Commercial Pilot
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Anonymous
| Out of curiosity, are there any pilots or family members of pilots that can shed some light? I'm 46 and contemplating a career change. I've always been fascinated with aviation and wondering if it's too late to start pursuing a pilot license and career. Am I too old? |
Anonymous
| Check on PPrune. Right now the regionals are hiring like mad, because the mainline carriers are poaching them as soon as they make captain. |
Anonymous
Are you hot? Commercial Pilot's are always hot. lol 
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Anonymous
| You may get a job at a small "executive" carrier or very small transport carrier. Most commercial pilots need a military background and training for jobs at United, SW etc |
Anonymous
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Feedback from my friend who transitioned to the pilot's life at age 38 said he was not the oldest guy in his regional training class two years ago. You have mandatory retirement at 65 under Part 121 (most air carriers) but plenty of pilots still fly into their 70s in other Part 91/135/charter ops.
Not true at all that you need a military background to fly commercially. Go get em! There are plenty of flight schools in the area...Leesburg, Manassas, Frederick, to name a few. |
Anonymous
| I should add: first steps would be to do a discovery flight at a flight school...make sure you actually like flying. Next step is to make sure you could keep and hold the medical certificate necessary to be a professional. History of medication, prior accidents, undiagnosed heart conditions will all disqualify you from holding a 1st or 2nd class medical. The FAA takes an archaic view on medicine...so if you have a DUI from 20 years ago or were briefly diagnosed with ADHD as a child, you may face an uphill (but not impossible) battle. |
Anonymous
| School for commercial pilots are very expensive- about 100k. Can you afford to both take the time off and pay the tuition? |
Anonymous
For real! Our oldest son is going to school (a university for a 4yr degree) to become a commercial pilot. We already paid for him to get his private pilots license and instrument rating. Very very time and money intensive. |
Anonymous
| My friend is currently completing the miles flown requirement for her license. She's 35 and wasn't the oldest in her class. |
Anonymous
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Make sure you can get and maintain a first class medical BEFORE you dump money into training. Big things to be cautious of are alcoholism and ADHD/depression meds at any time in your life. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is.
And keep the mandatory retirement age in mind. |
Anonymous
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Lots of great advice here. 46 is not too old but commercial has a mandatory retirement at 65 however a private company pilot could fly longer if you were in good health and can maintain your license. That give you 19 years so I would say that is enough time to do it and get good at it. My spouse is an international pilot for one of the shipping carriers and while not as glamorous it is quite nice that he doesn't work holidays and doesn't have to deal with unruly passengers. Being junior at the carrier could make your schedule a little tough with a lot of hours but that would happen in any career change.
Take note of the person that says to make sure you can maintain a flight physical there are some diseases that will make it hard to start a career as a pilot like diabetes and mental health because of the medications you have to take to control them. There is a also a list of over the counter meds you can't take while flying either like pseudefed (spelling) or any sleep medications however you can take those either 12 or 24 hours before or after a trip depending on what it is. Oh, and take a few flying lessons like one person advised. You might be fine on a passenger plan but in lessons you will learn if you really can take all of that. Good luck! |
Anonymous
You can most definitely take pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) and fly. The underlying condition might be an issue, though. - commercial pilot |
Anonymous
| My son is graduating with a general undergrad degree and is sure what he now wants to do with his life is fly. Cost is a factor. He isn't thinking about a military option. Any current recommendations as to the best route? |
Anonymous
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Op they want 46 year olds too. Not many pilots your age started out in their 20’s. So there is a big age gap around your age group. They need pilots of all ages to keep the pilot numbers consistent as everyone ages.
Flight school will likely be 12-18 months followed by a few years of being a CFI at a flight school. I was at the Jet Blue training center last fall and they had a guy with 1800hrs only on single engine prop planes as a CFI. No jet time required if you have reasonable skills. |
Anonymous
| There’s a shortage right now, go for it!! Best friend is doing this right now, at 37 |