To one and all yet to start their ATPL, BEagle's advice is succint but right on the nail. It was he who helped greatly in negotiating the current military dispensations with the CAA.
LASORS might be a pain in the arse to read and absorb, but you will be helping yourselves by doing so. Start
now! The process of gaining a license is bureaucratic (form-filling galore, as well as beasting your wallet), requires some hard work (those blasted exams
) but it is
substantially less of a hurdle than before the current dispensations (I did it in the previous, hard iteration
).
Again, I say start
now! It will take you far longer than you estimate (the rest of life gets in the way) and you will want to start testing and searching in the job market
well before you actually leave the mob. Having, say, most of the ATPL requirements complete, but license not actually issued, is no susbstitute for actually having the damn thing in your hands - you won't get a second glance in the market without it.
I can vouch for Bristol Ground School,
http://www.bristolgroundschool.eu , as mentioned elsewhere in this thread - they know what
you need as a military aviator to get through the system. Alex Whittingham, who runs BGS, is an ex-RAF pilot himself, with a brain the size of a planet, and if his school can't get you through the exams, it is unlikely
anyone could.
Your share of the MoD budget isn't going to get any better - make sure you are ready to jump (or cope with being pushed .....) and get the license done asap. Seriously.
Edited to add:
Bristol.gs
This is a useful
summary of the requirements for military pilots. Be sure to get the nitty-gritty from LASORS and the CAA for your own circumstances.