Military Rotary to Civilian Fixed Wing - practicalities?

[Dragonlight]

Hi all,

I have just over 2 years to serve in the military as a rotary pilot. In all likelihood i'll be leaving with under 2000 hours and given the still blurry subject of military licence accreditation I'm banking on having to attain my licences completely by my own finance as opposed to being assisted by bridging packages of the past.

What I'm trying to find out before I embark on the journey of acquiring an ATPL(A) is whether or not at 34 years of age entering the fray is a deflated jobs market is a sensible option? My principle concern is that if I decide to go down the fixed wing route I'd be just another 250 hours pilot in the mix for a job, as opposed to if I continue to fly helicopters, my accrued experience and hours would be both more relevant and credible.

I have had a fantastic time flying helicopters, but I'd love to broaden my experience and do the fixed wing thing. Any help, guidance or stories from those who many have done it would be most appreciated.

Many thanks.
DL

[redsnail]

Quite a few of our crew are from the rotary military world. What you should do is research the airline requirements and see if they take mil helo time "like for like".
Then work out if it's worth getting a civilian fixed wing licence. Definitely get your civilian helo licence. Some nice little jobs out there for the right person.

[magicmick]

Hi DL

2 years to go and you are thinking about life outside, that is exactly the right attitude. I am ex mil (aircraft engineer not pilot) and the amount of senior WO1s that I have seen with 30+ years service who think about sorting out some sort of job in their last 2 months still amazes me even today.

Back to your situation, are you in a flying job at the moment or are you at a desk somewhere? One of the big advantages that you will have over most 250hr wannabes is the network of colleagues who will know influential people in airlines and ex colleagues who are now in the airlines.

I left as an engineer in Jan 2007 and I am told that in the aircrew crewroom of one of the squadrons there was a chart of all the ex squadron pilots who had left and gone to the airlines, what airline they were at and their contact details so that leaving pilots could contact them and they would offer assistance. Once you've got that network running keep it going as you convert your mil RW experience to civvie FW licences, social networking sites are gold dust for this. The military is a fairly social environment so if you have squadron dinners or reunion events where ex squadron pilots who are flying in civvie street attend then get yourself in there and introduce yourself.

When I was doing my flying training back in 2007 there were a couple of ex Herc pilots who had been chopped early in their training that were at the same school. BALPA ran an employment seminar to give job seekers a chance to listen to presentations by airline recruiters so I went with the 2 ex Herc boys and although these boys were quite junior and were chopped early in their careers, the amount of recruitment staff that knew them at this seminar was incredible. Although these 2 did not have the min requirements for many of the airlines the recruiters took their CVs and arranged to meet them at a later date.

As far as what training you need to convert your mil RW experience to a civvie FW licence you can contact Alex Whittingham at Bristol Groundschool to find out what ATPL written exams you need to do and I seem to remember a flying school at Exeter that took a lot of ex mil people through their licence conversions, I think that there's only one school at Exeter that does everything up to MEIR so do a google search for them.

As for your age, with the military career and a couple thousand helo hours behind you then it should not be a huge snag.

A bit of rambling post I'm afraid so I'll finish by wishing you good luck in your training and every success in your career search.