Am I crazy to be considering this?
 

I'm questioning if I should even be considering this but I am and would appreciate the ppruners advice…………

I'm just 36 and have been in IT for the last 10 years on a nice 6 figure salary and my company has been bought and I'm about to come across a circa $150K payout for my shares. I got my PPL back in 1989 when I was 18 with the intention of becoming an commercial/airline/corporate pilot. A medical at the time diagnosed me with Keratoconus in one eye (other 20/20) and my doctor at the time suggested that I may not have a long career and doubted my ability to hold a Class 1 for the duration - fast forward to today and I have heard of many pilots with Keratoconus who fly for airlines with no troubles and as well mine has not progressed and a recent checkup with a Ophthalmologist (DAME) informed me that I would have no problems holding a Class 1 till I was well into my 60's. Unfortunate that I didn't get that advice years ago.

I recently went back and did an aeros endorsement and find it hard to concentrate on anything that isn’t aviation related and am really enjoying my flying. I’m pretty bored and disillusioned with the IT industry, have no kids (yet) but am married and wondering if it isn't worth one last shot at a career change while I am still south of forty. I will have the dollars to do a CPL /Multi /IR and can take time off through long service leave to do it but what prospects post training? I could do an instructor rating and teach part time & gain experience and consult in IT for a while - may be best of both worlds..........


Does sound crazy I know but anyone else out there ever done what I am considering and have any advice?

Total hours 160
PIC 60
PPL with aeros, constant speed/retractable

Follow your dreams
 

SA,

If you can earn actual money through another job, then continue doing that at the same time you become an instructor. You may well need that security of income. And you might get the odd student based solely on the fact that you've got a few grey hairs, and no excess teenage acne problem :)

But go for the flying mate. You might kick yourself later if it doesn't work out exactly as planned, but it won't be as hard as the kicking you'll be giving yourself every day for the rest of your life if you continually wonder "could I have done it?"

You'll never know unless you give it a go.

Gee SA, I knew a bloke in almost exactly the same position as you are (minus the vision issues). He got into flying without the same passion or healthy respect for the issues around flying though. Sadly, his career ended at a little known place called Clyde.

Anyway, you go for it! Not many of us have the means to get a second chance & follow our dreams. You could probably invest the money & end up coveting the interest, or you can grab an opportunity you had thought lost to you & get in amongst it!

Go get 'em tiger!:ok:

GO FOR IT, That way you will never be old and wish you HAD DONE, THAT!!!!!
Never listen to the experts, go with your gut feeling.
I speak from experience. DO IT, if it does not work out, YOU HAVE GOT THE BALLS TO DO SOMETHING ELSE and you will never look back and say, IF ONLY IF HAD DONE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

The three previous posters have said it all Syd. I can but add my voice to theirs. Go for it!:ok:

me too
 

Hey SydneyAeros,

Me too. 36, different career-film/tv/music, had enough, though very good at it.

Wanted to fly when I was 18 but got no encouragement...

Freelanced all my working life, so no 150k payout, wife, kid on the way.

Bought into a syndicate, used the plane to get my ppl, now on 80 odd hours, doing cpl exams now, looking for an aircraft to buy outright-if I buy one I can sell it in a year or two for more or less the same money.

Get my hours on SE up to maybe 300-400, sell the single engine, buy a twin, get to 500 hours and IFR and then see what happens.

That's one of the plans.

I you want to fly, fly, don't throw the towel in on what you already know though, there's more than one way to skin this cat.

I know what you mean though, it's hard to think of anything else - if I haven't flown for even a week I get edgy, very edgy... If you want to have a beer, pm me.

cheers

I'd seriously consider keeping your day job, using half the $150K to buy a Pitts and get involved in competition Aeros and later on Airshow flying. Very rewarding, a type of flying you obviously enjoy, and I would suggest more financially practical than eaking out a living in GA at your age.

I wouldn't swap my job and the experiences that led to it for anything, but I got in early enough so when wife/kids/mortgage/dog came along I was established and earning a decent coin.

Much as I think my job is a great way to earn a living, if the big Loto win ever came my way I'd be spending a lot more time in an Edge 540 and an ASW 28 than I would be in a jet.

