RightSeat4Ever

I had a 1600hr guy all turbine time, 450 Multi-PIC, 1200 TT PIC, 900 IP hrs in my class. He was also a USNA grad with a Master's degree from Stanford in Aerospace Engineering. Not your avg ERAU/UND grad.

alphaone

You knew high quality airlines prefer military pilots, why didn't you go that route?

goinaround

Oh yeah.... Those high density airports. It is difficult learning how to wait in line on all those confusing taxiways. Absolutely brutal. And the paying passengers. Such a burden to carry knowing full well that the people behind the door actually paid money to be there. Makes me miss the easy life.....

WHACKMASTER

Because I wanted to be an AIRLINE pilot and thus went the regional AIRLINE route. I had zero interest in military aviation. Not all quality airlines have a preference for military pilots (UPS, UAL).

WHACKMASTER

What's your point about the pax paying?

RightSeat4Ever

But you didn't get hired at either one of those did you? Oh, and Bill Kennedy, director of hiring at UAL has publicly stated he prefers Mil trained aviators. Oh, and the head of the NTSB has stated very similar views with regard to accident rates in commercial aviation, i.e., with fewer military trained guys entering the commercial market he is concerned that the accident rate will increase.

Time to fess up and be honest with yourself, you couldn't handle a military training program or the complexities of military aviation. At least not tactical aviation.

Suck it Whack! You are a below avg pilot doing an avg job.

ZapBrannigan

You realize that in your genital measuring contest with whack you just insulted about 50% of your colleagues? Right?

Bucknut

Miltitary training is obviously difficult and not everyone makes it through. It is the arrogance of some that come out of the Miltary that scares the hell out of me. As an instructor I have noticed a difference in the proportion of Military versus civilian pilots having issues with ego or arrogance and that is a very dangerous atttitude. The miltary guys also tend to have a lack of knowledge of FARS unless they spend some serious time studying the FOM, it can be a problem. If I am an employer I can chose my preference of hiring so long as it does not discriminate a class of people. The problem is when they hire with the intent of filling a quota because the pilot population is not reflective of the general population. Those things being said, if someone meets the minimum quals then there is not much room for anyone to complain because it is like any other job. It is who you know, not what you know.

ZapBrannigan

I'm not about to pigeon hole an entire class of people like RightSeat did. 95% of the military guys I fly with are awesome people to sit next to. They fly the same as everyone else except sometimes they have cooler stories to tell.

The only time flying with my former military brothers can be frustrating is when they can't let it go. (If they still go by their callsign this is usually a pretty solid indicator of which camp they fall into).

Many of us from the civilian world have been doing this job for decades. A lot of us were flying for other major airlines on 9/11 and have experienced furloughs, bankruptcies, involuntary moves and job changes as a result of that career altering event... so when the aviator to our left starts telling US how things are in the industry, or how this company is "industry leading", or starts giving us flight instruction.... keeping our mouths shut is not an easy task.

Just as we civilians should never dismiss the world class training and unique experience that military pilots are able to obtain in relatively few flight hours, so too should our military brothers strive to respect the thousands upon thousands of hours of previous airline experience (sometimes at a variety of worldwide carriers) sitting to their right.

What binds us together is stronger than that which divides us. At the end of the day where we come from doesn't really matter. We are here now... and all in it together.

e6bpilot

Dude....no. You sound like a complete tool in that post. 99 percent of your military brethren (myself included) do not feel that way at all. That kind of talk may have its place in the PHX pilot lounge on a Tuesday morning, but if that is honestly the way you feel, you are going to have a hard time in life.