The perpetual 'Am I too old?' thread

[BusAirDriver]

"MotoRinzler"

First you should try to read the posts properly, and digest them as they are intended to be. Most of us guys who have been few years or many years in the job, are giving our time to give our advice, understandably they are subjective, but NOBODY has any interest to deter you from taking it up, although this could avoid regrets in the future.

First you need to adjust your figure upwards, you will need to include a TR in your equation. What you have to remember, that when the novelty has worn of, this becomes a job, admittedly most of us love the job, but the way it has changed with TC's, the only way for many to survive without working themselves to death is to work part time.

Age is a negative drawback if you want to get a job in the UK, with low hours, little experience, I would say getting a first UK job with an airline will be very hard. The selection procedures for various companies are different, and much of the initial selection is geared up towards abilities that at least for me would have been easy to do when I was 20, a bit harder to complete when you 45. Psychometric tests etc.

You talk about first time passes etc., and how the companies view this. First of all these things are not often decisive, however if you have many fails and resits, it could be viewed as you are a "slow" learner, and this could be indication of possible future training issues.
Because they have so many applications in that category, the companies can cherry pick the ones who have all first time passes, specially on the flying skills test, I would say this is more important, rather than the ATPL theory.

But to give you an example this is few years back, and was just a rumour I heard, but they would only consider your application if your ATPL score was average of 90%, and you had all first time passes on your CPL /IR, they could do this, because they had thousands of applications.
The selection of age, can be done in many ways, trough tests that are simply easier for someone to do when they are 20 than when they are 45.

I have heard guys getting into other positions with companies, and manged to get themselves into the flying seat.

So initially get your figures right, £80.000- £90.000 - and expect that get a first job you will have to move abroad, being paid peanuts, now if you feel that is something you can live with, never being home, not just because you working long shifts, but because you will be away for 7 - 14 days in a stretch, to get 3-4 days at home in between, than you are increasing your odds slightly to get a first job.

You will with 99% certainty NOT get a job in your own backyard, and most likely not even in your own country. After 2 - 3 years, and few thousand hours than this is very different, but until than that's how it is.

I know experienced guys in their 40's - 50's, with thousands of hours on Jets, that example don't even bother to apply for BA, because they don't want to start writing essays, doing Verbal reasoning, Maths tests and silly computer games to get trough to the interview stage in the selection, this is the way many companies make natural hurdles, that greatly disadvantages older candidates, and many simply don't even bother to apply.

Also if you was so passionate, why did you not take your PPL before, example I started my PPL when I was 17, sure I had a long gap until I took my CPL/MEIR etc., but it shows it's not just a midlife crisis.

Furthermore you talk about renewal / current costs, first keeping your SEP valid, at least you have fun flying for those hours, renewing your IR, is a skill that needs to be maintained, which is not very easy to do if you are never flying.
You than have to include the cost of some extra sim training, and if you get an interview and get trough to the sim, you need to add a few thousand pounds to help you prepare for a selection sim.

The Sim and the Personal interview is probably where most people fail.
Initial advice is do first a Class 1 medical, than start on PPL, see how you get on with that, time to study and how you enjoy the flying, and take it from there.

Regarding the money aspect, it seems it does not matter for you if you make £1000 - £1400 a month, with 2 households, than it's just to go ahead.