Exclusive | NYC area mom ditched six-figure salaries to become a United Airlines pilot at 50: Determined to make it happen

Flying under the radar isn’t an option for Carole Hopson. As a Boeing 737 Captain for United Airlines, based mere minutes outside of New York City, the 62-year-old African American pilot — one of the eldest black female aviators in the tristate — is as striking as the roughly 100,000-pound plane she reins.And in the age of anti-aging, a time fraught with Botox-obsessed teenagers avoiding wrinkles, and billionaire biohackers syphoning Gen Z blood for fear of getting older, Hopson’s gone full-throttle in pursuit of her sky-high dreams despite the year on her birth certificate, landing the gig with United on November 6, 2018, at age 58.  Ahead of her sixth anniversary at the helm on Friday, Hopson told The Post she’s honored to be among the rising 40% of folks over 50 making bold career moves in her second act. “I always wonder if the 25-year-old me would be proud of the woman I am today.And the answer is yes,” said a smiling Hopson from the cockpit of her aircraft, parked at its home in Newark Liberty International Airport in her midnight blue uniform, embellished by four gold stripes on each sleeve signifying her senior rank, along with a traditional peaked pilot’s cap adorned with gold oak-leaf braids.“I even remember myself as a four-year-old, lying in the grass with my grandmother, looking up at the planes flying in the sky,” the native Philadelphian, now living in northern New Jersey, continued.

“I’d think to myself, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s just something I have to do.’”“And now, I get to live that dream every day.”But staking her claim on the friendly skies was certainly no breeze.Money, marriage and motherhood all took priority over Hopson’s aviation aspirations, making them virtually unattainable for years.

But now, the aircraft commander is on cloud nine.Operating a Boeing 737, revered as a top-of-the-line commercial jetliner, takes specialized training, said Hopson, who was forced to become proficient in Mac...