Older Pilots

Are you an OLDER aspiring pilot❓
(older meaning over approx ⁓40)


Personal opinion❗, and I'm happy to be corrected on this; however I believe the timescale for older aspiring pilots is different.

👨‍🏫 Since you come from a background where you have evidently already gained a wealth of experience and opportunity in another field, this is not something you should be looking to replicate during your training. Rather, understanding how your achieved life experiences fit in around a pilot competency matrix and finding where there are gaps that you can work towards.

💸 If you can afford to prioritise getting your flying completed in a shorter space of time, this would also benefit you. In short, any air operator needs to take time and pay a lot of money to train you in your role. So with your older age in mind, the earlier you can pass your training whilst still demonstrating achievement in a number of areas, the more advantageous and also cost effective it will be for you and your employer. Additionally, be mindful of your role within a company and what you aim to achieve in the timeframe before retirement. Aspiring to become a Captain for a small air operator is just as big a goal as aspiring to get involved with training or becoming a Senior First Officer for a big airline or on a huge fleet. Ask yourself what role you want to fulfil and your end goal. There's another post in the pipeline about different flying roles.

Airfield Security Dog

🔎 A google image search of “evidence based pilot core competencies and behaviours” brings up a variety of models similar to those in use by airlines.
I would start by writing down on a print out some specific situations that have challenged you professionally in your life and identify one or two behaviours within each competency that fit with your scenario. After going through a few different scenarios you will begin to see a pattern of where your strengths lie. From then, you may choose one or two particular behaviours to incorporate into your next briefing as a reminder to work on in your next flight.

📒 By working towards a range of different behaviours across all of the competencies you can develop a stronger skill set than by just practising particular emergency exercises in the aircraft. This will enable to deal with a range of different challenges both on the ground and in the air. Keep your print out of the competency matrix - add to it and annotate it as you go, printing out a new copy when it becomes cluttered.

🛩️ When you simultaneously finish your flight training and confidently have a selection of real life flying and non-flying scenarios paired with behaviour competencies you will have a fantastic model to guide you through competency based questions in your pilot interview.

Gliding Club Pawnee

In terms of additional preparation for a pilot assesment centre I have others posts about the specifics of different parts of how to prepare for your interview.

❣️ Thanks members for your questions. Keep them coming in!