Please excuse my ignorance. I'm sort of in the same boat albeit 30 yrs old, not 40. Anyway, wouldn't it be advisable to train while the jobs are scarce so that when the market begins to pickup you are primed and ready to look for jobs? Otherwise, if you wait for the good times to come you will still have to train anyway and then be stuck back in the next lull.
I know it's getting a little off track but I just thought I'd ask those in the game. Only hang up I can see is that even after training you will still have low hours....

OK, I've started something here, let me try again ...

This highlights the point I was trying (failing?) to make - I'm not doing it for the money. I've had highly paid jobs with no life - what's the point, you're only here once ? Fair enough I realise I might never get anywhere with it but if you don't try you never will.

Sounds reasonable to me !

Its all about the art of the possible. Can you get a FATPL at 40?
Absolutely.

Can you get a job at 40, and a first flying job at that?
Well it depends a lot on expectation, attitude and ability.

At the moment the job market is awful, and airlines are looking for the cheapest possible solutions commensurate with the experience they require.

I think you have to be prepared to be in the wilderness for a couple of years whilst the world gets its act together.

The key is to be in touch with aviation all the time, and if you can, to be in touch with it in such a way that a potential employer regards you as a known quantity.
For example, work as cabin crew, work in ops, work in ground services etc etc.
Dont underestimate the Human factor in recruitment.

The alternative is to sign up for the whole line training package etc etc. this is however, expensive, and difficult to justify without some reasonable expectation of a job at the end of it. In the good times F/o's on such schemes found themselves instant employment. Now however many of the recent graduates have found themselves out on a limb after 6 months and 300 hours. Some will never return to aviation, will work like dogs to pay off their bank arranged "sponsored" overdrafts, and tell people that it was great while it lasted.
Others, for whom flying was maybe more than just a bank job, will go the extra mile and stay in touch with aviation.

The latter category stand a good chance when recovery sets in.

Its not all gloom, but at 40, if its just money you're after, you are barking up the wrong tree.
With realistic goals you may well succeed, and, like everything, if your not a player, you cant be in the game.
In other words, you may well make your own luck simply by being in the right place at the right time, clutching the right bits of paper and able to start on Monday!:ok:

In response to icarter:-

There is a clock ticking I am afraid once you start on the "professional" element of your training. Download a copy of LASORS from the CAA website. Once you take your first ATPL ground exams then the clock starts ticking. There are various rules regarding the number of sittings you are allowed and the overall time to successfully pass all 14 exams. There are also further rules pertaining to obtaining a CPL and IR within a period of time. Its all set out in Section J of LASORS. Its a must read.

I believe there might even be some 'concertina' of wannabe ages due to the recession.

If you complete training aged 35 - 36 ish then spend years looking for a first job. Guess what; you too are 39 - 40!!

With the advent of 'pay to fly' schemes training at aged 40 just isn't a problem anymore.

First let me say I wish u no disrespect, but whirlygig hit it right on the head. High intensity sim and line training are a young mans game. I'm talking 121 style training where pressure is always there. I did my last type (MD-11) at 46 and damned near did me in.
I was a check airman my last 15 years and knew if my next trainee was 40+ (f/o) it was going to be a sh@tload of work for me, if 50+ and capt. trainee really a sh@tload of work.
Read that book of the 100 greatest people of all time and you will find the vast majority of discovery was in their 20s.
Don't mean to rain on your parade and you can do it if given the chance but you will need to be more dedicated and motivated.