ok3wire

Is a military tactical flight hour equivalent to a civilian/corporate flight hour? I've often heard throughout my time in the Corps people talking about how civilian/corporate employers will count your military flight time as 1.5-2.0 civilian flight time. The obvious reason being that 1.0 on a 2v2 Tap the Cap is quite a bit different than getting someone from point A to point B without making them spill their drink. As well, I would like to think that the training we receive is better quality than what a lot of non-military pilots received. Can anyone confirm this gouge that is getting passed around? I'm thinking about getting out in another year but it seems that most decent jobs out there require huge hours so I'm curious how competitive I might be. Thanks.

Twin Wasp

Never flew in the military, my understanding is some companies allow 1.2 or so per military hour since you guys don't count taxi time.

KC10 FATboy

Apples and oranges. Stop comparing military experience versus civilian experience. No, they aren't the same. What matters is what the HR department of the company that is hiring you thinks.

For example,

Each airline has their own rules regarding military time. Some will apply a multiple factor (military hours X 1.5 = total time), whereas some will allow you a per sortie factor (0.3 hour per sortie flown). Additionally, some companies WILL NOT accept F-16, T-34C, T-6 time because they're not multi-engine.

The simple answer is, check with the company you are applying to and find out how you should present your military time.

UAL T38 Phlyer

When I was applying, some airlines actually gave conversion factors on their applications. Northwest multiplied fighter time by 2.0; T-38 time by 1.8, and the T-34C by 1.0.

On top of that, they allowed you to add 0.3 for taxi-time, since civilian time is usually measured by engines-running, and miitary (at least, Air Force) is takeoff until landing plus the option to add 5 minutes. I can't rember what the taxi-time factor was when I flew with the Navy.

Other airlines had hidden factors that were not made public, but you could get educated guesses from insiders. Heavy time was one-for-one, and fighter and fast-trainer was generally between 1.5 and 2.0 factor.

FlyBoyd

After talking with some of my reserve friends....

If the company you are applying to allows a conversion and you need it to meet the mins, then use it. If you are good as is, then don't use it. Be prepared to defend your use of the conversion in the interview...and if it comes up, point out you didn't use it.


I haven't heard of a hard conversion rule but IMO, the airlines are familiar with our training and what it takes to meet certain gates and get certain quals. The same can't be said for the civilian side (no flame intended). With that being said, be ready to learn how they want you to fly. You are trainable. You have proven that with us so make sure they see that in you.

LivingInMEM

If you are considering why they do that, it's simple. For every 10 hours of KC-10 time, the pilot may have manipulated the controls for 2 of those hours (considering splitting time between AC/Co, autoflight, etc) and flown 2 sorties. For every 10 hours of F-15 time, the pilot probably manipulated the controls for 9.5 of those hours and flown 7 sorties.

Except for Southwest, I don't think most care if you have ever flown with their type of autopilot, etc. They can train that. They just want to hire people that have a solid base of aviation-related decision making experience and decent flying abilities.

USMCFLYR

What are your current hours?
Competitive right now is a slippery slope.
What types of jobs are you looking towards?

USMCFLYR

atpcliff

Hi!

Every company is DIFFERENT is true. Keep you logbook accurate, and if you have an electronic one, you can track mil flying. Then, when you apply somewhere, you can apply THEIR mil time conversion to your mil time easier.

I was looking at the Japan 767 contract jobs, which are very good, and until a few months ago, they DISALLOWED ANY MIL time to count!

THey have since changed, and you only need 1000 civ jet, then you can use your mil jet time to get to the 3000 jet TT requirement.

cliff
NBO

cficpilot

ok3wire
You asked a great question and the answer as you have seen is "it depends". However all this does not help you much. Here is the best I can do to help. Several companies do it differently and it will be spelled out in their app. if there is a conversion factor or not. If you go on airline apps you can fill out your apps for several different airlines except SWA and follow the directions. Most will have you take your total time minus any "other time", (only the military counts "other time" in your total) by 1.2 but like I said each company will give you that number, some are 1.5 or higher.
When a company asks you to just list total time with no help this is how I did it. Military total time: minus other: minus student: plus (sorties x .3). Basiclly Civ time allows taxi time, military does not, as such the accepted practice is to add .3 for every sortie flown.
Now the bottom line: You might need to explain how you got to your number during the interview, for example if you have 1,000 hours reflected on your military flight printout but you are claiming to have 1240 hours you would need to say you added .3 to your 800 sorites.
Hope this helps

ok3wire

Thanks to everyone who has replied. While it does seem to depend, the overall consensus seems to be that most employers will give "extra credit" for military time.

Now lets go down this road, would any of you specify part of your flight time as combat time? I realize that this is a stretch for any non-rotorheads who flew OIF/OEF missions post '04 but you can honestly say that you flew x number of hours while "exposed" to enemy surface to air fire. As well, would you try to highlight any ordnance that you dropped during those hours, including drops that were "danger close"?

Part of me says go ahead and put it down on the resume or application, maybe that will be the deciding factor to get a call for an interview. The other part says talk about it in the interview if it comes up.

How about sim time? Do they even care?

USMCFLYER, I'm only sitting on 1000TT, 600 multi and should see an additional 400-500 multi plus ATP in this next year. Hence the reason for the original question because that does not make me very competitive on an hour for hour basis. Ideally I'd like to get on with a nice strong company ( Dupont, McDonald's, State Farm, etc...) Dream job, fly for the NASCAR corporation or Hendricks Motorsports but I'm not ruling out the airlines. For which squadron were you a rag instructor?