The only absolute age limit is that you may not command a commercial passenger aircraft in UK above the age of 60, so you have a while yet! This forum has many contributors well into their later 30s and plenty over 40, so you're far from unique.. .Unfortunately, as you said, it's a bloody difficult time to be considering flying as a career. A purely objective view would be to say 'forget it, put on the list of thing I'd like to have done', and get on with the rest of your life. As we all here well know, it isn't that simple! A desire to fly is fairly immune to objective logic.. .So, don't rush into spending lots of money just yet, and hope for a strong airline recovery in the next couple of years. And keep contact with your old career - you never know when you might need it!