Am I too old?
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: UK
Posts: 317
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
No - but you need to think twice
I'm mid 30's and newly qualified. I left a well paid job to train full time and am still searching for a job. You're not too old so far as I can see and much depends on your personal circumstances and how much you want it. There's no denying that in your mid 30's it's a bigger undertaking than at 22 because:
You will probably be giving up a reasonably well paid career which means losing 2-3 years significant earnings
You will probably have a mortgage which you will need to cover while training and looking for a job
You may have a partner or children to consider
In light of the above you can't easily just go home to Mum and Dad (like a 22 year old can) while you job hunt and live happily on the £50 per week jobseekers allowance because you will have higher outgoings
Fitting in studying while keeping wife and kids happy is tough and it's harder to be single minded than if you were a 22 year old bachelor with no real distractions.
To put some of this in perspective I reckon it has cost me £60 000 to train plus I have lost earnings of around £75 000 after tax so that's £130 000 I have kissed goodbye to! Or put it another way it's a 3 year old Aston Martin DB7, a secondhand Cessna and £50 000 off the mortgage!
If you want to fly so much that you can't ever envisage being content unless you shoot for your dream (which is how I feel) then go ahead. Just remember there will be a lot of stress and worry associated with this career change and there will be times when the £40k job you had before will look very attractive!
Best regards,
Desk-pilot
You will probably be giving up a reasonably well paid career which means losing 2-3 years significant earnings
You will probably have a mortgage which you will need to cover while training and looking for a job
You may have a partner or children to consider
In light of the above you can't easily just go home to Mum and Dad (like a 22 year old can) while you job hunt and live happily on the £50 per week jobseekers allowance because you will have higher outgoings
Fitting in studying while keeping wife and kids happy is tough and it's harder to be single minded than if you were a 22 year old bachelor with no real distractions.
To put some of this in perspective I reckon it has cost me £60 000 to train plus I have lost earnings of around £75 000 after tax so that's £130 000 I have kissed goodbye to! Or put it another way it's a 3 year old Aston Martin DB7, a secondhand Cessna and £50 000 off the mortgage!
If you want to fly so much that you can't ever envisage being content unless you shoot for your dream (which is how I feel) then go ahead. Just remember there will be a lot of stress and worry associated with this career change and there will be times when the £40k job you had before will look very attractive!
Best regards,
Desk-pilot
Should probably start a new thread to really make the point but here goes anyway.
I'm 38 yrs old with 600-odd hrs and about 200-300 on a medium-sized TP. Last week I went to Cranebank for their DEP assessment and today I was told I'm now in their hold pool. With not very many hours I'll be on my first jet type-rating at the age of 38. And by the way, I did my entire training by modular not integrated so to re-iterate:
1. Integrated isn't neccessarily the only route to the majors.
2. 38 yrs old is not considered to be too old by BA.
3. Having thousands of hrs isn't always a pre-requisite.
4. BA, for one, isn't biased against turbo-pilots.
5. Luck coupled with hard work, determination and perhaps some ability can get you there.
Stick with it, good luck to all and don't believe all you hear from the schools or mates who have mates who said etc
I'm 38 yrs old with 600-odd hrs and about 200-300 on a medium-sized TP. Last week I went to Cranebank for their DEP assessment and today I was told I'm now in their hold pool. With not very many hours I'll be on my first jet type-rating at the age of 38. And by the way, I did my entire training by modular not integrated so to re-iterate:
1. Integrated isn't neccessarily the only route to the majors.
2. 38 yrs old is not considered to be too old by BA.
3. Having thousands of hrs isn't always a pre-requisite.
4. BA, for one, isn't biased against turbo-pilots.
5. Luck coupled with hard work, determination and perhaps some ability can get you there.
Stick with it, good luck to all and don't believe all you hear from the schools or mates who have mates who said etc
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: UK
Age: 41
Posts: 103
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
don't believe all you hear from the schools or mates who have mates who said etc
Good luck to you HP. It must have been a whirwind couple of months for you and now you really have made it.
