Getting back into flying after a hiatus

[chinglish]

A little background on myself. I had been flying and working consistently up until 2020. Experience-wise, I have between 7-8 thousand hours, about 3k PIC and maybe 2500 jet. I had been working on a contract overseas, which was terminated in early 2020. I didn't try to find a job as the market was dead then. I went back to school and am about halfway through a business degree. I can't help but want to get back into flying (learning about opportunity cost in Economics didn't help). I didn't keep myself current, so that would be the first hurdle but has anyone experienced returning to flying after a long layoff? Any issues trying to find airline work?

[C-GGGQ]

I took over 10 years off from flying. Now at the time I had less than 400 hrs. I sent out resumes. Did a recurrency with an instructor. Found a job relatively quickly in 2018. Got Cancer. Delayed the job till 2019 haha. Worked steady ever since (if slowly on medevac) now I’m a Turbine Captain with interviews lined up at mainline 705’s. You would have no problem I would think. Get your medical in order. Due a check ride if necessary (a new type rating/ ppc at an airline might count I don’t know). I wouldn’t feel discouraged if I were you. Everyone’s hiring. Just maybe not for the pay you’re hoping for yet.

[ant_321]

I don’t have first hand experience but I have trained plenty of people getting back into aviation over the last year. Some guys who haven’t flown in 10+ years. Find out what you need to do to get current and fire out resumes. You’ll get offers.

[DHC-1 Jockey]

I left my 705 gig back in 2015 with about 5000 hrs TT (Most of it 703/704/705 turbo-prop) to try ATC. I was away from flying for almost 2 years, but ATC wasn't working out for me and so I resigned and began to apply for flying jobs. I applied and was hired at Sunwing with no jet time. After being laid off from Sunwing during the pandemic, I contacted NavCanada asking if they were looking for anyone with some prior ATC experience as they were severely short staffed. After being away from ATC for almost 5 years, I was re-hired and successfully got my ATC license last year.

So, it goes to show you that it is possible to be out of the game for a while (ATC or flying) and still come back and be competitive.

[co-joe]

Whatever you do, don't lose recency. It's a pain in the wazoo to get back. Otherwise, doing an IPC is easy on a Red Bird sim at any flight school. I would do the IFR renewal. Though an airline could just give you an IFR as part of your initial type rating, they are less likely to hire you without a current group 1. I personally have seen a few guys that have been off for 2-3 years get hired, but they had significant large jet PIC, and were out of work because of Covid. If you only had 703/4 experience I'd say you might have to go back to that first, but if you have 705 or equivalent, should be no problem returning.

[arcticndn]

If a company requests you to renew your non current (10+ years) IFR prior to being hired, could that be entirely done in a certified sim (Redbird), or would it require a ride in an airplane? Bear in mind that once I am hired by the company, their training will give me a PPC which will re-validate everything anyways.