Combining Engineering and Flying

[Genghis the Engineer]

Jetlag surprisingly well managed on this occasion. Korean Air isn't bad either, just 4hrs + 2 hrs + 12 hrs, + 7 hours at airports in between is more than a normal human being should be expected to take, added to a 10 hour time lag.



Anyhow, my view on it. Yes, I hold qualifications as both a professional pilot (CPL + CRI) and as a professional engineer (BEng + CEng + Eur.Ing. + PhD). Most of the jobs I've done over the last 20 odd years have to some greater or lesser extent used both skillsets, although to a rather lesser extent both sets of formal qualifications.

Jobs that require significant engineering and flying knowledge together exist, and I've done a few of them. But virtually never are they either mainstream flying or mainstream engineering jobs.

The full time jobs I've done that combined the skillsets:-

(1) Military flight test engineer. My BEng was essential, my flying knowledge was essential - how I came by that flying knowledge was irrelevant, as were any actual civil licences I had. I did however get appropriately trained and spent a lot of time flying with various military pilots in military aircraft as part of their ongoing assessment.

(2) Head of a light aircraft airworthiness department. My engineering degree and licences were essential there - and I was routinely flying aeroplanes as part of my job, as well as just to get where I was going. CAA authorised me as a test pilot for the class of aircraft I was dealing with, and I got a lot of satisfaction out of that.

(3) Aerospace Engineering academic. The only qualification I absolutely needed there was my PhD. However, the reality was that I was using my flying knowledge, and my aerospace engineering experience, constantly. I did some research test flying whilst there so technically my CPL was needed - in reality it was the CPL knowledge and experience, not the licence itself most of the time (and in fact the CPL itself I didn't technically need, although I did it whilst in that job, to satisfy myself and avoid difficult questions from the CAA).

(4) Head of a research department, using aeroplanes. Technically, I'm a manager - and neither my flying nor engineering qualifications are needed, nor is my PhD. However, I'm managing researchers, aircrew, and engineers - as well as dealing with various of the same in other organisations. The combination gives me the knowledge and credibility to do the job. The flying reality is that I actually do very little either flying or engineering - the flying is occasionally up the back observing my team, or using a little aeroplane to get somewhere for a meeting. The engineering is mostly management level - signing off proceedures, auditing best practices, investigating solutions proposed by other people.


Doesn't of-course stop me doing ferry flying, bits of light aircraft test flying, and instructing on weekends and days off. Test flying is my biggest single passion, and that certainly requires both the flying and engineering skills - as a friend of mine at USNTPS said a little while ago, a modern test pilot is "An engineer in a flight suit". I've done other bits on the side as well that also used both skillsets - expert witness, bit of TV, and so-on.


So those jobs exist, and they are in my experience superb ones to have if you can get them. I hope and plan that my next move whenever that is will combine my three skillsets again - flying, engineering and research.


However, PHF is right - if you are looking to contract into a standard aero-eng post, no, they just want an engineer with the right technical skills and don't really care about the rest. Similiarly the vast majority of pilot jobs are for pilots only. The biggest exception to this last may be the various militaries, who want pilots who are also officers, and thus usually also graduates, and may well move people between relevant posts.

Also you need to be aware of course that neither a CPL nor a BEng (or even an MEng) is an advanced qualification - both are entry level qualifications and whilst you're entering and learning the job, whether it's as an engineer or a professional pilot, your capacity to learn and develop the other half of your skillset is very limited. I basically managed this by doing both very slowly - but nonetheless I've been in well paid employment, doing stuff with aeroplanes, for 21 years since I graduated with my BEng (the only qualification I have which I did full time, everything else was part time whilst working), so I can't honestly say I have any regrets about taking that route. The idea of being a full time engineer not involved in flying issues, or a pure pilot not doing anything else, just sounds so dull to me. There are certainly people not unlike me in the airlines, or in military flying services but we are all oddballs: I know one airline training captain who uses his degree to manage various safety issues for his airline, and another airline F/O who is head of safety for his airline and actively using his degrees - also quite a few people in flight test organisations around the world, who require both skillsets - as do various military specialists, most astronauts.... So, I like to think we're very important and useful oddballs who are quite well paid, but still oddballs.