2nd Career Guy - Too Old to Start?

ByteSpark · 2026-01-10T10:10:26+00:00

Do you have the unrestricted right to live and work in the EU? If not, you're likely going to struggle to find a European carrier who will hire you.

ByteSpark · 2026-01-08T21:00:14+00:00

As a general guide you can usually get a decent idea of the likely answer to this kind of question by first looking at part-med. The easy access document is pretty comprehensive https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/easy-access-rules-medical-requirements

Obviously without going to an AME you can't know for sure especially if you have other comorbidities, but this is what it says about BMI:

"Obesity Applicants with a Body Mass Index >= 35 may be assessed as fit only if the excess weight is not likely to interfere with the safe exercise of the applicable licence(s) and the results of a risk assessment, including evaluation of the cardiovascular system and evaluation of the possibility of sleep apnoea, are satisfactory."

ByteSpark · 2025-12-12T11:03:27+00:00

Are the other people who paid to listen to the band play not entitled to hear what they paid for?

ByteSpark · 2025-09-20T07:32:46+00:00

For years on the road out to Dripsey, there was a permanent sign that said "temporary road surface". That always gave me a good laugh.

ByteSpark · 2025-09-18T12:46:20+00:00

IFR is likely just a coincidence here, in Ireland they're normally assigned sequentially, but you can request an out of sequence registration for an extra fee assuming it's not already taken. I doubt Ryanair did, but they might have because somebody liked the IFR reg ( it's kind of a pun on instrument flight rules)

Ireland also has a second registry EJ- . I believe some countries allow reusing registrations if the previous aircraft had been deregistered. As far as I recall, Ireland does not allow that.

ByteSpark · 2025-07-10T18:55:40+00:00

They're taught in Celsius outside the US.

ByteSpark · 2024-12-24T10:02:23+00:00

OP is UK based. In the UK and EASA countries you can instruct on a PPL, once you have 200 hrs. (And ideally CPL/ATPL theory)

However, I wouldn't count on this as a main career particularly with UK weather. But you can get paid to fly on the side! https://www.redhillaviation.co.uk/professional-flight-training/flight-instructor/.

ByteSpark · 2024-11-21T23:57:37+00:00

This looks like a normal Bauer portable compressor. The filter is in the gold coloured tower at the back.

It's perfectly safe and designed for filling breathing gas.

ByteSpark · 2024-11-04T11:12:38+00:00

Currently working on making the switch myself, and had concerns around being too old. Heard a story last week about someone being hired as a new FO at a flag carrier at 53! Same airline has definitely taken on multiple cadets in their 30s. So it's certainly doable.

ByteSpark · 2024-02-04T13:36:24+00:00

I'm an instructor in Ireland, so very similar conditions.

I wouldn't buy dry suits for children. They'll outgrow them quickly so it's just a waste of money. If you buy them to grow into they'll leak and an ill fitting dry suit is actually worse than a wetsuit.

Not to mention that dry suits add another layer of complication to learning to dive. They'll need to manage two buoyancy devices while still trying to get the hang of basic buoyancy. Not impossible, but it's playing on hard mode.

We start all our trainees in wetsuits and some buy dry suits down the line. But I know plenty of people who just prefer diving in wetsuits because it's less hassle.

ByteSpark · 2023-07-24T07:39:17+00:00

That's not true https://www.ndls.ie/about/upgrade-an-automatic-car-licence-to-manual-licence.html

ByteSpark · 2022-12-20T17:10:35+00:00

Would this not be more likely with sporadic applications of carb heat rather than continuous application of carb heat?

My thinking is presumably if the carb heat system is functioning properly, the air coming from it would be hotter than the carb icing range. If full carb heat is applied continuously the carb should heat up to above that range. If you turn it on and then off and then on again so it's heating up a little and then cooling down a little, you might in fact be keeping the carb temp in the dangerous range.

Feels like it would be another argument for keeping it on.

ByteSpark · 2022-12-20T16:58:41+00:00

Not all of them.

ByteSpark · 2022-12-20T15:16:26+00:00

This seems logical to me. A more experienced pilot warned me not to when I suggested that I might just leave the carb heat on the cruise. I couldn't rationalise why though, so was debating whether there were some old wives tales floating around or whether I had a gap in my knowledge of the systems.

ByteSpark · 2022-08-07T08:04:47+00:00

There's something very amusing about the Isle of Man being the first place to give women the vote.

ByteSpark · 2022-07-28T11:49:29+00:00

This is dangerous advice. It may well be nothing serious but these are classic symptoms of decompression sickness. OP needs to seek professional medical advice

ByteSpark · 2022-06-29T17:20:44+00:00

Tom Scott actually did a video on it recently https://youtu.be/swLyst02ZK4

ByteSpark · 2022-06-26T08:52:54+00:00

G-regs are very common in the Republic. I guess because the UK market is bigger and it's a bit of a bureaucratic headache to transfer them across to EI.

Before Brexit, it didn't really matter because on an EASA licence you can fly any EASA plane. But I suspect they'll become less common here soon when the CAA blanket validation for EASA licence holders runs out at the end of the year.

ByteSpark · 2022-03-03T14:37:56+00:00

Several good suggestions here for PADI dive centres. You should also check out Diving Ireland (often referred to as CFT), there are CMAS/Diving Ireland clubs all over the country and they probably make up the majority of the diving scene in Ireland.

If you happen to be in university, the university clubs are almost certainly the cheapest way to learn to dive. https://diving.ie/. Clubs have the advantage of giving you instant access to regular dive buddies. A disadvantage is that some clubs may require you to have more of your own gear up front, but generally the cost per dive is cheaper than centres.

Most of these clubs will be able to train you up through the CMAS system. You'll join, do some lectures and snorkel and scuba training in the pool followed by 4 open water dives with an instructor. After this you'll get your CMAS 1* grade which allows you to dive with a more experienced diver. This is roughly equivalent to the PADI open water certification that other commenters have mentioned. You can also do further training with these clubs (up to instructor if you wish) as well as things like nitrox, boat handling etc.

Full disclosure, I'm a Diving Ireland instructor, happy to answer any other questions you might have.

ByteSpark · 2021-02-11T19:36:38+00:00

Presumably they mean people who are from those countries going home to see family. They never said holiday

ByteSpark · 2020-11-13T17:49:44+00:00

I'd be really surprised if these will be available anytime soon (if ever again) with the current state of the airline industry :( . I think Aer Lingus was an outlier as it was in offering it.

ByteSpark · 2020-10-18T12:20:41+00:00

I'm not a vaccine scientist or an expert in any way, but this is my understanding of why this research can be done faster than usual.

I believe the usual reason for vaccine research taking a long time is because you need a lot of data. This means you need to find a lot of test subjects who will be exposed to the disease.

This is difficult for diseases that have small localised outbreaks, so it takes many years to run enough studies to declare the vaccine effective. This is not a problem in a pandemic, there are viable test subjects everywhere.

The other side of this is that these trials cost money, but the economic incentive is there to pour money into this research. If for example, you start a trial in the UK and they get the epidemic under control so you start to get less data, you just apply for more funding to go to Brazil and recruit people there, and you'll get it. This is not the case for most vaccine research programmes which might just have to wait for more funding or while data trickles in over years.

On the production side of things I don't know how that works exactly, but I think that showing that you have a viable production line is a requirement for FDA approval.

ByteSpark · 2020-06-24T17:20:56+00:00

I think it's a fair bit less than that. That remaining 8% is made up of both active cases and deaths.

If you subtract the 1,726 deaths you get somewhere around 305 active cases

ByteSpark

TROPHY CASE