You seem to forget / ignore the cost of typerating. Although your calculation of getting your CPL at 200 hours, you will still need to hour build at least 100 Hours, most likely more, as you also require 100 hours PIC. 100 hours hour building will be around £15.000 in a C152.

TR another £30.000,

So even if you manage to do your courses at £45.000, you still looking at £90.000

For some of is this is a significant amount of money, for you maybe it's not.
And you try to tell your wife that she has to sell her Audi A4 that she brings the children to school with, because you want to blow £90.000 on training, where you only have 5% chance to get a job, where you will be making £1200 - £1400 a month for the first 2 years, after you spent 2 years training, that's total of 4 years - she what she will say to you?

As I said, you are 25, you don't even have an idea of what the starter pay in the business is. Again, this is thread / replies I have been giving does NOT apply to you, because you are just a babyface still.

Your figures are off. 200 hours before the skills test, of which 100 PIC, 5 at night.

Hour building £10,000 or less depending on country and aircraft desired. PPL as little as £6500, ATPL £2500,CPL ME IR £16,000 at Bartolini. MCC + JOC- your choice. None of this comes anywhere close to your supposed £90,000.

Again, the wage for RYR and EZY are stated after line training of above £40k, unless the wikijobs figures are incorrect or I misunderstand them.

As was stated by another poster, if a company wants you to pay for a TR, you have a job flying that aircraft. Most would consider that an investment worth making.

Where are these airlines paying £1500 a month, I'll put them on my list as "most likely to hire me".

Cadet pilots in easyJet start on a lot less money. Their first year at easyJet they are contractors, ie not directly employed by easyJet.

Ah ok, I watched the program on ITV and they said £40k. Where do you get your information from?

Lucky the modular route won't take you to easyJet first as a general rule.

Don't believe everything you see on TV.

Husband is a long term captain at eJ in the UK. He's also one of the union reps there.
I'm a 10 year captain at NetJets Europe.

Interesting that EJ allowed it then.

Maybe you should see the program and see that it's sales program for CTC training. Cost £120.000 the ticket.

And there's me thinking it was just an interesting program for ITV. I'm far too naive for this game

You can compare some modular course costs here:
http://https://www.wingsalliance.eu/...et-calculator/

The normal caveats apply regarding living costs/loss of earnings etc.

Believe me, it's significant money for me, otherwise I would not be working and studing at the same time. :p.

I understand that the answers that you gave were not for me, and I know that you know better than I do about the situation (never meant to offend you).
I was just trying to give a more optimistic point of view for those who were asking.

Best luck to all wannabes and pilots!

Anecdotally, I would conclude that anyone seriously considering going down this route at a later stage in life would be best served by gaining employment within aviation in a non-flying role, and learn as much as they can about the training & recruitment system.

Not only does this get your face known, but it also injects some reality into the 'dream'. People in the industry are also willing to help when they can.

Just my 2p worth.

GIVE A MORE OPTIMISTIC POINT OF VIEW? :ugh:
Why should I lie? Why should I encourage someone to take a risk, that can lead them to loosing all?

It's much easier to recover in life if you try and fail at 25, than you try and fail at 45.

Unfortunately I can't disagree with to much of what you say, and I have not been a lifetime within aviation, I have many times been safety pilot for newbies, only to see the same people 12 - 24 months later, being completely exhausted and jaded from the work, and to see them like this at 25, knowing they have still another 40 years left, is a very sad sight.

Have a read at TC's, it seems many here havent, and believe this is the road to great riches and lots of gold, it isn't.

As short follow up to "button push ignored" - working full time in the "Short haul" Lo Co - full time over 5 - 10 years, if you approaching 45 -50 and have family commitments, a life outside aviation, extremely hard.

This is the reason that we today see this becoming more and more a part time job, as the pressure and long working hours, makes it extremely hard to do this job full time with the way the companies are running their operations at the moment.

This is another aspect that many of you who want to start in training in your 40's need to consider. Considering that you can only survive this long term if you are part time, than that means you need wave goodbye to the + £100K salary when you reach the LHS, as it is extremely fatiguing to work Short Haul like Ryanair etc. full time and do close to 900 hours every year.

