Originally Posted by
Petie25
I searched for this topic but did not find any information. I plan on retiring from the Air Force in Oct '19. When should I start submitting my apps? Additionally, I will have been instructing sims, with no actual flight experience, for 4 years by then. My expectation is that the majors will ignore me until I have 6-9 months of flying experience with wither a 121 or 135 op. Is this realistic?
I had a 5 year gap in flying when I left the military. I started submitting apps to realistic targets *after* my retirement date because I had some things I wanted to do between retirement and getting a new job. I got a skywest interview immediately (day after submitting app) and that would have been sufficient to start building time. I got a couple of legacy/major interviews just over 1 year after I started flying again.
I suggest casting a wide net at first, but take whatever reasonable offer that gets you flying again. If you're short PIC time and have choices, consider picking one that gets you PIC time soonest. A few of my mil friends went skywest to build time/recency and seem happy with that path.
You can apply pretty much any time (12 months prior to availability seems to be about the longest reasonable timeframe) and it won't hurt you as long as you tell them up front what your availability date really is.