Jobs for pilots 30+
 

Sorry. I know some of you have posted a similar thread but i am asking a slightly different question.

If anyone wants to PM me on this to save a duplicate thread running, please do so and thanks

My question is:

Have any of you out there got a job when you are post 30 years of age with average hours (500-1000). I am particularly interested if you got this instructing.

If so, did you use a particular line of enquiry when prospecting the airlines etc.

I have a professional CV etc, but feel i may be missing an avenue of hope.

Thanks in advance and apologies if anyone is reading a repeated thread.

Thanks

J.T.K

jtk check your pm's

Yep i did

i had 900 hours TT - most instructing

Market seems to be good at mo so shouldnt be a prob - keep sending the cv's. but when i came outta training in 99' very few were getting jobs.

All i heard was hang in there, dont give up and youll get a job, but doesn't help when youve been waiting a long time. (it is good advice however)

you need to keep those hours going - instructing or whatever really but if you keep going youll get a job, all my mates but one have now got jobs. it took us between 3 months to 5 years to get one.

If youre current, they dont care about age within reason.
I got a job by going to biggin hill trident sim - youll know whos recruiting because people practise for sim checks - bombard those recruiting with cv's. i sent one a week in the end and my cv was on the top of the pile!!!

Good Luck

Yep, 34 with 500hrs and a commercial GA background, but not instructing.

Hey Riddle, you may be over thirty but you look alot younger don't you!

jamestkirk, when I joined my outfit I was 30 and had 250 hrs. What's even more encouraging is that I knew at least 3 others who were of a similar age and experience who also got recruited at the same time.

Don't let the '30' thing put you off.

MB

All the people I know that have landed an Airline job recently are over 30 and have been FIs or involved in some kind of commercial GA operation.

I was 37 with about 350 hrs GA (no instructional background). First job with regional TP operator. Second job year later on BA Airbus.

I had no particular line of enquiry other than applying to everyone over and over and over again! I must have sent 3 or 4 cvs to first employer before I got interview. Interestingly, as soon as I had one interview, 3 more came along within 2 weeks. Interviews - like buses.

36

lots of instructing

Got king air job last year with 2500 ish hours

I asked the same question when I started flying in 2000 realising that I would be in my early thirties when finally qualified, but my ego got the better of me and I gained my PPL age 29! I then went on to gain my fATPL in 2003 age 31. With no sniff of a job, I worked in an office 4 days per week to pay for a roof over my head and an FI course (you have to keep flying)!!!

I did manage to secure a couple of interviews through sheer determination, and found myself in two holding pools where I swam around for months and months! In the meantime I had started instructing part-time, which was good fun. Then out of the blue another interview turned up, which led to the right seat of a regional TP at the ripe old age of 32. Now after 10 months flying 'around' the weather, I am about to be let loose in a jet at age 33!

I know many pilots in their 30's and some in their 40's (and 1 or 2 a bit older than that) who have managed to achieve the dream. I do however know it becomes harder to get that first position once you get towards 40, but if like me, you don't want to be thinking 'what might have been'? for the rest of your days, then the sooner you get going, the better!!

Just be under no illusion, there are no guarantees in aviation and with such massive financial responsibility, the risks do for some, out-way the possible gains

Good luck

W-S :ok:

nice story window-seat!

I am in a same position here. worked 5 years then turned around to get the frozen atpl. now back at work and trying to get some experience done but it's hard. I work 5 days a week, just to pay for that roof and pay the bank :D, but managing.

About to do my yearly profcheck. Wondering if i can stay with groundschool instructing. I might be a bit old for actual instruction, but it is always a thing to think about.

Anyway, nice going window-seat!.

Age should not be a barrier but most Companies will find a younger new recruit more 'flexible' than an older though perhaps inexperienced pilot.

I do wonder about the fixation with an 'instructional' background -I'm afraid that if that consists of solely of single-engine GA it really does not mean a great deal in the larger scheme of things other than a determination to climb the ladder and a means of acquiring minimum hours for an application.

beamer

An instructional background really sharpens your stick and rudder skills and airlines appreciate this. This ultimately increases your mental capacity to absorb other stuff. My FI background really helped when I got my first job on a turboprop. I had more confidence in my abilities when it came to hand flying the aircraft from day one.

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a skipper on a regional jet. He said that even if he does not know the background of the guy sitting beside him in the right hand seat, he can always tell a ex FI as soon as the autopilot is disengaged.

Interesting theory - my thirty years of flying (mil/civ) tends to a certain degree of scepticism !

Have you ever been a flying instructor Beamer?

The problem with flight instructing is that so much time is spent in single engine piston aircraft. This has it's limits. It's quite a jump if you land a job bypassing turboprops straight into a jet.

AL

MJR

Yes and TRE/IRE on large mutli-engined aircraft.......................

Well the TRI/Es that I have dealt with have said that FI experience is a pro and definitely not a con!

FI failed sim check on day I had mine. Couldn't get to grips with handling big aircraft with loads of inertia. Can't really see how loads of hrs sitting next to someone else trying to kill you helps in an airline environment. If it's so helpful then why is an FI rating not a pre-requisite for Line Trainer/TRI/TRE?

This is not a dig at FIs who can be as talented/useless as the next pilot. After a few hundred hrs in the commercial environment I just don't think there's really much of a difference.

I know of 3 FI's who all passed their Sim checks :p

I think that taking someone from zero hours and teaching them to fly is quite an achievement.

Perhaps it tells an airline that you might be interested in a future training role, could possibly handle a training role or perhaps you just wish to self-improve as an aviator...

Anyhow, 31, in a hold pool and doing the FI rating whilst I'm waiting.

Craggs