UAL T38 Phlyer

corrected for spelling:

"I think you're watching too many Top Gun reruns as well!"

If I may paraphrase the Bard: "Me thinks the civilian doth protest too much."

I started with civilian flight-training. I thought I was pretty sharp. I got to UPT and found out I was average. The military--on the whole--makes you a better exposed and more-rounded pilot, as others have alluded to.

The best part of USAF training, in my view: energy maneuverability, and being comfortable to maneuver at any attitude or angle of attack. I did some limited aerobatics as a civilian--but I didn't know how to handle it if things were botched.

But Air Force pilot training didn't make me infallable. My first three airline sims were quite humbling. But then again, they were for the civilian guys in my class, too. The biggest weakness for mil-guys coming into a major carrier will be weak FAR knowledge, the newness of FOMs and OPSPECS, and for fighter guys, ice and de-icing (and having to ask someone else to raise the gear, flaps, or talk on the radio).

If you have brain cancer, would you rather go to your local hospital, or Johns Hopkins? If you wanted a tune-up for your car, who would do a better job: Meinecke, or Earnhardt's pit-crew? Hmmm..the local shop might do it quicker and better...the first time. But I'd bet that overall, the pit-crew knows more about cars than the guy in a local garage. It's all about who probably has the best training, experiences, and "weeding-out"

And that's the point here: by statistics and probabilities, the military guy will have better training and more varied experiences. It should pay-off as a better pilot---but it might not. Of my favorite Capts to fly with at UAL, 90% of them were mil. But one of the worst pilots I ever flew with was mil, as well.

The one thing you can't change in any training program, be it military or civilian: personality. Some people are sharp, and easy to get along with. Some people are difficult. Everyone has seen them and worked with them. Some people are losers. You wonder if they've ever been on a date, and then, you hope that they haven't....their kind doesn't need to proliferate.

By the way, your listing of accidents that had military pilots is a non-sequitor. If I said "It turns out that in military accidents, the pilot was always a military pilot!" would be apparently laughable. Similar in airliner accidents: since, at most major carriers, traditional hiring standards meant that half or more of all their pilots were military, you would expect a military pilot to be involved in half or more of all their accidents.

Just chill, River. No one is attacking you personally, and I'd guess you are as able a 737 pilot as the next guy at SWA. Just accept this as gospel: If you polled the military guys on this forum, I don't think any one of us would say that our military experience made us a worse pilot. It made us better, and in my case, more trainable.