Joining RAF with fATPL

[Uniform267]

Just throwing this one out there. Thoughts? SDSR 2010 closed the doors and I took the civilian route. Can any recruiters/instructors/currently serving guys shed some opinions?

Cheers

[Lima Juliet]

I know of an ex-NCO and an ex-Nav that both had fATPLs. They both had to do most of the military pilots' course again when they rebranched.

I would have thought that it would be a positive advantage if you went multis, but for FJ and rotary then there would be quite a lot missing from your training. That said, at the recruiting office having a fATPL must offer you advantage over the other candidates.

Good luck!

LJ

[airborne_artist]

As many disadvantages as advantages I suspect. Plenty to be unlearned, even if you start with some useful knowledge.

[downsizer]

It certainly will have little to no influence on the selection process. You'll go through the exact same process as ever other punter.

[Fareastdriver]

It happened a long time ago but on my course was an ex-national service pilot who had rejoined after a two year absence. He had done the full wings course but as he had not done six months on a squadron he kept his rank, lost his wings and had to do the whole basic and advanced flying courses in toto.
He was then reawarded his wings at the end.

[ShotOne]

Without wishing to pry too much into the financial angle of your plans, U267, you must have shelled out a very large sum to gain aforementioned ATPL. Presumably you have a plan on how to repay that on a Pilot Officer salary?

[Fareastdriver]

Better to pay it off with a Pilot Officer's salary than pay RyanAir for more hours.

[Training Risky]

U267,

I joined with a ppl/ir/night rating and some cpl training: about 200 hrs fixed wing.

I still had to go through elementary flying training as an ab-initio and I thought "I've got this sewn up, harriers here we come!"… how wrong I was.

I quickly realised I had learned some pretty bad habits, my visual scan was appalling, low level nav was new and hard, military circuits were different to GA, etc.

But saying that, I did get streamed rotary, so the hard work and prior experience must have helped.

[Uniform267]

Thanks for the responses.

I have absolutely no expectations to be fast tracked due to my (minimal) experience - I did most of my initial flying on a UAS so aware of the different instructional style and syllabus. I was more interested to see if having the experience would be a major turn-off to the guys at Cranwell, before I went down that route.

Finance-wise, a PO earns much the same, if not more than, a typical cadet/new FO in Europe. I'm fortunate, in that my debt is not astronomical.

[JW411]

Fareastdriver:

I don't know which pub you picked your information from but Ryanair do not charge for hours. You pay for your type rating but from then on you get paid.

[sp6]

My CPL and 1000 hrs were of little significance at OASC. The system is geared towards school and university leavers. I would have scored better if I had played team sports at school!
I have now had most of my ppl and cpl habits beaten out of me, and my scan is now passable.
Expect lots of frustrations during IOT and the inevitable holding between flying courses. You will be worked very hard as a first tourist and depending on type,Aptitude and your own career aspirations - very hard throughout your career.
Worth it though!