How old is too old?

[Big Iron]

First post on "The Hanger"; been following the threads and gleaning alot of useful info for the last few months. One thing I haven't seen addressed with the recent increase in hiring at SWA, UPS, FedEx is age. How old are the pilots they are bringing on board? I ask since this is my year..retiring after 20+ years of military flying so I have the 2400+ hrs PIC time, Stan/Eval, Instructor blocks checked but I find myself more "mature" then many of my fellow aviators.
How much should being over 45 worry me? I'm set for a February class at HPA and just looking for an honest assessment on how big a factor age is. Don't want to buy the hat just to chase the dream.

 

[On Your Six]

Too old is being able to remember how great this profession USED TO BE... The young tikes flying around nowadays have no reference point and thus are not adversely impacted psychologically like the rest of us.

 

[Big Beer Belly]

How old are the pilots they are bringing on board?

How much should being over 45 worry me?

I'm set for a February class at HPA and just looking for an honest assessment on how big a factor age is. Don't want to buy the hat just to chase the dream.

UPS hires military retirees. You lost me with the "worry" comment. What "worries" you exactly? Too old to learn a new airplane? That can't be it. I can fairly confidently say that an over 45 new hire will most likely not see captain at UPS ... given the demographics and likely expansion.

As far as the hat ... well it's free at UPS as is all of your uniform, luggage, flight bag ... gotta love that polyester brown!

 

[Big Iron]

BBB,
Worry might have been a poor choice of words. Still, I can't fight father time and the fact I will have less then 15 years to offer my services. Looking forward to seeing some new equipment, I've got the 45 year old Boeing down pretty good.
Got my on-line app in w/UPS, would love for them to call before I get fitted for my hat. I could get used to polyester brown!

 

[semperfido]

go for it. you are as old as you feel. trust me you're not that old.

 

[spanky2]

I was hired Delta at age 42 after a 20+ year career. Had a retired Navy O-6 in my class at 51.

 

[oldxfr8dog]

First post on "The Hanger"; been following the threads and gleaning alot of useful info for the last few months. One thing I haven't seen addressed with the recent increase in hiring at SWA, UPS, FedEx is age. How old are the pilots they are bringing on board? I ask since this is my year..retiring after 20+ years of military flying so I have the 2400+ hrs PIC time, Stan/Eval, Instructor blocks checked but I find myself more "mature" then many of my fellow aviators.
How much should being over 45 worry me? I'm set for a February class at HPA and just looking for an honest assessment on how big a factor age is. Don't want to buy the hat just to chase the dream.

Go for it.
JB hired me at 50, several in my classes were ret. mil and over 45.

 

[fletch717]

Big Iron,

Airtran would hire you, no problem. we hired alot of guys in their 50's. You would make captain in 3 years.

Fletch

 

[viperdriver]

BBB


You are saying he won't make Captain in 15 years at UPS?

Viperdriver

 

[Jim Smyth]

There is this thing called age discrimination. They can't discriminate due to age period. We have 50+year old new hires at SWA fairly regularly.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

Just repeating gossip, but I have heard Brown likes to mix the ages up because it helps spread the costs out a bit meaning a person who can only put in 15 years will not cost as much as a person who can put in 30 (in theory). Plus by mixing up the ages it helps ensure not everyone retires at the same time.

 

[Browndog]

Age should not be a factor (except on layovers) for getting hired at UPS as long as you "have someone inside pulling for you". They hire a very diverse group of folks from all walks of life. If you remember, the old "Phoenix Aviator" program was developed to keep guys in for 20 (like myself) and then help attain interviews with airlines. Times have changed IMHO from the late 80's/early 90's when you had to be late 20's to early 30's to be competive. I thought I would be the oldest guy in my new hire class at 41 but there were 5 folks older.

I'm sure you've planned ahead by getting your ratings (ATP, FE written and 1st Class medical), resume and logbook uptight, and most importantly networking. If so, your phone should start ringing.

Best of luck!!

Browndog

 

[Big Beer Belly]

BBB


You are saying he won't make Captain in 15 years at UPS?

Viperdriver

Yep ... that's what I'm saying. UPS won't incur the training cost for an upgrade (or any movement for that matter the last 2 years ... but will pay protect ... so he'd be a paper captain) ... if he's "over 45" that gives him less than 13 years till 58 ... unless there's massive hiring/expansion at UPS (none of that magnitude announced/contemplated), combined with the rather youthful average age at UPS, I'd say he won't see the fourth stripe by 12 years longevity.

Further, we're retiring 3-person 727's, DC-8's, and classic 747's ... and replacing with 2-pilot WIDEBODIES. Larger acft means less pilots to haul the same overall load. In my opinion, FedEx will feel the above also (they have approx 150 727's still) and to a far greater extent their seniority progression will be slowed in the future as their trucking division expands and they gain ground efficiency (UPS has completed all the air-ground route/time-in-transit efficiency conversions according to mgmt). As an example, in the last 8 years we've shut down nearly all the Fri night air sorts (except ONT and SDF) (volume moved by rail, truck etc... over the weekend) ... this far more "efficient" (cheaper) method has cost (reduction) about 20% in acft block hours ... felt by the average pilot as stagnation in seniority progression versus furlough due to overall volume growth and reassignment of aircraft. In other words we'd be 20% larger now (acft and pilots) if UPS had not taken advantage of the ground network's ability to move air packages. The single largest user of the US rail network is none other than Big Brown.

Your mileage may vary.

BBB