Young enough?

»» Vera Wang, who designed her first dress at 40.

»» Samuel L Jackson, who didn’t get his first movie role until he was 46.

»» Morgan Freeman landed his first major movie role at 52.

»» Louise Hay launched her publishing company, Hay House, when she was 62.

See.

However, my intent in addressing this question is to stay away from my opinion and my attitude to ageing and to outline the options available to a potential ‘mature’ pilot. At 50 she or he would have say, 15 years to offer the aviation industry (65 being a general standard worldwide for pilot retirement however, in some countries depending upon combined age in the cockpit, one can fly longer).

To be clear the question is about ‘commercial flying’ rather that becoming a private pilot

Age is not a factor if you plan to self fund your flight training through a flying school, where you pay up front and end up with your CPL. The downside though is that you hit the job market with little experience and very low flying hours, hunting around often in remote and regional areas for seasonal work along with a few hundred other newly-qualified CPLs. That may not work so well for mature pilots used to a certain salary and lifestyle.

If you head down the aviation degree route you still have to find that first role. But let’s face it, after a threefour year degree a mature candidate will be even more mature.

But… what if you don’t have $100,000 to self fund your flying or a degree? If you are a mature candidate with other responsibilities, such as a family and a mortgage, and where having the guarantee of job at the end of your training is a pre-requisite.

Many airline cadetships or traineeships offer that sought after job post training, and payment schemes are more easily managed.

Do they take pilots of a certain age?

Yes, some do.

Looking back thorugh my database I found my most mature pilot to have gained a cadetship was in his mid-40s.

Interestingly I also found that many aircraft engineers and cabin crew went on to become pilots as their second career. Aviation clearly gets in the blood.

Ab initio and advanced cadetships are offered by regional and mainline carriers. From my experience there is a clear trend that candidates choosing aviation as a second career have greater success with the regional carriers. That makes sense to me for these reasons. The career path of a pilot within a regional carrier will see them ready for a command on a multi crew turboprop aircraft in a relatively short period of time – post training you could set your sights on a command in four or five years. That still leaves a solid 10 years to offer the airline. But a mainline career progression would be far far slower so aspirationally you are unlikely to make a command on a jet.

If you cannot make a jet command you just might stick around on the turboprops for your entire career and that’s got to be a benefit to regional airlines, especially as this industry sector is in the grips of a pilot shortage.

To finish, mature age pilot candidates, thanks to their life experience, enjoy some distinct benefits. You know yourself well, you know you can commit, you know how to manage hiccups or setbacks, you can prove your ability to meet training expectations and you probably have a whole load of other transferable job skills.

That makes you way more of a “sure thing”.

If you never try, you will never know.

‘It is only a number as they say, go for it.’