my $0.02 worth,
1) I didnt fly at all until age 32 and got my north sea job age 36,
one of the operators is unlikely to pay for an IR if they were recruiting (which they arent) if you are 40 or more.
the other operator (who also arent recruiting) seem a little more relaxed than this,
however if you have £30k extra to pay for your own IR it will be less of a problem once recruitment picks up, but you will have spent about £40k on the CPL + £30k on the IR i.e £70k wow !!!!!
2) I dont see a problem at all onshore as long as you have the £££'s and accept that you will probably need to do your instructor rating after your CPL at heavy initial cost in order to make the risk worth it
ab-initio to CPL + no insructor rating = £40k + high risk
ab-initio to CPL + instructor rating = £60k + lower risk
if you think you can do your CPL and get a job with 185 hours onshore you are likely to be diaspointed and get dejected about it
