Hello friends,


I'm getting ready to start submitting applications for my first flying job (~250 hours TT), and in doing so change gears from being a Flight Test Engineer at a civil aircraft OEM. I've "logged" >500 hours as a flight crew member/test conductor doing development testing aboard civil transport category aircraft, which I know don't count for squat in the context of total time.


Is there a creative way to show this time on an application? Does it make me more marketable? Do I even bother? Is there a particular low time industry I may be better suited for? Right now I'm thinking of just sending a bunch of applications to the aerial survey companies.


Thanks!

 

When you say you "logged," do you mean you logged it, or didn't log it?

You're correct: if you weren't a required crewmember under the regulation, it shouldn't be logged.

If you're submitting a resume, you can make a note under your employer details about your experience. Be careful not to represent it as flight experience when applying for a pilot job if you weren't involved in flying the aircraft. If you were on board taking flight data or monitoring systems, performance, etc, you can certainly say so or describe that experience (in a single sentence), but don't put or do anything that would misconstrue this or suggest you were doing something else (eg flying the aircraft) if you weren't.

You can also describe it in a cover letter. Remember that the cover letter is short and to the point, and the purpose is to get your foot in the door and get an interview; the interview is where you expand on things such as your flight test experience.

Likewise, in the actual job application, you can include a very brief description of your duties under your employment history with that employer.