Im in the same boat as you but just a couple years younger. I left my 60k a year job with many promotions expected, and now I'm broke, working part time, and going to school for A&P now. It's tough to drop everything and change directions. Back to living paycheck to paycheck in the hopes to have what you just obtained.

Congrats on your job and glad you are finally seeing progress!

Congrats! I'm in the same boat as well. 31 and just wrapping up my Aircraft Maintenance Engineering and starting my own shop. Never thought I'd go back to school when I quit grade 12 early, but here I am!
Good luck in your new career!

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When I was a responsible adult I made more than twice what I make today as a pilot, and I had about 1/100th of the fun. I’m glad I made the switch.

Congrats! I wouldn’t worry about the age either, my Dad got a late start with his flying career and didn’t make it to the majors until he was 40. Two furloughs later he’s in a good position career and money wise, with 7 years left till mandatory retirement. I’m 28 and left a very lucrative job last year to start a flying career, don’t regret it a bit!

Thank you all for the kind words and sage advice. Also glad to see others doing the same thing.

Jim,

I start the job in 2 days so I don't think I can make it to you or vice versa. I'll be based out of Edmonton and covering most of Western Canada. However I start as an observer for a few months, so maybe I can make something work in my time off before I get behind the controls. I would be very keen to learn from someone of your experience.

Congrats on the job and good for you following your dream!

It is an unusually great time to be a pilot as far as hiring and advancement goes. The new ATP requirements have created a dearth of pilots and the airlines are sucking them up and advancing pilots at a tremendous rate! But even if you don't want to be an airline pilot, the airline shortage means that other employers in the aviation industry are having to up their hiring game. Signing bonuses, high wages, and quick advancement are become the norm across the industry. There are plenty of starting jobs with a decent wage today; and a long-term career with a six figure salary and benefits is a reality in many pilot positions, not just the majors.

I'll echo the congratulations from others.

A couple of years ago I attended a local aviation trade show. There was a section of the show dedicated to hiring and when I got there at 10am there were a bunch of empty tables and leaflets laying around. All the majors and most of the minors had been there conducting interviews and were all done with their selections. Some of the young guys in suits milled around looking to pick up any opportunities but the suits that did the hiring were closing up brief cases and leaving.

Last year I went and it was completely different. The guys doing the hiring were still very much running their booths late into the afternoon. I stopped in front of the State Patrol booth which was run by one young guy. Passively chatting him up I asked how many pilots the state patrol even had. He said "Six. Or at least we'd like six. Right now we have two that fly the governor around in a King Air and we have me, doing patrol in a C182". I said I knew of one state patrol C182 in Ephrata where I go to fly my uncle's plane and he said "yep that's me. I work 9-4 M-F. Name another flying job that does that". Indeed there is some appeal. The state patrol job required that one be a trooper for one year before getting the coveted flying job. I have no interest in being a trooper in the conventional police sense and apparently no one else does either, because they are taking troopers who express any interest in flying and paying for their training. He confirmed they are coughing up $60-100k each to train these guys.

Other booths? I stopped at one that was hiring for part 135 in Alaska. I said offhand that would be my dream job (it would be too), flying around in a 206. They paid $210/day to start and it included a place to live. The typical day was 3 loops of your route and back home. Like I said, my dream job. I asked them about the equipment and they had everything from 206 to B1900.

He asked how many hours I had and I said around 1300. His elbow shot out to the guy next to him with a nod in my direction. They said I would probably go almost straight to the right seat of a B1900, which I really don't want. Qualify me in a 208 and tell me where you want it to be - and good luck prying me out of it.

Stepping back in time
I made an attempted career jump in the early 2000s. I had been in aerospace tooling and it paid well but then the company fell out from under me and I couldn't find work locally. I dusted off my PPL and added instrument, commercial, multi and then CFI. Finding flying work was damn near impossible even for a flight instructor at the time. I was 40 and threw bags for Horizon, ramped at a local airport tugging planes around and pumping gas to increase my odds of meeting the right opportunities.
I met some airline pilots who were quite inspirational and supportive. They told me that old line about following my passion and the money would follow. I eventually landed a spot as an instructor and worked my way up to billing more hours than anyone there. With the encouragement of my students I left that place and went rogue. Instruction is feast or famine and your plane eats before your kids do.

I ended up a single parent which killed my dreams of living out of a 21" carry on for days at a time, and went back to my old career of keeping aerospace parts flowing. I've spent the last 10 years at Boeing doing flight deck design on the 737. It's a cool job and pays more than I've ever made before, but it's not flying.