As an example, let's just use the figure of a Captain, pay is approx. £120.000 before tax. Example flight time is 900 hours, you will do approx. 1800 duty hours. The 900 hours is just your block hours, duty hours is approx. close to double. Just out of interest for the maths, we say you do 1650 duty hours.

After taxes, pension, and National insurance, you will have around £5500 left net a month. For 12 months this is approx. £66.000 net. Not bad is it?

Now you work 1650 duty hours, this means your average hourly pay is approx. £40 an hour after tax. This is the hourly rate for a Captain, and FO, you can divide the figure by approx. 3 or 4 depending on what company you work for, and experience level.

Your peak season is in ALL the school holidays of your children, so for you to get leave the same time as your family / children is like winning the lottery, it might happen once every 5 to 10 years if all works out.

When a jet engine spools up I get a rush of adrenaline through my body. Worth every penny, spent, or lost in wages in my opinion.

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

And what if you are 60?
 

I am just going to throw this into the ring, so you can have a laugh (at me?), and maybe make the 50 year olds feel REALLY GOOD!

Yes I have made a few bad choices and now I am 60 (only just), and wish that I was flying every day of my life instead of once a fortnight out of the aéroclub.

I am happily married with three grown up children, no mortgage and still ten or fifteen years of work ahead of me (I am self employed surveyor and part time ATPL lecturer in Air Law).

I have my PPL (I fly mostly Piper 28) and am based in LFMD.

The big question, have I really left it too late, is my dream of some (any) commercial flying activity, now just a dream, or is there still a niche out there for someone like me?

Is it even too late (not worth) putting the effort in for the CPL? :rolleyes:

Equation is different if you are 25 or 45, you are kind of missing the point completely. :ugh:

I don't think so. From a modular perspective there has to be something that drives you. 5, 15, 25 or 45, if you press your nose up against the glass at a departure lounge and can't imagine anything more satisfying than sitting in that cockpit, or the rush from advancing the throttle, and that incredible moment when you break a grey rainy surface and into crisp beautiful sunshine, and it makes you feel 5 years old all over again.

That's what I feel, I would suggest if others feel the same, regardless of age, they are forever going to look at jets going over and think, "what if?".

Forgive me for being all wide eyed and optimistic, but there is really nothing else I could see myself doing now, and I would recommend everyone who has the opportunity to at least try, to do so.

Rouretan, do the CPL if you want to sharpen up some of your flying skills, I doubt you will get a job in a multi crew environment because of your age. Single pilot AOC ops are out as well, as far as I can remember if you are 60+ then you would have to fly with a rated/qualified safety pilot. Maybe get a job towing gliders or something, perhaps instructing as that may be an option.

With regards to the over 40 mid life crisis mob, well.. I have to ask the question; if the passion has been burning all your life then where has the motivation been all these years? Why no PPL, why no airforce career? People with life long ambitions of being pilots more often than not try and be pilots, or at least work around aircraft!

There is some good advice that's been dished out above, realities of that advice are very real. Airline recruitment departments have never been banging the doors down of 40 year old ab initio pilots. The new hires in this category are usually twenty somethings to early thirty year olds, usually of a very high calibre! You will not only be fighting the recruitment team but you will up against some pretty sharp malleable cookies keen to impress (probably all with first time test passes) contrary to what some think, newbies with no experience are sometimes asked about this.

Earning potential wise, you have to seriously consider that should you make it through training, the best you can realistically hope for is a regional turboprop/jet job with a pay cheque to match. That means earnings in the low thirties max until you are qualified to be considered for a command, perhaps 4-5 years. You will be praying that the market has not turned when you finally pass out because if it does, you will be left with ever diminishing skills and some useless bits of paper in a blue plastic book! This is when the real realities kick in, you will effectively be unemployable as the sea of experienced out of work rated pilots take whatever scraps are on offer. You will be obliged to maintain your precious new skills at great cost to yourself!

Money and time to burn? Then go for it. Looking to scratch a life long aviation itch? Go and get a PPL, trust me it's very fulfilling and a damn sight cheaper.