Test Pilot Rating (license)
 

Hi there,

Can someone tell me how many hours you need to become a test pilot and what other requirements you need.

Also a Student Pilot gets 1 pip
A PPL gets 2 pips
CPL gets 3 pips
and ATPL gets 4 pips
does a test pilot get any recognition?

Thanks

A strange requirement Monkey. I can't recall my old man ever looking like that...well there was that one time...:eek:

Usually a scruffy old flying suits with no pips at-all and little colour left in it.

How to become a Test Pilot? Lots of ways - have a look at the links from the "FAQ" thread at the top of the page. How many hours - well Orville Wright had approximately none and did the job adequately well. Depending upon role, aircraft and the pilots professional background the modern world goes anywhere between a few hundred and a few tens of thousands.

Most countries have no such thing as a test pilots licence - it's much more a job than a qualification. But backgrounds generally will include a lot of technical training or experience. This might often include (a) technical degree(s), or for ex-military people a year at Test Pilot School.

G

Well there is a professional association that would seem to apply here, The Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

They grant membership based on experience, in several different grades from Associate upwards. All sorts of folks call themselves test pilots. I was on the Membership committee for a period in the late 1990s, and in general to be a full Member you really had to have done real test pilot work.

Now that being said, I think the French are the only country that issues a "Test Pilot" license.

Boeing has a long history of making their own Experimental Test Pilots, but recently have started to hire more graduates of ETPS, USAF TPS, EPNER and USN TPS.

British Understatement
 

"Orville Wright ..... did the job adequately well."

Well "G," glad to hear that you judged Orville's performance as "adequate." I for one thought that it was at least "Satisfactory."

Cheers,

Gerz

Gerz:
France, Italy and Germany all had a license requirement for flight testing that included training. EASA is trying to continue that trend.
Other countries (UK for example) had / have a vetting process that looks at experience as well as training.
The real problem is an objective set of requirements as to what is suitable training for flight testing civilian aircraft.

Shawn,

Thanks for the info. I only knew about France since I had a friend who was a EPNER grad.

Gerz

Lay off the peyote, sir....