Hacker15e

Yes, the T-38 counts...A, B, and C model. No worries.

flyingj40

I attended the Pilot Expo in May of 2018 and shook hands with Rob Fisher and the first question he asked me and everyone else he shook hands with was "do you have your PIC time yet?". He even spoke to the fact that the website says "preferred" but "upper management" has directed him not to consider anyone below the 1000hr mark.

I'm lucky enough to have started tracking my own PIC time so I know right where I'm at. For those who have no idea how much PIC time they actually have what is the accepted way of calculating a number? I've heard 80% of total time since being certed as an Aircraft Commander. I've also heard 90%. that could make a big difference and I even tried asking Fedex, but no one got back to me.

Second question, is the 1000hr requirement before or after a sortie conversion? I'm assuming after, but on the flying hours page of pilot credentials it shows my total PIC time with no conversion. My numbers are about 150 hrs different so that could significantly change when I would try to get out of the Air Force.

Adlerdriver

I think no one got back to you because this sounds like a very strange way to determine one's PIC time. I kind of doubt using a percentage of total time is going to pass the sniff test. If the litmus test is "signing for the aircraft", then that probably needs to be determined as accurately as possible. I know heavy time can become pretty convoluted based on who is on board, seat swapping, etc. My advice would be determine PIC as accurately as possible, come up with a number and stick to that. Telling someone you came up with that number by taking a percentage of your total time is probably not a good idea (even if that's what you had to resort to). Make sure your logbooks and flight records support your math and be ready to back up your numbers.


One would think it would be after since the whole point of the sortie conversion is to attempt to equate the military takeoff to landing times to civilian block to block. If both civilian and military candidates need to meet the same 1000 PIC, my opinion would be after. Is there anywhere on pilot credentials that does show the PIC with the sortie conversion applied? If not, maybe it gets done behind the scenes and displayed properly to those who are looking at your profile. Is there any method of submitting or looking up FAQs?

galaxy flyer

This is where keeping a civil logbook is handy—log all those flights (missions) where you had a “A” code on the flight orders as PIC, block to block.

That, or do what I did at my last (not airline) interview-hand ‘em my civil logbooks, my Eastern print-out and my Form 5 and let them work it out. I went to pick up the coffee order. They knew, btw. Hired.

GF

flyingj40

As an example:

Aircraft commander since 2007, currently an evaluator. Instructor and Evaluator time are tracked and easily considered PIC. For a guy in the Air Force looking back of the last 10+ years to try to accurately determine which hours are PIC is futile at worst and extremely time consuming at best. How is a guy like that supposed to accurately reflect his PIC time on an application? "word on the street" says just use 80-90% of the total time since becoming an Aircraft Commander minus the instructor and evaluator time.

Hacker15e

For a pointy-nosed background perspective that does sound fishy...however, that's actually a pretty common way or mil heavy dudes to do it due to the nuances of how AC time is calculated in the AF, and has been acceptable technique at nearly every airline I know of for as long as I've been reading APC (since 2006-ish).

Numerous threads on it here.

Sluggo_63

It actually does. It's a pretty common and accepted practice for the mil heavy guys due to the way the AF logs Primary/Secondary/Other versus PIC/SIC.

I was hired at two legacy passenger carriers and here at FedEx using this exact system and not one question on my hours or how they were calculated.

LunkerHunter

I was hired at FedEx using this system as well. Had a one-page excel spreadsheet showing aircraft totals from my ARMS summary printout and the PIC conversion
as a percentage. It also showed the addition of the mil sortie multiplier for comparison. No questions asked-

Moosefire

Same. I was just over the threshold (1150 tpic) when I interviewed. I had my ARMS summary and got no questions about it.

Adlerdriver

Okay - so never mind then. I guess the takeaway for heavy guys considering the airlines is keep good records so you can put actual PIC times on your apps instead of a WAG.