MV-22 Pilot - Mil to Civ - Roadmap advice?
 

I am a CH-46 to MV-22 Marine transition pilot and i am currently doing my out-of-cockpit tour as a Forward Air Controller (best gig ever!).

I have 17 months of active duty remaining on my contract (AUG 2017).

Total Time - 1100 hours
T-34C - 100 hours
Bell 206 - 125 hours
CH-46 - 625 hours
MV-22 - 250 hours
A/C CDR (PIC) - 135 hours (CH-46 and MV-22)

I do not have my ATP, but i'll gladly pay to go take the test and the check ride. However, i hear that some regional carriers are paying for it now. True/False?

I'll be at the 11 year point in my military career and i am heavily leaning towards getting out and moving to the airlines. Vice staying in and gutting it out to the 20 year point.

From what i can tell from reading hundreds of posts on this forum, it sounds like the airlines are counting MV-22 time as FW time. Are they?

Basically, i am trying to draw out my own road map to see what i need to get done in the next 17 months.

Here is what i know and i was wondering if ya'll could help fill in what i am not seeing....

1) Flight hours - i know that i need 500 FW hours and i am 150 hours short of that mark (250 MV-22 + 100 T-34). The plan is after my current tour to pay out of pocket for 10 hours of multi-eng time and punch my multi-eng rating. Then to fly single eng a/c to maintain currency if i get stuck in a staff job for my remaining time. I have the required cross country time, night time, and instrument time. I have the military mins for the restricted ATP, but i still need to take the test and course.

2) Here is my list of stuff to do in the upcoming months after i return from my deployment...
-interview prep course
-tranpose all military logbook time into a digital logbook (suggestions?)
-Update FAA card with the following: Instrument airplane, powered lift, type ratings - H46E & BV-107
-Retool the resume and have it proofed by a 3rd party service
-Draft LORs and send them out to aviators i have flow with.

Once the above steps are completed, will i be set up to apply to a regional? I know there is a couple things i didn't post like the FAA radio license, a 1st class med cert, and the ability to get a security clearance...

Prep course: Emerald Coast Interview Consulting (AlbieF15 on this board)
Logbook: lots of military guys just bring in their mil printout. One airline I know (Atlas) specifically tells you NOT to bring your logbook to the interview but I don't think that's typical. You still need an electronic logbook to number crunch your times all the different ways for each application. I use LogTen Pro on my Mac but I used to really like Logbook Pro when I was on Windows.
Rotary to fixed wing: APTAP.org - Professionals Helping Professionals

Can you get a tour to the tracom for T-6s? Or swing a reserve fixed wing job? I'm not sure the osprey counts as fixed wing since it still lands more or less like a helicopter. might be airline specific as whether they count it or not.

I'd also look at a board called APTAP.org - Professionals Helping Professionals

It's army helo to airlines with a lot of the same questions you'd have regarding helo-airline transition.

You and the Harrier community got bent over with this LOI.

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/...rpretation.pdf

I've never heard of the Harrier guys having any trouble with meeting the requirements. This LOI even states:

I can see where this would (and can) affects the Osprey, but it would seem to exclude the Harrier.

I guess things change though and this Harrier pilot had enough of a question to ask for an interpretation from legal, though I would press this a little further if I was a Harrier guy.

This wouldn't be the first time the FAA has had to back-pedal from an LOI. I laughed and had to read it 3 times when I first found it.

Also, I can see that HQ had one idea, but didn't tell the field (FSDOs). Inspectors/DPEs have been writing ATP tickets for these folks for decades without any idea that something wasn't right.

if you can, call in favors/ deliver very nice gifts to your monitor to get you a fixed wing flying job. C-12s or T-6s would be ideal.

If you can't, look at getting your CFI/I+ MEI and start racking up flight time by instructing until you can get a better gig, i.e. Work pipeline and then ISR contractor/ regional.

Regionals will pay for your CTP course for you in most cases once you have the hours of that's the route you want to go. You can also use your GI Bill at ATPs Higher Power aviation.

Plan on being treated as a helo guy with 100hrs of fixed wing time until you're proven otherwise. Also look at applying to CBP and the rest of the agencies.

The FAA opinion re. Osprey time is an expensive nuisance, ie you might need to buy time in a 172 to meet ATP mins.

The bigger issue is do you have enough FW time to meet airline (vice FAA) minimums?

My guess is that you don't even if airlines count Osprey time, which I'm not sure they do. Some airlines have formulas to grant partial credit for RW time, V-22 may fall under that. I don't think you're even in the ballpark for major airlines, so you'll want to research hiring mins for regionals. Each airline will have a different policy for RW time.

Airlines view Harrier time as FW because harriers can and do land like airplanes. MV-22 may fly like an airplane but it lands like something else entirely.

As someone mentioned, emerald coast could probably give good advice.

The odds of me getting out of the osprey community are pretty slim. I know of only 1 guy who got to go to flight school so far due to the demand from the fleet. But i am definitely going to try!!!

I looked up the army site but most of the data is all old and from the early 2000's.

Thanks for all the tips guys!

Emerald Coast was a must on my to do list!

I have no issues what so ever going to work for a regional. That is really what all my questions are geared for. Do i have the mins or am i close with my mins (given the osprey time) to get my foot in the door with a regional.

Its a bummer more people don't understand the osprey and how it operates. :(