Piston vs Turbine Hours; Military
 

Curious if anyone has any input on low time military pilots supplementing their military flying with piston flying hours. Specifically, how that may impact the competitiveness of an application. Is this going to have a heavy impact when applying to the majors? I think more military pilots are seeing less hours and it may start looking like a heavy percentage of total hours coming from civilian flying experience as a military pilot applies to the airlines.

First time poster, if this is in the wrong thread please advise.

I'll move this to the mil forum.

The CoG of the issue is possession of a military pilot rating, and having completed your normal pipeline to an operational tour while avoiding serious UCMJ entanglements.

In this climate they are becoming ever more tolerant of lower-than-historical total time, due both to the pilot shortage and also the fact that as you say flight hours are down (especially for TACAIR).

I'm guessing the new normal will settle out at relatively low levels, like maybe 1000-1200 TT. In the meantime it absolutely will not hurt to build additional hours... in the past piston ASEL wouldn't count for much but today it could save you 12+ months at a regional. It will improve your app score and I think show initiative and motivation to the interview panel. I'd do it, time and money permitting.

Agreed. I was retired MIL with a long absence from flying so my circumstances were a little different. I flew GA before applying to the airlines and and it’s hard to say how much it helped but it definitely didn’t hurt. I do think it shows motivation and a desire to broaden your horizons.
Some companies ask about flight time by specific airplane type ( C-172, C-152, etc.) broken out separately. Some specifically ask about tailwheel time, so I think those companies must value a broader background. I flew tailwheel before making the jump to the airlines and had a blast. I highly recommend it. Makes you a better pilot.

I interviewed at Delta with several sub-1800 hour USAF C-130 guys, as well as a similar flight hour RW guy who did a couple FW tours flying C-12s and is now back in RW land. What I’m saying is times are different; I wouldn’t count out anything at this point.

Piston time isn’t nearly as valuable as turbine time. However I know people who used piston Jobs (when not flying military fixed wing) to get on with lower tier airline gigs (Regionals, Atlas, iAero off the top of my head), which allowed them to beef up their time/resume/apps and move on to a legacy.

Unless you’re on a non flying tour (or rotary tour), or on orders for .mil flying piston aircraft IFR/NIFE etc, adding piston hours to beef up your total time isn’t worth it. If you’re flying for fun then the hours are icing on the cake.