I'm an IT person like you. If I were you I'd take my $150k less tax, and buy an aircraft like an RV or something similar. You could get an award winning RV6 or 7 for that much or less. With an income like yours you'll easily be able to afford to run it. You can go anywhere in the country in almost any weather, in comfort, high speed (150'ish knots) and you'll still be earning more money than you ever will flying commercially. You'll also be able to take family and friends for a fly which you won't be able to do in an airline. When you're done, you can sell it and get your money back. You'll live the comfortable lifestyle you are accustom to, fly on your terms, with no politics and have a great time :ok:

Sounds familiar SydneyAeros. I was guided away from aviation in my teens due eyesight, ended up in an IT career, yet in a disillusioned moment in the mid 90s ditched the booming IT industry for an aviation career. Not flying mind you (no money at the time) but ATC. That might be something to consider (go to the airservicesaustralia.com website and follow career links) as many air traffic controllers enjoy recreational flying while working in the industry comfortably on the ground in the same town as their families.

Only words of warning, Australian ATC management has recently made a large backward step - surprising even the most cynical who thought they couldn't possibly do any worse - and permanently alienated every controller who may have considered a career beyond coal-face ATC.

Probably the same sort of things as the airlines really: don't let screwed-up organisations ruin your passion for flying.

SydneyAeros,
QNH 1013.2 has got the right idea I reckon... Go where you want, when you want, with who you want to. :ok:
Still, if you do decide to get into Aviation as your profession, there are pretty good times right now, compared to the last 7-10 years at least (but that's not to say it's easy, or that it will stay that way!)

CR.

Good luck whatever you choose...:)

Try and imagine losing that $150 grand


Can you claw back from that?

Have you run the idea past the wife? How does she feel about living a looooooooong way from Sydney for the next few years?

If it were me, i'd buy a part share in a beautiful a/c and enjoy flying that. YAK 52TW would do the trick!

You can say goodbye to $100K of that $150K with a GA career if you're aiming for the big boys (basically if you're aiming to get a decent return on your investment). If i was gonna blow that kinda cash i'd wanna do it flying aircraft i really wanna fly, living where i wanna live and flying with people i want to fly with.

I spent 4 years in GA and it killed my passion for being a commercial pilot. The passion for flying still burns strong though, so now i work for a bank weekdays (earning twice what i did in GA) and take punters up on weekends in an old Tiger. Best of both worlds!! Also takes the income to very nearly 3 times my GA income and for the first time what i spent on flying is LESS than my annual salary (it feels VERY good).

The instructing weekends idea is great in theory, but i reckon it'd be cheaper for ya to buy you're own plane and fly it! Plus, what's the demand for a 300hr Jnr grade 3 who wants to choose his own hours?

If flying is what you enjoy then fly! Don't WORK (after a year that's what it is) You're in a position where you can choose how you fly. If it were me i'd keep it that way. When someone else is calling the shots it isn't as much fun.

It can be done buddy.
 

