Hi coboltblue, im currently doing my atpls and i must over stress the route to becoming a pilot is not as easy as one expects, it takes hard work and sacrifices and a lot of hard work and i stress a lot of hard work..also you may not like the route when you start i.e commitments popping up or the long and tiring journeys, what i will state is book yourself a trial lesson and take it from there see if you like the feel and could you see yourself giving your 100%, also if you do decide to go down the aviation route you can opt by choosing the modular route whilst also completing your cadetship..

Wow, guys.
I thought I am the only with this question. So nice to see other souls.
My name is Krys, I am almost 37, I currently reside in Dusseldorf, DE. Speak bulgarian, polish, english, some german and some french :).
I am still working in totally another sector since I graduated university - selling tasty cookies as international trader.
But recently I was actively thinking of restarting my career, with something I would really like.

So here am I know, just by coincidence in this forum reading interesting stuff and wondering already where to begin. Obviously I am not too old - right? :)
My wife has honorable job - she is a surgeon, we have small kid and I think I deserve to try an equally honorable chance for the remaining 20 years of my career - so why not something that I like ... Being positioned in Germany gives good options for possible start of piloting career when the time would come. But as beginning, any strong advise where to start with the research of training? Are there any training subsidized by companies like LH or EWG, Condor ... or it all depends on personal choice and cost.
Any tips will be highly appreciated.

I am 38.. flying for not more than a year..... I think it is never too late to start something new,
I think if you are not happy, don't waste years with something you do not really like. You will regret it. And time will pass extra sloooooow this time.
However cabin crew is a dream job, flying a plane is heaven, really.

Just fly!!!

Nowadays its easier... theoretical and practical course, home learning, simulator games, flying applications, forums to ask other pilots and everything helps us to become good (better) pilots. Before was "only" the instructor and the book.
So you are not alone! we help you from far :)

Hi

Excellent post. Give us confidence for those that are actually trying to accomplish this. I am 35 turning 36 by June. I got my license in 2010, I tried to find a job but I never did so now I have a wife and two daughters. I own a couple food businesses but never really like. I went back alone to my natural country ( Spain) I have lived in Dominican Republic for the last 7 years. So here I am hoping to get an interview soon

Regards

Jaime

To the older dreamers out there 40+, of which I am one, I would advise you to be very careful if you are thinking of undertaking fATPL/CPL training, because the chances of you gaining any type of flying job apart from instructing is almost zero. I understand how much you want to be a pilot because I also want it badly but after much careful consideration I have have decided that the most rational thing to do is to give up on the dream and deal with it and move on, it is easy to get seduced by the dream and think that some older guys get airline jobs, its tough enough for the younger guys and your life experience counts for nothing, the only previous experience that helps is to have a good degree or qualification, what matters is competencies relevant to flying, which as a older guy you may have but so do the younger guys, and you are not as quick a learner as your younger self even if you dont want to admit that to yourself, the brain goes into decline from the mid twenties. I know myself that I am not as sharp anymore.
So if I was to follow the dream, what would happen is that I would spend a lot of cash, eventually get my fATPL and 200 hours, then I would have maybe a 2 percent chance of getting a flying job, I would then maybe be able to apply for instructor jobs, but is that what we really dream of? no its not. And an extra risk is that if any hiring downturn happens before you finish training you emerge into a quiet hiring market and because of your age you can't afford to wait for the market to turn up again, unlike the younger guys, its all risk and most likely no reward.
I missed a few opportunities in my life to try become a pilot for various reasons. The desire to fly is very strong but sometimes you just have to move on and admit to yourself that it is not realistic anymore, even the 35 year old people are just at the realistic upper age limit to have any real chance, if you are early forties or older then you are way down on the bell curve of hire-ability, it can be difficult to admit to yourself that you have missed the boat. Its not that there is no chance of a good flying job, its that its so unlikely that the risk reward is not worth it unless you are rich and wont miss the money. you might think that some regional turboprop operation would be glad to have an older guy, but there is a queue of younger guys trying to get those positions, ryanair dont take every young guy on the market even in the current hiring boom. So many people walk away with a very expensive piece of paper and get nothing from it.
those are my thoughts on the matter.

You don't really want to be a pilot. Sorry, harsh but true. If you've had numerous opportunities but never taken them, there is always something that has stopped you. I'm 29 and this is my first "opportunity" to be a pilot, and I'm taking it.

Your perspective as an outsider is pretty much irrelevant. Again, sorry for any offence.

:=

Well if that was a response to nadz's post may politely I suggest you start working on your CRM skills...blowing somebody out of the water with a few platitudes when they have advocated their position quite eloquently ( BTW that is something that is a CRM skill) isn't going to go down well in a multi crew environment....

