Hi All. I have to ask this, am I crazy for thinking about starting flight school?
Let me start. I turn 40 next week, I am divorced and have two kids. I have a good job but I am thinking of completely aiming for the sky and finding a path that makes me happy and provides a solid career for the last half of my working life.
I have two big concerns (1) can I afford to go to school full time and still cover my expenses (2) will it be harder for me to placed with an airline given I am likely closer to retirement than most recruits?
Would love some feedback if anyone else has been in a similar situation to this.
The age question is by far the #1 asked question on this forum.
As to your specific questions, I’m not sure how you think any of us would have any idea what you can or cannot afford? We don’t know your expenses, we don’t know your current income, we don’t know your savings, we don’t know if your children require daycare or are somewhat sufficient, we don’t know if you have any other income, etc etc etc. The majority of people take a loan to cover their training. Ballpark a payment of $1,000 a month and go from there, but whether you can afford something or not is a question only YOU can answer.
As for hireability, if you started training today you could be at an airline in about 2.5yrs. Let’s say you’d be 43, that would leave you 22yrs to retire which is worth the airlines investment. The main consideration for you is managing your career expectations. If you have dreams of being a Delta A350 Capt, making $450k, that’s probably not going to happen. If however you’d simply be happy flying for an LCC or even a Major but only as a narrow body Capt then that’s definitely doable.
Not sure what your monthly expenses look like but if you plan on taking out a loan, typically they will let you take out an additional “allowance” of up to $2000 per month. That paired with some savings could help financially float you through the months without an income.
Once you start building time there are a number of tuition reimbursement programs that can help cover the cost of your loan payment while building time to the airlines.
As for your age, airlines can’t discriminate in the hiring process based on that. On the contrary, they typically like to see older candidates that plan to stay and fill captain seats until they retire compared to the young ones that only plan on using the airline as a stepping stone to where they really want to be.
The average age in 2023 of active training certificates shows 35.2 years old. While you’re 5 years older than that number, if you started training today, given I round up to the nearest integer, you could be in the airlines at around 43 years old. You would almost have a 20-year career which could bring you good seniority and QOL still.
The only one that can decide whether you would be able to afford school and cover your expenses, is YOU. We don’t know your financial statements (nor do I ask you to put them up on a public forum), but I can say confidentially that at some point throughout our lives and time at ATP, we had to make sacrifices. There are avenues you can take to make things easier, extra financing costs, having an emergency savings account, etc. I would recommend you reach out to a financial expert to see where you stand.
I don’t think it would be harder to find employment given your age, it would be more your training background and history of training records. If you pass your checkrides and do well in training, I don’t see any problem with hiring. Just have realistic and tangible goals, understand that you will probably not be a senior captain on a widebody aircraft; however, could hold high seniority as an FO or maybe a captain on domestic narrow-body with decent seniority.
Anything is possible if you put your mind and goals to it, I would sit down with a financial expert and see where you stand financially. I would take a discovery flight if you have not. And look at maybe networking at your local airport and seeing what options are available if you were to “complete training tomorrow,” and move forward with your career.
I understand that you all have no idea about my expenses and situation, so I apologize for being unclear. What I meant more was whether there are opportunities to work while also being a student at ATP and whether there are options to finance living costs through student loans, which I think Hannah mentioned.
My other question is: @Adam said it would probably be about 2.5 years before I was hired by an airline. What is the gap between completing ATP (in 12-18 months) and being hired? Is that gaining the 1,500 hours or just the time it takes for the airline process?
This can change between pilots and it will change… I would say depending on how much you communicate to your recruiter and ATP, it could be a month. If you don’t communicate and magically pop up and say, “I have 1,500!” You will probably be looking at months. Most recruiting departments follow-up with their applicants if you have a CJO regularly to get an idea, especially those in cadet programs. Once you reach 1,500 hours, you will have to complete the ATP-CTP course, which is a prerequisites to the ATM (ATP written) which is a prerequisites to the ATP applicant under 61.150’s.