Sgt Bundy.
Took my first lesson at 27, not dissimilar to you but back then I was considered to be an extremely late starter! Also, initially I wanted to do it for the sheer love of it. You know, model aircraft as a Kid, always looking up, longing for something that I felt was out of reach. At 26 I went to TAFE to complete my schooling and became friends with a guy who held a restricted PPL (as it was back then) and an aerobatic rating. That changed my life! HOOKED!
Mate It's like heroin, only some would argue, more expensive! After 2 years of private flying I realised that I would never be happy with the limited amount I could afford, and I just HAD to do it for a living. If I had any clue as to the difficulty and uncertainty of it all, I may have given up. Fortunately I persevered, and have no regrets. Well, mostly no regrets!
What did it cost me?
In a nutshell:
- Every spare cent I had for 4 years.
- Loss of any normal social life, working 2 sometimes 3 jobs.
- My ski-boat!
- An end to annual holidays.
- Any chance of affording a mortgage.
- My Marriage (fortunately no kids).
And that was just up untill my first full-time flying job!
Was it worth it, on balance yes. It's why however, that I am incensed at the efforts of Airline managements (you know who they are) in continueing to erode the conditions of professional pilots, when by and large these arseh@les have absolutely no idea what we have gone through!