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Reality 2: Ex- Military pilots are different to Civilian trained guys.
True. Military pilot get the best of training for few occasions and civil guys get minimal training for every occasion.
Mission.
Military: Fly from A to A, drop ordinance, don’t get shot at.
Civil: Fly from A to B to C back to B then D and maybe A, drop passengers, don’t get yelled at.
Planning.
Military: Two days, best intel, sim session. 1 hour flight, 1 landing.
Civil: 15 mins, on the net, 6 hours flight time, 4-6 landings.
Training.
Military: In the sim as much as the real thing, training for every contingency possible for each mission.
Civil: Twice a year for a few hours, doing thing that you will never do in reality (hopefully).
Maintenance:
Military: Whatever part you need we got, if not, we have several spare aircraft, your tax dollar at work.
Civil: Whatever you want we don’t got, no spare aircraft, maintained by the lowest bidder.
So yes there is a difference, a cultural difference, between that of the bureaucratic government world and the commercial reality world.
We are not having a dig at the military, we (several of us were guests at a military function over the weekend in fact) are having a go at the attitude that some (not all) bring with them to the commercial world.
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Twotbags
This stereotype of mil pilots is a little off the mark. It may be relevant to some fast jet squadrons, but I wouldn't know about that.
The majority of pilots in the RAF are ME guys, and I think this is a little closer:
1. Pilots complete 12 sims per year, covering all aspects of aviation in great depth. Bear in mind they already have ~250 hrs of high quality flying training behind them.
2. Mil ME pilots fly to all the same places as the airlines, as well as trying not to get shot at, and avoiding getting shouted at by our passengers.
3. We plan the same way as you guys, without a decent dispatch service. We also fly to non-scheduled destinations, requiring extra planning and procedures.
4. Yes, we do train for every contingency in the sim. This hones our decision making and CRM in the worst possible scenario.
5. The RAF has a far greater lack of spares than any airline on earth. No company could operate on the unservicabilty rate of the RAF and expect to stay in business. We are not the cash cow we used to be. The RAF has been stripped to the bare bones, and we have no flex left. Tasks are cancelled daily due to lack of aircraft.
I'm not really sure what your point was about the military pilots, but you need to be aware that there is a broad spectrum of military pilots out there.
All mil pilots accept that they will have to "Do their time" as an FO when transferring to an airline, but please realise that most of the mil pilots out there do a very similar job to their airline contempories.
There are a lot of very experienced mil ME pilots leaving at the moment, and most will be looking for airline employment. I guess they will look quite attractive to an airline, as they have a good base level of knowledge and ability. I don't know how this will affect the job chances for cadets and TP pilots looking for advancement, but I estimate about 50 experienced mil ME captains will hit the market in 2005.
As for how many are willing to pay for a TR, hopefully a big fat Zero!