Am I too old for this?

Rykymus

Rykymus

Line Up and Wait
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Allen, TX
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Rykymus
Okay, so, I'm 57 yrs old, make a great living working from home, for myself. I can work or not work as I please. In fact, I could retire right now and likely continue to make a good living from royalties for the rest of my days. I've got my own bug smasher, my SEL PPL and IR, and about 600 hrs PIC. (A couple hundred of it cross country, and about 20 of IMC)

Now that I've moved to the Dallas area, I'm seeing a lot of opportunities for flying jobs.

Now, I was never really interested in being paid to fly, but I would be interested in getting to fly some nice planes on other peoples' dime. For example, I saw a company that was looking for a pilot with 1500 hrs to fly a King Air for a Medical Transport company, part-time, home 95% of the time. Surely there are other such opportunities out there.

So that got me thinking, could I do something like that, just for the fun of it? Are there other jobs that, if I got my commercial, HP and Complex, and Multi ratings, I'd get to fly other peoples planes, (specifically ones that I likely will never be able to afford) a few times per month? Do I need higher than my 3rd class medical? How many hours do I need to be considered? What kind of hours? How do you get those hours? And, considering my current age, how long will I be able to fly such gigs?

Any wisdom would be appreciated. Like I said, I'm not interested in making a new career or trying to pay the bills. It wouldn't be about the money, just the experience.

Thanks
 
Probably at least a Second Class Medical. Hours? I think 135 VFR minimums are 500 TT, 1200 for IFR. Inquire of a charter (135) and you could get right seat for awhile, eventually moving over to the left seat. ME time is good if ya can get it. Know anyone in business with a flight department? Knowing people is a big part of 19 and even 135 operations. Part 91 and 135 have no age limit, just 121 at 65 presently. That Dr in Flying magazine flew for a 135 jet operator. Of course you can do it.
 
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I can’t answer the age question for you or whether or not working to someone else’s schedule will work out after setting your own for years. But...

I’d say most of those jobs will require some significant multi engine time. If you want to pay to do all of those hours you could bypass some, hmmm, iffy jobs that wouldn’t be nearly as nice.

Or teach until you get there. Or whatever. Maybe look harder at the sub-requirements after the 1500 hours. Often the requirements for the better corporate gigs are still higher than the mass hiring going on at the regional airlines right now.

Secondly, I doubt you’d do it “a couple of times a month” unless you were someone’s backup pilot for illness or vacation or schedule conflicts. And you’d still have to do all their training, whatever that was. And meetings. All the usual “job” stuff. Depending on the place, that stuff could be unpaid or low pay. Just something to think about.

My neighbor is a King Air pilot for an outfit that has him fly about three times a week to Kansas where he sits all day waiting for the passengers and then back home. Most summer afternoons he says it’s a thunderstorm festival coming back. Winter has some downsides too but he prefers those to playing dodge the thunderstorms. He loves the schedule but it’s not quite as light as you might be looking for.

He also had a BUNCH of jet time in full time corporate flying before switching to the King Air. He wanted to be home more. I assume he was flying with a fractional ownership company back then but haven’t asked.

And then there’s other little oddities. He’s flying a King Air 90 and they don’t have an approved sim anywhere that his company wants to use for those.

So since he has to do standard recurrence stuff, he literally takes a checkride with a Fed every six months or year. (I forget. Single pilot King Air, whatever they require and his company’s insurance requires.) He said his POC is a good egg at the FSDO and the checkrides aren’t awful, but they could move on, or be busy, and he could get a bureaucrat from hell at any time. You just never know. But he has to fly every ride. No shipping off to a simulator for anything. Good and bad.

His wife flies a Falcon 50. She’s gone more than he is. He’s around pretty much every other weekday unless there’s a checkride or meetings he has to attend on non-flying days.

They both seem pretty happy with their current setups. But they’re not as “part time” as you might be envisioning. It’s a job...

Their 8 month old German Shepherd pup is adorable too. My dogs already love her and want to play with her all the time. :) He’s doing a great job training her and at 8 months she’s testing his patience a bit. Ha.
 
Did some time flying 135, get your second class, IFR multi,start right seat for a charter company.
 
I suspect it will be the exact opposite of your current work and your current flying situation.

My impression is you will be told what you are going to fly, when you are going to fly, where you are going to fly, and when you'll be heading home. Your ability to keep doing it will depend on passing periodic recurring medicals, and recurring proficiency checks.

If none of that bothers you, given how much control you currently have over your life and your time, then go for it.
 
Maybe I should focus on something a little less involved. I didn't realize it was that demanding. Maybe I'll just buy a twin and do some Pilots n Paws instead.
 
denverpilot said:
...My neighbor is a King Air pilot for an outfit that has him fly about three times a week to Kansas where he sits all day waiting for the passengers and then back home. Most summer afternoons he says it’s a thunderstorm festival coming back. Winter has some downsides too but he prefers those to playing dodge the thunderstorms. He loves the schedule but it’s not quite as light as you might be looking for...
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Reminded me of one of my engineering classmates. His father was a helicopter pilot. So he got his fling wings. We all thought that was pretty exotic.

