Gentlemen, please!!!!
My last post was tongue-in-cheek, intended as some light-hearted banter, as I alluded to at the end. My postings here have not been intended to offend - if they have, I apologise.
The point I was making, and thank you Reheat and Tandem for spotting this, was that the SCOPE and BREADTH of military training is far beyond that in the civil aviation world. Airline pilots are not trained to fly transport aircraft at 250' (or lower), in hostile environments, often on NVGs, to airdrop stores to ground forces or ships, or land on remote short semi-prepared strips. If you read through my posts carefully, nowhere did I say or imply that ex-mil guys are BETTER PILOTS than civ-trained guys, just that the range of skills we have developed are much broader. Yet this thread seems to imply that ex-mil guys and the experience they bring to the civ world are not valued very much, at least not at BA.
Yes, I am fully aware that civil aviation is a different kettle of fish, but surely experience on the mil transport fleet is relevant? You guys make out that it is worthless and not welcome.
I am not arrogant about flying - arrogance in the air will get you killed, whatever you fly and whoever you fly for. I certainly do not think I am gods gift to aviation - far from it. I will admit that I have never flown a jet - and whilst I did, like almost everybody, join the RAF with the ambition to fly fast jets, I was never given this opportunity, so I do not know if I would have been good enough. And no, I wasn't chopped anywhere - it was a case of ME slots that needed filling at the time.
What IS obvious here is the vitriol directed at ex-mil guys in BA, deserved or not. Virgin seems like a much more pleasant place to be right now.
16B