Not a pilot but have a question. What are your thoughts on a mid-career person learning to fly from square one? Is it possible to make a transition into being a professional pilot?
Like five said, it's doable but there are challenges. The biggest one might be the cost - flight training to get a commercial license so you can work an entry-level type job can cost as little as $40k to upwards of $100k. (for more details check out this
post) At that point you can start doing flight instruction, banner towing, etc type jobs for low pay and long hours until you reach 1500 hours when you can get the Airline Transport Pilot rating. At that point, you are at least at a position to work better jobs - although getting on with a big airline you'll probably need another 1500 hours on top of that. So, it takes some time, effort, and investment but the payoff can be rewarding, both monetarily and working a career that can be quite enjoyable. I've been able to retire for years but am still employed because I love my job. The fact that I only do it 10-11 days a month is a huge bonus, most of the time I feel like I am already retired anyway - when I do go to "work" I usually get to travel somewhere decent for 2-3 days, stay in nice hotels and eat out, and then come back home.
I recommend jetcareers.com, it's s pretty good group of people.
Thanks for the recommendation - I wanted to take the (admittedly very slim) chance that there might be someone on here interested, odds are it would be someone I could get along with very well. Important in a corporate job where you're sitting next to the same one or two guys all the time...