Becoming a pilot
 

Now i know that you need to be committed for a minumum term of 12 years for the RAF and 6 years (I think) for the army after training to be a pilot, but what are the penalties for leaving earlier and how would you go about leaving earlier than the actual 12 years.

Would airlines see it as a bad thing when and if people ever apply to an airline after leaving the military before the minimum term.

I do not intend to apply to the military to train me as a pilot, but just wondering (out of curiousity) whether this has been done before and what the implications were.

It is done by a lot of [mis guided] people but to have any realistic chance of a GOOD job, you will need 1500-2000 hrs in the Military. Do that in 12 years and I will take my hat off to you or any one else. I think the joint commitment is only 4 years post conversion (eg after fully trained) Not the easy way in some think and you do not get a FREE licence so more work needed to achieve the 380 slot. A PPL is easy if you really want the effort - best just saving pocket money and doing it yourself?

Unless of course you went Rotary. Have lost count of the number of 1st / early 2nd tourists round here with over 1000hrs. In which case, 1500-2000hrs in 12 yrs is entirley realistic.

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with Melchett01.

My history was:-

First Logable Flight: February 24th 1984 on a Wessex HC2, (XR520), as left seat observer.

Between 22nd January 1985 and April 16th 1985 I was at RAF Odiham on No. 240 Operational Conversion Unit, (OCU), learning the Puma helicopter and totalled some 65 hours on type.

My last flight was on 18th May 1988 in XW211.

My final statistics are 1178:35 hours on Puma helicopters and a total of 1294:15 hours logged total aircrew logged time.

So, on rotary, 1300 hours is achievable in under 5 years...

I got nearly 800 hours in one year on E-3D in the mid 90s. The joys of operational flying. (Incuding 190 hours in one 6 week period). Things are a bit slower now though!

I agree that in the good old days 500+ PA was easy, not in todays world. Bridging = 2000 hrs and at 15 x 12 = 180PA (Rotary) takes 11.5 years approx (not including staff job and extra ground tours). Old boys and not so old may be OK but new boys - not convinced we can even keep them to 1000hrs at the moment?

Oh look, I have my own personal stalker...

That was an incredibly witty and incisive insult there... You're obviously far too clever for me... You must be an officer... I'll run away, ducking and weaving, to avoid your monstrous intellect, wit and charm...

For the third time... Go away... little boy...

[Edit]

Oh, silly me... It's late on a Friday night over there... One shandy too many... Which makes you worse than a little boy...

[/Edit]

Counting hours
 

It is really quite easy to get those 2000 hrs in not too many tours...simulator time counts (up to 500 hrs anyway) and boy have I been in there for ages!!!

I know of people leaving Valley with about 10 year time served with circa 2000hrs most of which is fast jet. It's easily achievable. Currently you'll need this experience to get a job:

BA - 1500hrs
Monarch - 2000hrs
Virgin - 2500hrs
Easyjet - 500hrs

As for leaving early, you need to do a minimum of 6 years service ONCE YOU HAVE COMPLETED AN OCU. Typically it takes 3-4 years to complete an OCU, so you would be looking at 10 years in before you can leave. That said, it'll be the best 10 years of your life!

Wandering off topic i'll admit, but speaking/ typing of OCUs, anyone know how long the various NCA OCUs last for?

As long as the pilots' OCU , there are no seperate OCUs for NCA, you generally complete them as a crew.