What’s the latest to consider becoming a commercial pilot?

Civil Eng

Hello all,

I’ve been giving some consideration of late to a career change to a commercial pilot. It would be, of course, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

However, I have a niggling concern in my mind that I may have left it too late in terms of my age.

I was at the Pilots Career event in Croke Park at the weekend and my concern was heightened when I saw all of the youthful faces?

Any thoughts or theories on the matter?

NB - I won’t disclose my age but it’s above 30 and less than 40 :-)

Dingle_berry

While you were at the pilot careers fair who did you talk to?
Did you notice that most (if not all) of the schools were selling integrated courses? Very little or no mention of modular.
Did you notice that some of the recent graduates that were on school stands were in your age group?
Did you notice that the airlines had a range of their pilot employees there to talk to? (Male and female, different ages, different nationalities)

What (regarding your question) could be objectively inferred from the above?

Civil Eng

Dingle_berry wrote: »

While you were at the pilot careers fair who did you talk to?
Did you notice that most (if not all) of the schools were selling integrated courses? Very little or no mention of modular.
Did you notice that some of the recent graduates that were on school stands were in your age group?
Did you notice that the airlines had a range of their pilot employees there to talk to? (Male and female, different ages, different nationalities)

What (regarding your question) could be objectively inferred from the above?

Hi Dingle Berry, I’ll try and overlook the sarcasm but my question is a genuine question. To answer your questions - I spoke with a good number at the stands, no, no and yes.

smurfjed

Have you done a Class 1 medical ? It’s worth getting that out of the way before investing more time or money.

California Dreamer

Medical

Medical

Class 1 Medical!

Do not do a thing until this is in the bag.

I am surprised that NFC if you talked to them didn’t mention the 48 year old they have starting on their intergrated course this year.

Do not be worried about age. Some airlines will view that as a good thing. You are less likely to join a small airline and run off to the majors when you have your command.

Cost is a big thing. NFC is €82k but add in the extras and you’ll probably hit €100k

Dingle_berry

Civil Eng wrote: »

Hi Dingle Berry, I’ll try and overlook the sarcasm but my question is a genuine question. To answer your questions - I spoke with a good number at the stands, no, no and yes.

There wasn't any sarcasm in my post. There were a number of airline pilots there that began their training in their late 30s. The Irish schools had similar pilots on stand. Most schools not mentioning the modular route tells you about the marketing strategy of the event.
It will be more challenging for you to switch careers but others have done it and are doing it. It'll take a lot of self-initiative - you're unlikely to get a golden ticket (cadetship).
As others have said, first step is always to get a full class 1 medical.

babi-hrse

Met a man who was an airline mechanic for years and he changed over to flying in his late 30s for an airline.

1123heavy

You're age in the mid thirties shouldn't hinder you at all. I would just advise you to try and get on an airline tagged programme if you can, despite what many may say about the current market for low hour pilots, it is still extremely difficult to secure that first job post training.

Just on the NFC, i think EU82K for that school is way overpriced. I wonder are they just jumping on the gravy train and playing a psychology game?

I have witnessed a particular psychology among wannabe pilots, if a school is in the mid 50s or 60k range it's automatically written off as being sh*t, yet anything in the 80+ category for some reason commands instant respect and there is an assumption that the school must be a good one.

A fool and his money ...

California Dreamer

1123heavy wrote: »

You're age in the mid thirties shouldn't hinder you at all. I would just advise you to try and get on an airline tagged programme if you can, despite what many may say about the current market for low hour pilots, it is still extremely difficult to secure that first job post training.

Just on the NFC, i think EU82K for that school is way overpriced. I wonder are they just jumping on the gravy train and playing a psychology game?

I have witnessed a particular psychology among wannabe pilots, if a school is in the mid 50s or 60k range it's automatically written off as being sh*t, yet anything in the 80+ category for some reason commands instant respect and there is an assumption that the school must be a good one.

A fool and his money ...

AFTA is €75k for 0-fATPL

Just on the first job thing. Getting any job is hard. But from what I hear the turnover in Ryanair is still quite high so those looking to get in the door with the fresh 200 hours is still the best option.