Until he told us what his summer jobs were really like. Flying hard rock exploration geologists into some remote northern wilderness at dawn. Waiting all day (and the days are looong up there in summer). Choice between staying in the chopper and cooking, or outside the machine and being eaten by the squadrons of insects. Rinse and repeat the next day.
 
For Part 135 and Part 91 operations you can fly as long as you can pass the medical. A friend of mine was hired at age 61 at a regional. He never made left seat, but he made it to 65 flying the right seat. You will never be as young as you are now, so get with it..!!!

The name of the game for decent flying jobs is flight hours. The more, the better. Part 135 IFR minimums is 1200. Part 91 operators can fly really nice equipment but usually hire the high timers, but might hire low time right seaters. Regionals have been hiring low timers.

Good thing you are not really interested in being paid to fly, because starting out feels like not getting paid...:lol::lol:
 
A job is still a job. :)

But it’s nice to do stuff you like to do as part of the deal.

Very few jobs don’t also have stuff you also don’t want to do. :)
 
@Rykymus our own @LDJones also went to work for an airline at what, 57, Jonesy? He’s sporting Captains bars now. He has a thread here about it.

It’s all in what you want to be doing and how much of a lifestyle change you want. Definitely nothing keeping you from trying, if you want to hunt for a J.O.B. doing some flying and jump through some hoops.
 
GRG55 said:
I suspect it will be the exact opposite of your current work and your current flying situation.

My impression is you will be told what you are going to fly, when you are going to fly, where you are going to fly, and when you'll be heading home. Your ability to keep doing it will depend on passing periodic recurring medicals, and recurring proficiency checks.

If none of that bothers you, given how much control you currently have over your life and your time, then go for it.
Click to expand...

GRG55 has pretty well laid it out.

Until you have a least a few hundred hours of ME time, you're going to be in the right seat of something like a King Air. Now a King Air is a great plane and really nice to fly, but you may only get to actually fly it on deadhead legs. Maybe being a right seater on call may work for you, flying a few times per month.
If you were working for that medical company, you may be home most of the time, but you're on call, and that may mean staying close to the airport to take a flight at any time, even if it means a call at 1am.

The difference between flying for fun and flying for work is that you go where your passengers want to go when they want to go. That may be someplace you don't care to be, and waiting for 6-8 hours before you can go home, while thunderstorms are building throughout the day. It's all part of the challenge of being a professional pilot.
Some days can be very easy and some can be very demanding, everyday is different.
There are some great rewards and some sacrifices to be made being a professional pilot.
 
Go for it.

Step 1. Get your commercial ASEL and along the way you will knock out the complex and possibly the HP.

Step 2. Then get your AMEL as a commercial add on.

In between those steps, see if you can do some commercial flying dumping meat bombs, ferrying, or whatever you can find. You might even find a single engine 135 or air tour operator that could use an extra pilot.

The important thing is to get going on it.

Have fun while you are at it.
 
Dick Karl started a career as a charter pilot in his retirement. See his series of articles in Flying.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Rykymus said:
Maybe I should focus on something a little less involved. I didn't realize it was that demanding. Maybe I'll just buy a twin and do some Pilots n Paws instead.
Click to expand...

No, give it a shot. You might luck out and get a great gig, or you may end up with a questionable low-paying outfit. What do you have to lose? You're set for life right? If it's not for you, so what? You quit and pursue something else. You may never pass this way again as @Shepherd said.
 
Our company has a FW branch. As you can see the mins are doable with hard work. You’d have to get on and get the ME and then spend a decent chunk of cash to get to the 50 hr min. I’m told the FO slots are pretty competive with all the CFIs looking to get their first 135 gig. All depends on how bad you want to do this type of work. 30K per year ain’t gonna cut it for me so I’ll stay right where I’m at.

http://jsfirm.com/Job/Pilot-Fixed+W...r,+Co+++Garden+City,+KS-Colorado/jobID_204361
 
Velocity173 said:
Our company has a FW branch. As you can see the mins are doable with hard work. You’d have to get on and get the ME and then spend a decent chunk of cash to get to the 50 hr min. I’m told the FO slots are pretty competive with all the CFIs looking to get their first 135 gig. All depends on how bad you want to do this type of work. 30K per year ain’t gonna cut it for me so I’ll stay right where I’m at.

http://jsfirm.com/Job/Pilot-Fixed+W...r,+Co+++Garden+City,+KS-Colorado/jobID_204361
Click to expand...

Heh. I didn’t realize that was your place. Have seen that ad before on other sites.

