40+ and pilot job in africa

[jnignon]

hello guys,

After reading a lot of post on the forum about age and pilot job i decided to finally give flight training a go. The thing is I'm curently a license engineer in the US and work for a nice maintance company and I'm 38 years old. Securing a loan to cover my training will not be a problem. I figure it will take me little over a year to finish my cpl with about 250 hours and I will be closing in on 40 years. Beeing from africa I really want to fly down there specialy in Nigeria. However, I also know that in africa age is very important to most H/R folks. Basically older people dont really get lot of opportunities for jobs. A pilot job will be even more difficult to get.
By the way the company I work for right now has a charter department and the chief pilot told me he will give me a try once I'm done. we fly turbo props and light jets. But as I said before africa is really where my heart is right now. I was going to move back there anyway to look for an engineer job before i decided to pursue this childhood dream.
So i dont know, hopefully some nice company will look past my age and give me a chance. Well if it all fell at least I can still remain an engineer.

[Insane]

Are you married and do you have a family?

[jnignon]

I'm married but no kid and wife is very supportive. I discuss all that with her already

[Goffel]

Follow your dreams and forget your age.....you have something to fall back on if it does not work out.

If you dont try, you will never know and will be unsettled for the rest of your life.

There are jobs all over Africa...right place at the right time and nothing is impossible.

Take the plunge and go for it..

Good luck.
Goffel.

[dnk]

Definately go for it - there are a few 40+ guys around who come from different backgrounds, and are having the time of their lives!

[MungoP]

Age will not be a relevant factor, only hours/experience... and if you have an AP ticket you might be very welcome in some places... though if you want to keep your wife happy you might want to restrict your ambitions to the more civilised areas... Botswana / Tanzania etc...

[dnk]

Age will not be a relevant factor, only hours/experience... and if you have an AP ticket you might be very welcome in some places... though if you want to keep your wife happy you might want to restrict your ambitions to the more civilised areas... Botswana / Tanzania etc...hmmph...
muahahaHaHhaaaaa!!

Thats funny.

[chileno 777]

jnignon,

Follow your dream, go ahead...you are still young:ok:
but ...why africa? :uhoh: Have you ever lived in the third world? (holidays do not count) Have you or your wife ever been in Africa? Why dont you stay in USA....regionals are hiring, and think that currently your age will not be a problem at all with them.

[Carrier]

The more intelligent and better run non-airline operators prefer older pilots because of their experience, maturity, reliability and responsibility, as against hiring a 250 hour pimple-faced CPL Top Gun wannabee who beats up every airfield on arrival, drives maintenance costs through the roof, cheeks the pax, smashes the freight, and turns up to work as and when it fits in with his party schedule and hangover recovery ability. They know that a real grown up is unlikely to use them as a stepping stone to the majors and leave them high and dry with no notice as soon as a phone call comes from big iron. Go for it!
Good Luck!

[Gooneybird]

I'm close to that age group myself.

Agree with everything above. Do yourself a favor though and take a vacation with your wife in Africa first. It's just that once your working you don't always get the time and it's worth seeing. Don't expect to get rich here either, especially for the first couple of years it will eat at your savings.

[SAT_BOSS]

Hi good luck; follow your heart. The only hassle is HOURS and then Turbine Ones at that.

You will have to try www.airserv.org They are based in VA USA, they might look at you to do say something like an Ops Manager & then if you get flying the flying is none to shabby good training but pay is low.

Alternative 2 is to get with a contracting company in S/Africa that has a contract with a so called NGO (those are the tree huggers) that have been trying for 30 years to get water out of a tap in Africa.

There you might "come right" if you are prepared to go through the "re schelp" of a SACAA Validation (I heard for foreigners that will stop??? But not sure, check on there website www.sacaa.co.za

Other than that, be very sure about Africa, its a place that does not only have snakes and scorpions, it also has some very nasty things like basic if nil communications, doctors that are about on par with bicycle mechanics in Eastern Europe and roads and cars that are well ... lets not go there.

Good luck!

[jnignon]

Thank you all for your comments. As far as life in africais concerned, it wont be a problem because both my wife and I are form there. She is as ready as me to go back