This is why you should tell everyone who you know in the AF who is even thinking about the possibility of flying for an airline that they should keep a LOGBOOK. It really isn't that hard, and you wouldn't have to guess at what your flight times are.

I realize that it is probably too late to go back and log 17 years worth of flying, but you should tell all the junior guys you fly with to keep a personal flight log.

There is no universal conversion, every company has their own process, and you should follow each company's policy to the letter. Yes it takes a lot of time and yeah it sucks to have to do it, but there isn't much way around it.

 

Dave: From what I have heard at FedEx, recency of experience isn't as big a factor as it is at other airlines. That may be partly because they figure you are going into the back seat for at least a year, but who knows. I met several pilots here who hadn't flown for several years when they got hired here. Having access to a sim would be most helpful prior to the interview, and as long as you can get through the sim eval during the interview I don't think recency is a big issue here.

Good luck.

 

I disagree, s/o seat or not. Recent experience is an important factor at Fedex, from what I have heard. Anyone else? So we can get it settled?

 

Unless getting your mins (1000+ of turbine PIC at Fedex) depends on it, I wouldn't do any conversions. Just show them your AF records. Although I had a logbook of all my 7 years of civilian flying, I just had a folder with all my AF flying records, with a summary sheet (Don't remember what it's called, I got out 18 years ago.) on top. On my App, I claimed all my AF time, minus the Other time, and a good guess on my PIC, as I flew a lot on two AC AWACS crews, and was only A coded about half the time. Since this was well over 1000 hrs, I didn't get nitpicky, and neither did Fedex

 

A buddy of mine got hired last Jan and had not flown since the spring/summer prior to 9/11. He goes to MD-11 training in July.

 

I believe the Air Force and it's affiliates (ANG and AFR) all use an AF Form 5 to keep track of its pilots flight time. When I retired, they gave me my entire Form 5, which showed every single flight I had ever taken in the military, along with a summary page. When I interviewed at FedEx, they took one look at it and that was that. No questioning about flight time at all. The beauty of hiring an ex-military pilot, is that the company, to some degree, knows what they are getting, based only on the applicants military flight records. So I guess I don't understand why you would be advising military guys to keep a civilian-type log of their military flights. I'd advise them that when they are ready to retire or leave the military, just make sure you get either the original or a duplicate of your flying records.

 

I agree with FXDX and MD11SnoopDog, I have had several friends hired in the past 5 years who had not flown in 3-6 years due to furloughs at other airlines or staff jobs in the military. However, these were all military guys with 2500 to 4000 hours PIC time. Good luck.

 

I do have my retirement Flying History Report (this is what the Form 5 is called now) and it details everything. Like I mentioned earlier, I applied the .2 conversion factor to both my primary/instructor time and my secondary and reported that as my PIC and SIC on the on-line application with FedEx.

My main concern is that I don't want to even appear that I am trying to inflate my times at all, so I'm a little paranoid, I guess.

Thanks again for all the inputs.

Dave

 

1) A squadron bud of mine could not get hired due to lack of recent experience so I guess it depends upon the individual. He had 3K hrs, all in fighters, and was working at the Red Flag division at Nellis but hadn't flown in over two yrs.

2) DaveP2, don't sweat the flight time stuff. A .2 conversion is conservative and usually if you hand your interviewer a USAF Form 5 they go and look at the final time and hand it back to you with a smile. I did this at 3 legacy carriers with never a question about flight time.

Here's where the flight time stuff comes into question: 1) "I lost my logbooks" 2) You're a 20-something Viper driver in an ANG unit and you claim to have 2500 hrs, or your a 20-something C5 driver and you claim to have 20K hrs 3) You've got logbooks from out of business carriers and the times look "suspicious." At one interview, a civilian guy I was interviewing with brought in his library of logbooks. The other guys were all military and our Form 5's were handed back to us w/i a couple of minutes and before the interview. They gave the librarian his logbooks back AFTER the interview and I suspect they scrubbed them as best they could in an hour.

Bottom line: if you're a 30 or 40 something military fighter guy with around 3K hrs, that's about right; military heavy about 10K (or whatever is reasonable) for the age appropriate applicant, then that's about right. It's stuff that looks inflated or suspicious that makes the interviewers dig.

 

Not every "military" pilot gets a Form 5, and not every company may be as accommodating as FedEx in regard to keeping track of your flight time, that's all.