reasearch, plan it down to the nth degree and network like mad.
I wish you the best of luck.
HW