[rwhitfield]

Hi all,

I'm new here, and started my PPL last year, but unfortunately Covid put a hold on the training for six months, but I am now back in the air!

At school it was always my dream to fly commercially, and I still remember my first commercial flight when I was younger, and even today I still find the concept of flight fantastic, and I doubt that will ever go away! I'm currently aged 33, and I had a couple of flying lessons when I was 18, however other commitments cropped up at the time and I never continued the training. Last year, with everything going on, I finally thought "life's too short, and I've always wanted to learn to fly, so I'm doing it!"

Obviously the first step is the PPL, I'm then keen to go on to get a night rating and IMC rating. I presume after that, one would step up to more complex aircraft, twin-engine etc. Really, my question is, am I too old at 33 to continue past the PPL and train for a commercial license? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ross

[Fellsteruk]

Never too old many older than you have done it however do you have the money to throw at the commercial route when a job may not be at the end of it?

For now I’d focus on ppl, night will be needed for CPL, Imc will help with hour building but useless for commercial as you’ll need full IR I believe but after ppl your next step is building hours

If you can afford it go for it!!

[Paul_Sengupta]

Imc will help with hour building but useless for commercial as you’ll need full IR I believe

Not that useless since they brought in the CB IR. The IMC rating will allow you to gain competence in instrument flying.

[JAFO]

I'd make sure I could get a Class 1 medical first. If that's not possible then it's pretty much game over but if you can get a Class 1 then your age is certainly no barrier.

[ROG]

There are a lot of young commercial guys working for Tescos at present.
Why not get an instructors rating--not many younger ones around at present(from my observations) and demand seems to have increased of late for gooduns.

[editmonkey]

Was going to say the same - I'm 46 and harbour dreams of earning something from flying one day - or at least paying for some of the hours. Being an instructor would be a great way to do it. Or maybe flying filming sorties for production companies.

[rwhitfield]

Thanks for all your replies! I'll absolutely continue with the PPL, but I hadn't thought of going down the instructor route, it does seem like a great way of building hours, experience and actually getting paid to fly. My instructor is a retired commercial pilot so I'll have a chat to him about this.

I currently have a Class 2 medical, and I think I'll stick with this while I continue the PPL, night rating etc, and I can use that for flying recreationally. I would then make sure to get a Class 1 medical prior to starting any commercial training to avoid unnecessary expense!

Thanks all!