Hey El Cid,
Let me share a few pearls of experience gained from doing the exact same thing you're doing, only I started down my 'dream' path 18 years ago.
First of all, don't let the guys dissuade you from your dream. It isn't that they don't want you to succeed, its more likely that they know how hard the climb is and don't want someone to cheapen the job after they've given so much to get there. Also, there is likely in all of us who have been doing it a while an erstwhile wish that we could impart on you the despair you will feel sometime as you make your climb.
Now for some reality; unless you are the one in 100,000 among us that lucks into a job from the git-go, then the most likely scenerio for you is that it is going to take a good 5 to 10 years or more for you to work into a flying job that will pay you as much as you were making in the dull IT business. Your likely path will be to instruct for a couple of years until you've built enough time to get into charter work. You'll work there for another year or two building multi-engine time to get that first job with a regional... and that may be a stretch considering the current state of our industry. After you've done a couple of years with a regional carrier, you'll just be coming into the real 'zone' of flying experience where guys are getting hired into the major airlines or that perfect corporate job.
And if it is a corporate job that you're looking for, then you better start washing airplanes and kissing butt and one of the big jet corporate operators in the nearest large metropolis cause you'll never make any money in the corporate field until you get into the big birds, and you'll have to know someone to get that first job. Corporate aviation is very much a word of mouth business. You have to know someone, who knows someone, who is willing to speak up to the boss for you, to get the interview.
What else does it mean? Well try this.. it means moving your wife and family from one city to the next, in chase of a job that will allow you to build hours and ratings to get that "good" job. And I do mean move, a lot. If you don't go in search of the job, your time to make it will be doubled. If you are unwilling to move, you might as well kiss it goodbye unless you're living dead smack in the middle of the biggest hotbed of aviation in this country.
It means never being home... and it means when you are home, you'll still be thinking about the job or working on stuff you don't have time to finish while you're there. Its gonna mean lots of long, long days for little or no pay. Its gonna mean flying some sh*t airplanes or not flying at all. Its gonna mean some folks will definitely take advantage of your willingness to work for little or nothing, and they will tell you to do it or hit the door. It means flying by yourself in weather that scares the crap out of you because the boss says the trip MUST go or you will get fired.
You say you won't do that? Sure you do... we all did. Until, that is, we had to decide on trying to find another job or continue to pay the bills. So, there will be a flight, or two, or three, or more that you will capitulate on and, against your limited and unsure judgement, you will make. Some will turn out to be anti-climatic. Some.... well lets just say that you will learn what is bad, and what is very, very, very bad. Eventually you will know and there _will_ come a day when there is no price high enough to make you go fly. And when you wonder if you made the right decision, as you look at your last paycheck, take the pictures of your kids out of your wallet and compare them. The answer will be staring you in the face.
Right now the market for pilots is heading down from the hiring high wave it has been riding since the early 90's. Forecasts indicated that it would top early this decade and begin to drop off, looking for another lull between 2010 and 2025 (when the current young kids just getting hired reach 60+ years and are forced into retirement). What this means is that after the 9-1-1 tragedy, hiring has taken a big hit and is going to be slow to come back... and the need curve will be going down all the while.
The end result? You'll be in your 40's before you get the realistic average requsite flight time (around 4000 hrs, half multi, 25% turbine) and land that first real good paying flying job.
So, are you depressed yet?
Don't be. Just be realistic about the career path you have chosen and prepare yourself and your family for the sacrifices it will take before you finally start earning anything near what you earned in the IT biz. Keep in mind that none of us are doing it because we HATE flying.. hehehe. We're all here and we all put up with the crap this career generates because flying is our passion and our love, and most of us would fly for free if we could find a way to pay the bills as well.
One last thing. What the other guys are trying to say is to not cheapen the job. When you finally start flying for a living, do your research and know what the job should pay in the region you will be working in. (note: different rates for same job/same aircraft in different parts of the country). Read the salary surveys in Pro Pilot and B/CA magazines. Argue for the right salary even if you are low time; your research should reflect what a low time guy is getting and you should work to get that rate. To make any less effort cheapens what we've been through before you, and will only lead to less pay for the next low time schmuck who comes along behind you.
Think about it. And from a fellow airman, good luck and good fortune.