As for nadz's decision itself...well, life is different for everybody and sometimes people can't just drop everthing at the drop of a hat, so I'd be cutting some slack rather than being judgemental.......

There's a difference between someone giving advice who has tried and not succeeded, to someone who hasn't even tried, wouldn't you agree. CRM is taking relevant information to make a decision. We don't even know if he has a ppl.

The poster in question is more than welcome to share his "eloquent" viewpoint, and I reserve the right as an optimist currently working his way through it to encourage people to try the impossible.

I reckon a few folk on this thread need to refer back to post #1 for inspiration.
The large UK airline I work for have taken some quite elderly FO's on with low hours recently.

You are only 29, your situation is very different from someone mid forties, you have maybe 10 years from now to get your first flying job, older guys don't have that luxury. You are quick to pronounce judgement upon me without knowing any facts about my situation, life is complicated sometimes. a good pilot should be more considered and rational than to rush to conclusions like that.
my perspective as an outsider is relevant to guys in a similar situation to myself, we could all just say to older dreamers, ''go ahead and follow the dream'' but the negatives and likely outcome do need to be considered, if you are basically a bit too old.
I have an old friend the same age as myself who flies the 777 for BA and his advice is that its too late if you are my age. There will always be a few exceptions but that is what they are, exceptions, most older guys would just be wasting their money. even younger guys have had to give up after finishing training because they may have graduated into a bad hiring market and by the time things turn around again, a whole load of new eager younger graduates are competing for the same jobs. Times are good right now, but its cyclical and could go quiet again at anytime.

Define quite elderly

Do you posess a PPL?

Say a person has a PPL, has done at least 150 hours,possibly even has some further ratings accrued over the course of their life. At age 40 it's going to cost them £20k to go and do the CPL etc, qualified before 45, still has another 20 years of flying as a career. Why would you not?

As I have said before, without the paper the most you can ever fly is your imagination. Go for it, you're only here once and regret is a hell of a thing to live with.

In that scenario you are correct, if you already have most of the money spent then you should finish your training, but I am referring to someone mid forties who has yet to pay the full 80 to 100K to get fully trained up.
I haven't completed my PPL yet, i started it a long time ago, everything in life is easy until you have kids, then a lot of options disappear quickly.

You mean the full 40k to get trained up?

In that case can I respectfully ask you not to state what makes a "good pilot"?

Back to the question in hand, do you work in airline recruitment?

Late 30's. But I have to say most of the very low hour joiners are 20's. That said i know of one guy in his 50's with very low hours got to interview/sim.

Worth adding that i was 41 when taken on, with TP time only.

You must have started your TP job mid to late thirties. You could probably draw a line at 40 as the approximate cutoff age for a realistic chance to start an airline career, it does happen after 40 but it gets more unlikely, of the 50 plus year olds undergoing training, maybe only 1:50 will get any interview/assessment
and the older that you are, you better have a good pre flying career background story such as a good technical degree or something impressive to prove your competence, this applies to guys over 30 also, it doesn't look good on the cv if you are over 30 and have not achieved much professionally up to now apart from a fATPL licence.

There is no such thing as a fATPL. When you graduate ATO (CTC/L3/OAAA et al) you have, hopefully, a CPL/IR/MCC[JOC]. The CAA does not recognise anything called a fATPL it doesn't exist. You get ATPL stamped on your licence after:

1500hrs of which 500 hrs is jet time on type
You have passed your airlines' line proficiency check/skill test after 1500 hrs
By this time you probably will be bumped up to a senior first officer

For some reason, which eludes me, people on this site seem to think that by passing the 14 ATPL theory exams they somehow become ATPL's or fATPL's.

In my profession, you do become a doctor until you are fully registered by the GMC after 6 months post graduate house physician/house surgeon posts in a recognised teaching hospital, even though you have passed all the pre-clinical and three-year post clinical exams

Correction .....in my profession should read .. you don't.....

The reason most people refer to it as a fATPL,( even some airlines call it fATPL as a part of their requirement , even there is no such thing) but it gives an indication that the licence holder has completed all the necessary skill tests, atpl exams, CPL,IR,MCC/JOC and so on.

Altough an fATPL holder is a CPL holder and working its way to the ATPL licence, a CPL holder only can also be someone that only completed 9 of the theory exam, as this is the only requirement for a CPL only holder. Not all CPL holders wish to work on JAR 25 aircraft.

So in theory if they were only referring it to a CPL holders, it could really be anyone on the list..hence fATPL saying