Mate,

I can only speak from my own experience which was this. About 3 yrs ago at the age of 33 and completely bored out of my tits with IT I took the plunge. Sold my fancy house on the hill and got my CPL. The old grey matter isnt what it was and I struggled through my exams with a lot of extra time at the library. Ran out of money and used the little bit I had to build a hot dog cart and sold them to drunks at midnight on weekends to get by. Cocked up a flight test or two and got kicked out by my longtime girlfriends house because, I guess, I had gone from being a provider to a liability. In short i went from a very comfortable, no worries but existentially angsty position to a very uncomfortable, very poor, very tenuous one. Dont forget-I am still only at flight school at this stage and yet to enter the, extremely small NZ flight market. I was crapping myself. Oh yeah towards the end of this I met my future wife and knocked her up. Genius. Life was coming at me very fast.
Too continue. I finally got my license, sold the little-but flourishing-hot dog bizzo which gave me enough to bugger off to Africa where I easily got a job banging 206`and Islanders into short, narrow, potholed, sometimes wet, sometimes baboon infested strips. Awesome flying in areas of pristine beauty.We spent two very happy years there and my son had the first year of his life there. After that we managed had managed to scrape together enough cash to get our arses home to NZ which, at the time had a few promising leads that needed following up. I had acquired about 1500 hrs.300 of which was twin in a couple of yrs. A good start.
Then it all packed in NZ. Said jobs failed to materialise and I wound up sorting peas in a giant vegetable processing factory, living with my Parents, at 37 penniless, wife and kid and yes, I had knocked her up again.More genius. So, after 5 months of this and rapidly losing my smile i get in touch with and old mate who I met in Botswana and he has a gig in St Vincent in the grenadines and they need an Islander guy with 300 hrs on type. They get to fly at night and regular IF hours. I convince the nice people at the bank to increase my credit card limit and off we go and here we are. Again, the flying is fantastic, they are paying better than in Africa so am becoming financial again and year or so of this + ATP and I am looking forward to well paid gig in big plane I figure. Our second child was born here and life, as that awful saying went, is a beach. We are seeing the world, meeting ****loads of good bastards,spending weekends in Barbados and pretty much living like milloinaires on a paupers budget. Gold.
I guess what Im trying to say here. Is that this flying gig can be as tough as **** and if you crack easily under hardship it is not for you. BUT, if you can weather the storms, retain faith in your ability to maneuver yourself out of the holes you, and life, have dug for yourself and maintain hope then you absolutely MUST and SHOULD do this thing as the rewards are enormous, certainly if you are becoming dissatisfied with the　9-5 and the galaxies of bull**** that accompanies it. After years of **** jobs and an ever increasing sense of meaninglessness creeping into my life I am, at last, happy and contented and optimistic.Its certainly not for everybody, the cash aint great but if you keep at it the cash`ll come in a few yrs. In the meanwhile, if you are not afraid to travel you will acquire tonnes of fantastic experiences way beyond the reach of yer average city dweller. Oh. One more thing. If youre significant other is a ball buster, get rid of her cos it`ll never work. My wife happens to be the queen of the planet patience and, none of this could have happened without her. IMHO Its either with a women such as her or on your lonesome that a flying career can work. So everybody thought I was nuts and certainly had some long dark nights of the soul as I wondered how I was gonna make it all work. But if I did, and I say this wilh all certainty, you can.


P.S.It will even be easier for you if you remember to wear condoms.

Fantastic replies here, and I especially like JK's biography. Ten points matey !!

In a nutshell, I think that you really have two options:

Firstly you can do it the tough way, and work your way into the GA scene, with at least a few dark years possibly waiting to pounce on you (along with the bank). But the rewards are there for those willing to work at it (and Lady Luck might have to shine on you).

The other option is to continue working for a living in what you know, earning a comfortable income, and really enjoying your time off by flying for fun. Get your aeros sorted out, and loop and roll on the weekends...

That's a tough choice to make, and only you can weigh up those options depending on your personal situation.
The third option is of course to give it all up - but none of use on here is ever going to do that.

With a 150 G's, 160 hours and an aerobatics background, I reckon you could knock your CPL very quickly and still have plenty left out of your 150K, in fact most of it.

To this end I would definately say go for it! I had my CPL for 10 years before my first big break! Now I did a lot of interesting things in the meantime, but the problem is you are always looking up saying "thats where I want to be".

You have nothing to lose, if it turns out you don't like it, you will never look back anyway! Do as others have suggested and experience life! An aeroplane, some palm trees and a pina colada, things could be a hell of a lot worse!;)

All the best, HH.:ok:

Well said, JohnnyK! Thanks.

Cheers to JohnnyK
 

Great post Johnnyk, thanks for sharing your experience.

A huge big cheer to your wife and the rest of these wonderful better halves that trollop around to these god forsaken places so we can pursue some sort of aviation career. They are not all women either, my husband has got that patience thing down pat as well :ok:

Seems funny that it is predominantly kiwis that bite the bullet and do the Africa thing?

Just like the old days in PNG.

Africa would be paradise compared to the top-end ****e communities surely?

I myself am 37 and building up hour for my CPL while working during the week.
I always ask this question before i do anything. What if some one came up to you and said "you will be dead within the next 1-10years":eek: How many things in life have you missed out on because you made decisions based on money.
I, like JohnnyK have not a cent to my name make that a negative amount, however my wife is learnig to fly commercially as well and will be off to Africa to fly there for the next 2-5 years with probably a kid in tow as well sharing in the dream.
Go follow your dreams because when it is all said and done you shouldnt go to the grave with no regrets!!:ok:

:{:{:{:{ Thats the saddest post Ive read this morning.http://www.augk18.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/c021.gif