Hello! I am considering a career change back into the airlines. I worked for Eagle in the early 2000’s as an FO. I left the industry after 9-11 due to the quality of life (pay etc) and I decided to focus on my family. Fast forward 14 years, I am now considering reapplying to the airlines as it looks like pay/movement is much better. Since I am older (48), I want to make the best choices possible in order to make it to the majors with enough years before retirement…I am in the process of getting my BFR/IPC. I do not have an ATP yet. I have a master’s degree and about 2000 hours 121 (FO) time. Would love to hear your ideas!
Thanks!
Em,
My best advice is to get current and by that I mean more than a just a BFR or an IPC. After so long out of the industry I would want to show more than just a few hours in an airplane.
I would also suggest that you might need to prepare yourself for not making it to the major airlines. There are certainly people that have made it at your age, but you are looking at being around 53 by the time you are eligible to apply for the majors, which is certainly pushing the upper limits.
Chris
Em,
As Chris said first and foremost you need to fly some. BFR/IPC is fine, the question is if you got hired tomorrow and they threw you in the sim do you think you could hand fly a single engine ILS down to mins and go missed? (I know I couldn’t after 14yrs away. I have trouble after 14 DAYS away!). Now you’ve got the time but as you know it’s all about seniority so you’re looking at a few years for upgrade as the Majors want to see some turbine PIC so Chris is right you’re probably looking at 52-53 before you get picked up. The question is would you want to go back to the bottom of a seniority? Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn’t? Bottomline is to you’re probably not going to be a 777 Capt but if you’re cool with that I say go for it!
Adam
Yea, I’ll leave the 777 CA dreams to the 20 year olds!
So as far as regionals, I have been looking at 2 seriously (Envoy and Skywest). Envoy obviously because of the flow through but their bases are tough living in San Diego. Have you heard Any recent feedback about either?
Em,
I have to say since the pilot shortage hit the Regionals have been one uping eachother in their efforts to recruit talent. I honestly haven’t heard anything bad about any Regional in quite some time. As for flow-thrus keep in mind they can be cancelled at any time and there are actually many cases of pilots getting hired faster at non-flow-thru airlines because the Major doesn’t want to clean out their own feeds leaving them short. I’d pick the airline that works best for you convenience wise.
Adam
Em,
From what I hear, both of those airlines are pretty good places to work. I would focus on getting the recency of experience up, then start applying and see who calls.
Chris
Sounds good, thanks so much for the info!
hello everybody. i’m Lazizbek from Uzbekistan. currently i’m studying bachelor degree in china. i generally want to be a pilot in the future, but i don’t know any process of being a pilot). can you tell what i have to do step by step to be a pilot? i’m good at math, physics and english is my second language as you know. please help me
Lazizbek,
Spend some time looking around this forum, particularly the FAQ section. It will answer most if not all your questions.
Adam