First Job at 35, with 237 hours.
I'd like to pass on a little hope to most of you 'older' trainees.
I (as most of you) began my journey a very long time ago, perhaps at the age of 6 or 7 (mid 80's). Living in the flight path to an airport certainly helped me get by any slow days as a child, head always held high watching all the aircraft skim my parents house on an 8 mile final to Birmingham airport.
After approx 15 years of dreaming, I left college and headed off to Uni in 2001 aged 21 under the impression I would never be able to afford flight training. I finished in 2006 and thought "If I don't do it now, I never will".
After a long wait looking for work and moving across the country, twice, I started working for a delivery company near London and started my PPL in March 2008 aged 27. My PPL took me two and a half years to finish, with 67 hrs to my name, completing my skills test on Sept 2nd 2010 aged 29.
6 Months later I moved to Bournemouth and started my ATPL ground school at BCFT and finished in Nov 2011.
I spent the next 20 months working in dead end job, paying minimum wage (and sometimes, less), before eventually scraping every penny I had together to move back to Bournemouth and start my CPL/ME/IR in July 2013. I completed them all by Dec 2013, and was then very fortunate to get employed by my ATO as an instructor, where I've been ever since.
For a number of reasons, I didn't apply to any airlines until early this year aged 34, including a recommendation to flybe in April, which unfortunately was canceled at the 11th hour when CTC took over the recruitment.
I've since applied to a number of companies, from the channel islands, to Singapore. Although I was starting to become impatient, I was lucky enough to be offered two interviews in 24 hours at the end of Oct.
The first company I applied to required me to pass multiple online tests over 4 weeks before a phone interview (without warning). After the phone call I was offered an interview and assessment day with 29 other people over two days. The day consisted of a 90 minute face to face interview, group tests, and an advance compass test. In all it took 7 hours.
A few days later I was contacted and offered a sim assessment. After forking out a painful £700 for some practice at Virtual aviation in Cambridge, I headed to the training center and spent an hour or so in a sim (757) with two training captains and did what I was told.
3 days later I got a call telling me I had passed the assessment, but would need to wait a few more weeks for the final decision.
That magical call came yesterday morning. I've been offered a job flying 737s. The contract is in the post, and I start in January.
The total process has taking me almost 9 years from the my first flying lesson.
Stop dreaming and be active in your pursuits. Keep pushing, keep applying, keep current and be patient.
I have friends in their late 40s getting their first job.
Best of luck. Feel free to ask questions.
I am reluctant to mention my new employer, as I do not wish to drag them into an online conversation.
Last edited by Paul H; 9th Dec 2016 at 17:13.