'Morning Gents,

Or more likely late, late evening where the majority of you are currently located assuming you're in CONUS.

First of all, I'd like to offer an apology - I am a rather dense fighter pilot who has difficulty wading into unfamiliar territory and navigating such. It's recently come to my attention that commercial aviation may be a course I'm willing to pursue. This revelation is due to a variety of factors, both concerning the change of course that military aviation is trending towards, i.e., becoming ever-more focused on prioritizing being politically correct over tactically proficient, etc... As well as the fact that our incredible machinery is aging rapidly resulting in averaging less than 10 flight hours and that I've spent over 24 of the last 48 months away from home. Nonetheless, that is not the purpose of this post. The purpose is as follows.

All I've known up to this point in my aviation career is maintaining Air-to-Air timelines, BFM'ing the wire, and how to properly employ ordnance to desired effects. *Cue Top Gun theme song* What I don't understand at all, is the requirements, routes, and techniques that may assist one in getting hired flying commercial heavies.

I currently have about 1,000 total flight hours.
- 90 in a T-34C (turboprop)
- 160 in a T-45 (single engine jet)
- 750 in an F/A-18
- I've got 2-3 more years in the Hornet before I can consider leaving the Marine Corps, so I anticipate being >1,000 F/A-18 hours at a minimum.

I'm a NATOPS instrument instructor/checker within the squadron/MAG, I've attended the Navy's Aviation Safety Officer Program in Pensacola and have been the Aviation Safety Officer, am a qualified F/A-18 Maintenance Check Pilot, as well as a Combat Qualified F/A-18 Division Leader.

What do I need to do in order to be competitive to be hired by one of the airlines? As I understand it, attain my ATP certificate, and get a type rating? Anything else? What are the recommended ways to go about doing that? Do I even have enough hours to be competitive or even to qualify?

Thanks for taking the time to read my post, let alone answer any of my questions if you so kindly choose to do so.