Airline Pilot- at my age?????

[jam123]

Dear all,

Please, I need help!!!!!!!!!

I am 31 and work for the government as a civil servant and have always wanted to be an airline pilot. My concerns are obviously my age. Have i left it too late? I would welcome advice from anyone out there, whether your a 747 captain or a wannabe!!

Secondly, i only have 6 GCSE's. Would this be a problem when the airlines look at my CV.

Finally, Ideally, i would like to be able to get to fly the 767, 757, 330's type a/c on long haul - even if it's in the RHS. How realistic is all this???????

Thanks

Jam

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

Jam,

I am by no means an expert on this, however, I would go for it. Obvously there are a number of factors to consider and it depends on your circumstances, for example are you a home owner, do you have a family and other responsibilites etc etc. How will this affect your training program?

While I was doing my APTL's there were plenty of people well into their thirties and still pursuing their ambition. I am sure that some people will argue that the younger you are the more chance you have of getting employed as a professional pilot, however, I think if you are determined enough you will achieve what you want to achieve, no matter how long it takes.

With respect to your qualifications, the better they are the better it looks on your CV, I guess? However, if you have been through the professional pilot training and satisfied the criteria, and obtained your licences, then that shows you have met the standard required. However, on saying that, I am not sure how airlines assess your qualifications. One thing I would say after going through the ATPL's, is, it would help you to be proficient at basic science and mathematics. Some of the modules contain scientific and mathematical subject matter, and even though it is not hard, it may come as a bit of a shock if you have not looked at a maths book for 15 years, which is common in a alot of cases, due to the fact a lot of people fufil this ambition later in life, and have been out of school for a good 10 or 15 years. I guess it is just a good pre-requisite on starting your training.

Good luck.

[strafer]

Jam,

You could use the search function (if it ever returns) to look for similar posts to yours, but there have been so many over the years that it might be best just to page back through this forum!

I personally believe that age is nowhere near the top in the list of factors that will ultimately decide whether you get to where you want to be, the main ones being your character and will to succeed. (But then as I'm not a recruiter for an airline - I'm only guessing too).

At 31, I'd suggest you're at about the mean for the wannabes involved in this forum. You've got 6 years on me anyway!

Buy Clive Hughes' book, do your PPL and good luck.

PS Any Airline captains who want to chip in with a 'I had a bloke in the RHS yesterday aged 40 and he only started flying at 37' type of anecdote would be more than welcome:O