I got a kick out of the little web trick your web folks pulled with it. Notice the city names in the URL don’t match the city the aircraft is based in? May have been inadvertent with too much cut and paste, or that’s the wrong document. Hard to say. But I chuckled.

Guess what the search engines will see, even if the person clicking on the page doesn’t pay attention to it. ;)

McCook isn’t Denver or Garden City. :)

On the other hand, someone could at least survive on $30,000 in McCook if they’re based there. Maybe. Not even close in Denver. :) :) :)

I assume with all the other hiring going on that’s an 800-1500 hour job for a lot of folks and then they bail at ATP mins? Not asking in a snarky way, but I assume that’s how it’s designed?

You guys would definitely have a never ending flow of time builders waiting to replace the last guy or gal right now.

I think this is very similar to the neighbor’s gig except they’re not transporting patients, they’re transporting Docs. Not enough Docs in rural areas. So the Docs fly...
 
denverpilot said:
A job is still a job. :)

But it’s nice to do stuff you like to do as part of the deal.

Very few jobs don’t also have stuff you also don’t want to do. :)
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This. I enjoyed many aspects of my flying job but it was still a job. The parts I disliked didn't have so much to do with the flying, but the other stuff that went along with it being a job. Remember that working for someone else is not like going out and getting that $100 hamburger every week. There are many aspects that make it similar to jobs in other industries, including office politics and personalities.

I was in the opposite situation as you (the OP). I had worked as a pilot for about 30+ years. When my employer lost the contract for the airplane I flew, I chose to resign (retire?) rather than follow it to its new management company, or stay where I was on some other airplane. Best decision I ever made. I like my new life. :)
 
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Go for it. If your set for life, and if it turns out to be dogs***, stop doing it.

I retired 21 years ago and did whatever I and the wife wanted to do until she passed away. Now I do whatever I am capable of doing, skiing, flying, travel and including sitting on my butt if I want.

Cheers
 
Velocity173 said:
Some of these single pilot King Air gigs I’d be interested in but I’d never make the hour requirement.
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Yeah. The neighbor had a lot of time before he went to his single pilot gig.

I was surprised to see an SWA ad yesterday that excluded all rotary wing time.

I know they’re the big boys and can be picky but dumping all of it seemed a little rude. :)
 
If I were in Mr. Rykymus' position, I would look at carrying skydivers (often a 182), towing gliders (Pawnee), or a small-time photo company that uses a 177. Would not even bother with Multi-engine.
 
asicer said:
What are PC12 gigs like?
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I'm a late life career changer like LDJones, only I left seat a PC12. Awesome aircraft. I built the needed hrs by flying 6 yrs of single pilot Part 135 in Alaska. I left a fairly lucrative construction job at 57 yrs young to go fly full time after getting my CFI at 55. Sitting about 4000 hrs now. As others have said, you only live once, so if you wanna do it......

As for part time, what I've seen is you need to be full time somewhere for a year or so, then many places will let you go part time. Mostly because, under parts 135 and 121, employers have a substantial investment in your training. They need a return on that investment.
 
denverpilot said:
@Rykymus our own @LDJones also went to work for an airline at what, 57, Jonesy? He’s sporting Captains bars now. He has a thread here about it.

It’s all in what you want to be doing and how much of a lifestyle change you want. Definitely nothing keeping you from trying, if you want to hunt for a J.O.B. doing some flying and jump through some hoops.
Click to expand...

Late 57! Turned 58 one week after my LOE and before IOE. Upgraded to Captain 2.5 years later. Love it.
 
Rykymus said:
Okay, so, I'm 57 yrs old, make a great living working from home, for myself. I can work or not work as I please. In fact, I could retire right now and likely continue to make a good living from royalties for the rest of my days. I've got my own bug smasher, my SEL PPL and IR, and about 600 hrs PIC. (A couple hundred of it cross country, and about 20 of IMC)

Now that I've moved to the Dallas area, I'm seeing a lot of opportunities for flying jobs.

Now, I was never really interested in being paid to fly, but I would be interested in getting to fly some nice planes on other peoples' dime. For example, I saw a company that was looking for a pilot with 1500 hrs to fly a King Air for a Medical Transport company, part-time, home 95% of the time. Surely there are other such opportunities out there.

So that got me thinking, could I do something like that, just for the fun of it? Are there other jobs that, if I got my commercial, HP and Complex, and Multi ratings, I'd get to fly other peoples planes, (specifically ones that I likely will never be able to afford) a few times per month? Do I need higher than my 3rd class medical? How many hours do I need to be considered? What kind of hours? How do you get those hours? And, considering my current age, how long will I be able to fly such gigs?

Any wisdom would be appreciated. Like I said, I'm not interested in making a new career or trying to pay the bills. It wouldn't be about the money, just the experience.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Ya got the means and desire to do it. Go for it. If it stops being fun then stop doing it. You'll get experience. How much depends how far you go with it
 
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