It is a fair bit of extra training to learn to fly a two-pilot Airways aircraft like the KingAir.
What, like the Islander/Defender. An aircraft we use as a 'two pilot Airways aircraft'?
In the AAC the KingAir 350 would be a career sidestep out of RW - indeed plank flying has sometimes been regarded as part of "resettlement" in AAC.
Your perception is very out of date. That may have been the case a few years ago but we actually have ab initio FW guys now. Cripes, we probably have more fixed wing than the RAF now!
Also, given the apparent shortage of AAC Apache pilots I would think the AAC would be reluctant to exacerbate the problem by streaming twenty or so of their pilots into a longish KingAir training progam.
S'funny, we have no problems filling the slots for FW. In fact, when this project first came about, the AAC had blokes on King Air courses before the RAF was able to get their ****e in one pile. With Gazelle getting drawn down, we did actually have a few spare bods.
In the RAF, however, the Guardrail would just be part of the multi-engine career path, so the investment in training would be amortised over a longer career path, and they already have a pool of trained multi-engine pilots to pick from.
As fixed wing is a career path open to AAC pilots. Youre sounding awfully snobbish. I dont think you have any idea how the AAC works or how we operate FW. Have you forgotten we've been flying FW operationally for a good few years?
Maroonman4, absoloutley spot on. If only more were to think along your lines.
Chicken leg, check your PMs mate.
