Flight Time Conversion Factor

[SBoyer]

Does anyone know what a 'military flight time conversion factor' is?

I am told by a potential job applicant, for I position I will soon have open, that FedEx allows prior military pilots to adjust their total time upward by 20% if it was accumulated on active duty.

I am also advised that if combat flight time it may be upgraded to even higher totals.

Secondly, are the insurance underwriters in agreement with this practice?

Thanks to anyone that can help.

[Um... lifting...]

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,21/Itemid,85.html

[SBoyer]

the site is down but I'll give it try later.

[skiddriver]

The military flight time conversion gives credit for taxi time. Civilian pilots log chock to chock time (generally), military from takeoff to landing, so the military guys were losing credit for taxi time. Industy common practice is to either factor total flight time by a percentage (120%) or to add 0.2-0.3 hours per sortie. I've seen it in fixed-wing companies, haven't seen it for helicopter companies, but I never applied to a helicopter company either.

If the guy was flying military skid equipped aircraft, he logged from takeoff to hover to landing from hover so that time should not be factored, though most fixed-wing companies that give credit for helicopter time (damn few) wouldn't know to check for that.

[SBoyer]

What I figured also.
It appears to be a shell game to inflate time.
Thanks for the input

[SBoyer]

1100 hours Apache time, (complex time, wheeled and twin engine) in the desert, in combat, ain't shabby.
I'm gonna look at him anyway.

[skiddriver]

I don't know that I'd call it a shell game. If you wanted to accurately assess differences in flight time between civilian and military applicants, and you placed a premium on flight time by itself, then it makes sense to ensure that the time is logged in the same way or that you make adjustments for differences. How one makes those adjustments and how much emphasis you put on flight time as a hiring criteria is certainly up for debate.

Airlines and large fractionals do a lot of data crunching before they send out interview invites, and they are the ones that generally make these adjustments. Smaller operators with smaller hiring requirements can probably do it on the fly from the raw numbers. Quite frankly, I don't believe that flight time (past a minimum point) is an accurate indicator of potential performance and would be more interested in how they got those hours and the job applicant's technical knowledge, temperament, and attitude towards compliance and safety.