Retired fighter pilots flying commercial...

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dtvonly

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dtvonly
Just curios. If a retired f-18 pilot wants to fly commercial, does he have to get his atp rating through traditional route, i.e. ppl, instrument, commercial then atp? Or are there shortcuts since he has had prior great military training?
 
yes and no. The FAA recognizes and grants certificate equivalency up to the commercial level for a winged aviator. The specifics (single engine land vs multi engine land) are a function of what follow on aircraft the member manages to qualify in, and/or what aircraft they flew in military pilot training (not all services fly the same engine count, nor do all pilot trainees fly the same training pipeline tracks, so variances abound).

Ditto for flight instructor equivalencies, which are granted to the CFI and CFII level for single engine, and MEI if the aircraft you're qualified as an instructor in the military is not center line thrust (hence the reason I'm not an MEI as a career T-38 instructor, but can use my current qualification as an instructor to renew my CFI Airplane single engine land and CFII.

In some circumstances, certain people were able to parlay the initial qualification checkride in military aircraft that have civilian equivalent type ratings, to have those qualification rides count towards an FAA type rating. But those are outlier case studies to the question at hand. Some shenanigans occurred with some airframes, such as the KC-46 and the P-8 not qualifying somehow to grant aircrew 767 and 737 ratings respectively, but I'm not as dialed in on where that went, as a non-herbivore.

As far as the ATP, no, that's the only ride the FAA will not give military guys an equivalency for. Vast majority of us mil types went and got the ATP on a weekend semenhole/duchess outfit, or as part of a type rating course (no longer in custom, since the economy pivoted in such a way that going to proverbial southwest with a 737 type rating was no longer a requirement)

Lastly, "fighter pilot" has nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, it's the heavy mil pilots that are the top of the heap in this game, in that they can count up to 500 hours of the TPIC time they accrued in an airframe that requires more than one pilot (F-15E doesn't count, navs aren't real people :D ) towards the satisfaction of CFR 121.436(a)(3)(i). Latter which is the real genesis behind the pearl-clutching going on in the regional airline side of things.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Ditto for flight instructor equivalencies, which are granted to the CFI and CFII level for single engine, and MEI if the aircraft you're qualified as an instructor in the military is not center line thrust (hence the reason I'm not an MEI as a career T-38 instructor, but can use my current qualification as an instructor to renew my CFI Airplane single engine land and CFII.
Click to expand...

Dude, the party started, where ya’ been?

https://www.sheppardair.com/download/Centerline thrust restriction removal 2018.pdf
 
Are you still in or did you separate?

if your in, talk to the skipper and find the local FSDO to get your certs
 
I misunderstood the title. I read it as meaning "Is a retired fighter pilot allowed to board an airliner, or do they have to be checked as luggage because of some weird TSA rule."
 
catmandu said:
Dude, the party started, where ya’ been?

https://www.sheppardair.com/download/Centerline thrust restriction removal 2018.pdf
Click to expand...

...that's an interesting twist. Mother effing SAT FSDO I tell ya.

During my 2015 visit to seek a renewal of my already existing CFI Single Engine Land / CFI-I Airplane certs on the basis of military qualifications (renewals which were granted), I also added a CPL multi-engine land to my already existing CPL SEL from my part 61 college days. The CPL multi was issued without CL restriction because it came forth as a result of my former qualification as a Buff pilot.


The application for an initial MEI however, was rejected wholesale. SAT FSDO would not issue me an MEI at all on the basis of being a T-38C IP. By the wording of that letter, there was such a thing as an MEI with a CL restriction back then, which means I should have been issued such a certificate at the time.

I have zero intention of pursuing civilian flight instruction any time soon, but based on that letter you linked, I believe I do in fact qualify to have an unrestricted MEI issued on the basis of my T-38 Instructor and Pilot Examiner quals at this juncture. POA delivers!
 
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hindsight2020 said:
...that's an interesting twist. Mother effing SAT FSDO I tell ya.

During my 2015 visit to seek a renewal of my already existing CFI Single Engine Land / CFI-I Airplane certs on the basis of military qualifications (renewals which were granted), I also added a CPL multi-engine land to my already existing CPL SEL from my part 61 college days. The CPL multi was issued without CL restriction because it came forth as a result of my former qualification as a Buff pilot.


The application for an initial MEI however, was rejected wholesale. SAT FSDO would not issue me an MEI at all on the basis of being a T-38C IP. By the wording of that letter, there was such a thing as an MEI with a CL restriction back then, which means I should have been issued such a certificate at the time.

I have zero intention of pursuing civilian flight instruction any time soon, but based on that letter you linked, I believe I do in fact qualify to have an unrestricted MEI issued on the basis of my T-38 Instructor and Pilot Examiner quals at this juncture. POA delivers!
Click to expand...

Kind of surprised you did not know of that letter, it’s been around a while. But that’s beside the point; based on SEFE status, there should he a new kil-comp for DPE. That would be the ticket.
 
FYI, at least when I did mine, to get your Commercial AMEL, IA, you had to take a written test called the MilComp. The local GADO (a LONG ago, before FSDOs) sent someone to my UPT base (Laughlin) to administer the test about 4 weeks before graduation. If you had an existing certificate (I had Private ASEL), you gave it to the GADO rep and they would mail temporary back after graduation.

The funny thing was, I figured the Mil Comp about be about the regs that are different between the military flying and FAA. But most of the questions were about things that were the same in both sets of regs.

I had the CLT restriction removed once I passed my Initial Qual checkride in the A-10. Later, I learned that this should not have been done, but the GSDO guy was AF Res with the A-10 unit doing the training. The A-10 had a warning about loss of control at low speeds when single engine, so while it did not have a defined Vmc, it effectively had one.
 
I believe that is still the case today. But that's for the folks who didn't have a CPL before winging (the majority of ab initio regAF types). For those of part 61 scallywags with CPL/CFIs/type ratings et al before military pilot training, the addition of a class to a certificate (in my case, a multi engine land addition after bomber FTU) did not require the milcomp testing, just the paperwork. Ditto for the additions to pre-existing flight instructor certificate, or CFI renewals on the basis of military qual.
 
There was only ONE person in my class that had a CPL. A few had PPL, most had no rating at all.

The guy with the CPL also has something like 2000 hours. His family owned several aircraft and he had been flying for something like 8 - 9 years.
 
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