UPT lasts about 12-13 months. After graduation you’ll have around 260 hours and can qualify for your mil comp multi-engine commercial license. Survival school and kc-135 primary will take another six months but only add about 20 hours, most of it is academics and sims. After getting to your unit you’ll fly with them for several months on orders but hours will vary wildly from home station training to your first deployment; figure around 5-10 hours per week home station, but if you deploy you can get around 100-150 hours per month.

You need 750 hours to qualify for an R-ATP and be able to get hired by a regional. Realistically you’d need to upgrade to Aircraft Commander (2.5-4 years depending on your unit) and have ~2500TT with 1000 PIC to bypass the regionals. That takes the avg active duty tanker pilot around 9 years with their interruptions for PCSs, SOS, staff job duties, IP upgrade, etc.

Fastest path for you is to hump for 750 hours and get your ATP and a regional job as quickly as possible. You can get ~1000 hrs/year flying for whomever and become competitive for the majors within two years of getting your regional job going that route. Total min timeline to the majors = about 5 years, with two deployments immediately after becoming operational in your reserve squadron.


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