My kids are all out now and it's just me and my girlfriend. For the first time in 20 years I could actually afford to work a pipeline patrol job, or just instruct using my Citabria. Sadly I let my CFI lapse at one point and I'm needing to do a check ride to get it back. With the recent ramp up of hiring I am seriously considering the jump for my last long chapter of pre-retirement.

noodles wrote:Thank you all for the kind words and sage advice. Also glad to see others doing the same thing.

Jim,

I start the job in 2 days so I don't think I can make it to you or vice versa. I'll be based out of Edmonton and covering most of Western Canada. However I start as an observer for a few months, so maybe I can make something work in my time off before I get behind the controls. I would be very keen to learn from someone of your experience.

Didn't realize you were up here. If you ever have layovers and such in Grande Prairie hit me up. I'm not far from GP and it'd be fun to meet.

David

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Noodles,

Sounds good. Keep in touch.

Contact

Noodles, is your new employer Alta Flights? They run orange 172s. The Alberta Products Pipeline runs across my front property line. We see them everyday. I'm within 5 miles of CEF4, Airdrie. Their pilots have been really good about traffic coordination as they pass very near the circuit. Good radio calls. They fly over the house south bound, and again northbound a few minutes later. You'll probably be on this route. I'll send my contact info by PM in case you ever have reason to land here.

One of their pilots lost control a few years ago and spun in. It's suspected that he was taking photos and may have become distracted.sad, and I left them with a black eye, but I think they're a good outfit. A friend had his fist job there and now flys 747 for Cathay Pacific. He has good memories of his time at Alta Flights.

Noodles, damn, not sure how I missed you were in Canada, close to me even. I am 30 min east of Fort sask by Lamont. They fly the pipeline by my place usually twice a week. Not sure what company, but it used to be a 172, now it's a retractable 177. My strip is CMY2 if you are ever in the area and need a bathroom break....

noodles wrote:Thank you all for the kind words and sage advice. Also glad to see others doing the same thing.

Jim,

I start the job in 2 days so I don't think I can make it to you or vice versa. I'll be based out of Edmonton and covering most of Western Canada. However I start as an observer for a few months, so maybe I can make something work in my time off before I get behind the controls. I would be very keen to learn from someone of your experience.

I failed to notice you're Canadien, you've got a lot of great flying there as well. Best to you.

Good for you Jeff, I'm in the same boat! 3 weeks out from my CPL checkride. Your post made me feel great about my decision because I'm 34 and also quit my well paying, stable, Paramedic position after 15 years.

Noodles,

I haven't posted in the radio call at non-towered airports. I don't want to cause controversy and I trust it is not a problem in Canada but non-towered needn't be a problem for pipeline patrol. First, it is dangerous to go up to pattern altitude on the line near the airport. Second, you are still responsible for every foot of right of way. Third, making a call from down low confuses our pilots and they never find me down there and they tie up the radio looking with their ears. The solution I found worked extremely well was to look up where they were easy to spot, listen but not talk, and give way to all should I wish to land.

Under ATC is no problem. Go under B, contact D five miles out and they will take good care of you down low where they prefer you to be. I quote the tower controller at Cincinnati, almost every time in answer to airline pilots CTAS concerns, "He's fifty feet off the trees. He's not traffic!"

contactflying wrote:... The solution I found worked extremely well was to look up where they were easy to spot, listen but not talk, and give way to all should I wish to land......

I take exception to that solution--
you can foul traffic flow up just as bad doing that as by bulling your way into the pattern.
When you're at a stop sign in your car waiting for a opening in traffic,
ever had someone stop on the non-stop-signed cross-street try to be a nice guy and let you pull out?
Works great if that cross-street traffic is stopped, but otherwise it just fucks everyone up.
IMHO so can your "give way to all".

Hotrod180,

Those of us at 200' understand the system and are traffic to each other. Few and far between, however. We are also used to not having radio and clear our tail before getting onto a very short final at an angle. Once off the pipeline, we avoid common traffic areas. We spend only three or four seconds on final after others are down. The only airplanes that can get to us are crop dusters, other pipeline aircraft, or very fast airplanes on long final.

At busy flight schools, we go through without being seen and avoid landing, if possible. Yes we would have to leave the pipeline, go well away, climb to pattern altitude, and join the mix to use this field. No problem staying down at 200' to get back on.

Think about how often you have seen a pipeline patrol from the ground, but how few you have seen from the air.

Pipelines go right down the border of lots of uncontrolled airports. Pipelines go right down the border of and right across the main runway of lots of busy airports. Pipelines service tank farms on all major airports. The twenty day DOT requirement excludes none.