1123heavy

California Dreamer wrote: »

AFTA is €75k for 0-fATPL

Just on the first job thing. Getting any job is hard. But from what I hear the turnover in Ryanair is still quite high so those looking to get in the door with the fresh 200 hours is still the best option.

Accepted, but i wouldn't be betting 75k on the off chance of getting a job with ryanair. It is not uncommon to hear that no one of the attendees on an assessment day were successful, on days that there are successful people it is usually 2-3 out of a group of 8.

Yes it's a great opportunity if you get it but I personally would not go into training on the sole hope of getting that, the other jobs out there are few and far between and massively oversubscribed. Hence my personal advice is to train with an airline's backing whenever possible.

basill

1. Whats your game plan and who do you want to work for?
2. Are you happy to shift around the world flying in order to achieve whatever goals you set in point 1.

The largest employer for low houred cadets will be is Ryanair. Getting into Ryanair is not a given and anecdotal evidence would say that over half that apply don't even get an interview. If you were successful with them then you could be based anywhere across Europe and given all the recent press/strike actions I would go in eyes wide open and expect the worst and hopefully be slightly happier with the outcome. I would go as far as to say that you probably won't get based initially in Ireland if that is your goal.

If your dream is to join the green airline in Ireland then be aware that the majority of cadets that we take on are integrated and most are through our cadet scheme. We have in the past taken on other self sponsored cadets that were training alongside our own at Jerez and some others from Oxford as far as I am aware. There is also a very small handful of zero houred "frozen ATPL" new joiners over the years but they are very much in the minority. Some would have come in with referrals or had contacts within the airline to get their CV onto the right desk. The majority of the new joiners tend to have joined with hours from other airlines - many would have tried multiple times to get in over the years.

The industry is consolidating at the moment with many of the smaller airlines facing bankruptcy. Many of these airlines would have given the ab initio cadet their first start in the industry in the past and would have been well respected as a potential source of new hires in the established airlines.

Worry about the medical first but then go and research this industry and understand very clearly what you will be getting yourself into in terms of debt and the possible time out in the wilderness that could be spent trying to get into a career airline - if that is the path you wish to choose.

lintdrummer

babi-hrse wrote: »

Met a man who was an airline mechanic for years and he changed over to flying in his late 30s for an airline.

If we're thinking of the same guy, he got a sponsored Cadet scheme, which further proves that age is no barrier.

A320

lintdrummer wrote: »

If we're thinking of the same guy, he got a sponsored Cadet scheme, which further proves that age is no barrier.

I know exactly who this is, it also proves Keep trying if you first fail.

California Dreamer

basill wrote: »

The largest employer for low houred cadets will be is Ryanair. Getting into Ryanair is not a given and anecdotal evidence would say that over half that apply don't even get an interview. If you were successful with them then you could be based anywhere across Europe and given all the recent press/strike actions I would go in eyes wide open and expect the worst and hopefully be slightly happier with the outcome. I would go as far as to say that you probably won't get based initially in Ireland if that is your goal.

That evidence that you talk about is quite old. Given the exodus of pilots from Ryanair over the past few years they have worked hard on the retention. So if you want DUB, more often than not you will get it. Sure 10 years ago, you asked for Dublin and were based in Poland. Not so much anymore.

Any job is what you make it and if you go in expecting the worse of Ryanair then you will not be disappointed. I know guys who could not wait to jump ship and others who are very happy there so it is what you make of it.

Also if you are doing the course with someone like NFC enough of their former students are in positions to put a CV on the right desk.

Civil Eng

Thanks all for the feedback thus far. Really interesting.

Captain_Crash

I'm in the same boat, mid 30's but its my absolute dream despite stupidly turning down Oxford in '03!

Sometimes I think its not possible but I just have to remind myself of a good friend of the family who several years ago when he was in his 40's time came into a few bob following some good investments, and decided he wanted a career change. So he went to Oxford having never flown a plane in his life (he took an introductory lesson before committing of course).

He's now an SFO on the 787 with BA having spent a number of years on the 777 (Unlike some airlines, BA don't operate with a mixed fleet crew for the 777/787). So most deffo yes its possible and if you do it now you'll still get a 30 year career out of it.