lstorm2003

I wonder if anyone has some tips for me... I wonder if this story sounds familiar to anyone else out there too:

I've always wanted to be a pilot. Life long dream. Now all of a sudden I'm 31 and I'm still not a pilot. What happened?! Well I graduated college with a B.S. in Computer Information Systems back in 2000. Just as I was about to graduate a friend who recently got his pilots license took me up in a 152.

I was hooked. I immediatly signed up to start lessons myself. Now, I was in college mind you, so I had no money, but I had plenty of credit cards. I was a big time spender with that plastic money. So I finished my private quckly (about 6 weeks). After this I was a recent college grad with my newly minted pilots license, but it was time to make some money. If I had the choice I would have kept on with flight training, but I was already 5000 in the hole from the private and I needed a job.

I went out and got a computer geek job making about 40k/year. I was 23 at that time. Once I had an income I figured I would start my IFR ticket too. Well I did, but 40k/year doesn't go far when your paying over $100/hour for instructor and airplane. Any case, long story short I managed to finish my Instrument rating and my Commercial Single within that first year. I was driven. Quite motivated to become a professional pilot.

About half way through the second year at my computer geek job I started twin training. I also was making about $62k a year by now so I was getting to like this geek job a little more. A big part of the reason it was going to be so easy for me to switch careers initially is that I wasn't making any money anyway. But now I was making a bit more so I was thinking about that pay cut already. My twin training went well. I was lucky enough to still be using my same CFI I had for instrument & commercial. (forget the guy who did my private, he was terrible). But this instructor that I had now was fantastic. He was also no longer instructing, he had since left the FBO for a job flying to the bahamas in a 135 charter operation, but he agreed to continue with me. He was also kind enough (as was his boss) to allow me to sit right seat for many of the 135 flights to the bahamas. The flights were in an Aztec and also a Navajo so we were limited by weight. But anytime there was extra capactiy I went along, and the legs were usually only 1 way with passengers, so I couldn't fly those legs, I was just along for the ride, or maybee just worked the radios, but on the empty legs I would get to fly. For FREE! Wow what a deal I had. I was amassing lots of right seat time very quickly. I didn't know how lucky I was.

So we did my twin training pretty quick as I already had lots of twin time in the Aztec & Navajo, but when check ride time came Airborne Systems, at KFXE who was providing the airplane screwed up numerous times. The first time I showed up at the airport with the DE, and one of their instructors had taken the twin Seminole (their only 1) to Naples without checking the schedule to see that I had scheduled it for the morning at 8AM for a damn checkride! I was ****ed. The DE was understanding though and allowed me to reschedule. The next 2 checkrides were cancelled because the plane was having maint. issues. And the next one was cancelled due to weather. Wow I was frustrated. Finally the day came, did the oral no problem, got in the airplane all the way to the run up area and the CHT gague on the left engine was INOP. Anyway, I think you could argue if it was legal to fly like that or not, but the DE wouldn't have any part of it. We brought the airplane back and parked it. I was so frustrated. I had to go out of town for businesses (computer geek stuff) the next day so I knew that was my last chance to do the check ride for awhile. I was out of town for 6 weeks and when I came back I sort of lost my motivation to do the check ride at all. This was in 2003.

Fast forward another year... I got another raise and found myself making around 80k/year. For the next few years I just sort of flew around renting airplanes here and there for fun. I lost touch with my favorite CFI who I used to fly part 135 with. And at the time I didn't care too much because I had sort of given up on aviation. I saw my poor CFI driving a piece of crap car, and barely making ends meet flying 135 and free lance instructing. There were too many pilots and not enough good jobs. So I sort of gave up for awhile.

Well here I am now 31, in 2008, still at the computer geek job, now making $107k/year, bought a house, and a new car, and I'm just not totally happy with my career. The money is great. But I don't like computers. I only went into the field because of the money. Problem is I'm also very good at what I do. So my company keeps throwing more money at me. How can I leave when I'm doing so well financially? When I was 20 years old I had a college job working at a computer company and the owner of that company knew I was good with computers, but also knew I didn't love it. He sat me down for a talk that I still remember to this day. He told me "Love what you do, and you'll never work a day in your life". He knew I didn't like my job that much, and he told me that he loves it which is why he does it. Anyway I still think about that advice today and I'm afraid I'm going to look back on my life in 20 years and have regrets about not getting into aviation.

So I think I'm going to go back now and finish my Multi Commercial and get my CFI ratings.. Seems like the market for fresh pilots is better now than it has been in years. Does anyone have any comments or advice for me? I'm not sure what I should do... Am I too old to think about career change?

rickair7777

Tough call. I think you may have just missed the boat on the big hiring boom. The entry-level market has actually dried up quite a bit in the last few months due to cutbacks at the regionals. There have been furloughs, and there are going to be many more before it is done.

Both UAL and CAL have announced massive fleet cutbacks this week. I'm thinking that 5% of the current pilot force will be unemployed by the end of the year.

There is a little bit of light at the regional level. Majors can cut their own flying as much as they want, but since regional flying is contracted, they can only cut that so far without breaking the contract, or re-negotiating. I suspect that the regionals will not be hit quite as hard, but this could change if majors enter bankruptcy (voiding all contracts).

There are a few regionals still hiring, but I would expect competetive minimums to go up to 1500-200 TT with several hundred hours ME.

If you want to do this, you probably need to resign yourself to the fact that you will have to work as a CFI/MEI, and then do 135 or low-end corporate flying for a few years.

Maybe it will all bounce back soon, but maybe not. Oil prices are the problem this time, and it's hard to say for certain what that will do.

If you make the jump, keep your hand in IT so that you have income and a fallback job (I still do databases, and could do small-business network admin if needed).