Totally agree with you there Beak.
I started my PPL about a week before my 30th b/day and finished my MCC the day before my 34th b/day. Sadly that was this year so I am in complete agreement that
timing is everything. I've not had a sniff of anything since I qualified, and the only operator to even reply to an application was Jet Republic !!!.
I stalled my training along the way too, partly due to a fear of the Atpl ground school, thinking I was too thick to do it, then struggling to do self study for 18 months before biting the bullet, taking 8 months off work and doing the ground school full time (which in my heart of hearts I knew I should have done all along as I am not disciplined enough to sit and teach myself but learn well with someone instructing me). I actually found it much easier than I ever could have imagined and was kicking myself that I didn't go residential from the beginning. The only other park of my training I did full time was the PPL which I did in just under 3 weeks. The rest, I managed to do around work just taking the odd day off here and there.
Had I have managed my training a little better and had more confidence in myself a bit sooner then I would have finished in the middle of the upturn and may have walked straight into a job, but we live and learn.
If you are starting flying later in life, you just have to be more realistic in your expectations. You are probably not going to make Capt at BA for example, but no reason why you shouldn't at a smaller charter/lo-co/regional/cargo/ airline.
I would think that now might be a good time to start training if you are going to carry on working and go modular and spread the training out over a couple of years to give the market chance to pick up whilst still progressing and having less to do when it does. Giving up work and going integrated is probably not a good idea at the moment though at least until the market shows some signs of recovery.
