4 ms·

Yes, this is an avenue into the career of being an airline pilot. However being a military pilot doesn't directly translate to being what is essentially a bus

Yes, this is an avenue into the career of being an airline pilot. However being a military pilot doesn't directly translate to being what is essentially a bus driver, and there is extensive retraining that has to occur. But yes, the airlines recruit and bring in a ton of military pilots.

jonhohle 3y ago
A few months ago a former Navy guy mentioned to me that you can tell if your pilot is Navy or Air Force by the landing. Air Force pilots will come in nice and smooth, but Navy pilots, having been trained to land on carriers, will hit hard. I don’t know if there is truth to that, but if so, I’ve definitely had more than a few Navy pilots.
- jonah 3y ago
  My cousin - RIP - who was former Air Force, flew for FedEx. He said he preferred flying freight to passengers because you didn't have to worry about being has gradual on the climb out or smooth on the approach and landing and he didn't have to deal with annoying passengers. ;)
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Probably the 'optimal' path to a pilot's job would be to fly bulk for the military (boring things like the C130), not the fighters, and transition to a freight airline. The UPS planes out of Ontario, CA would climb a hell of a lot faster than the passenger jets out of LAX.
- blantonl 3y ago
  It's kind of a fun old wives tale that is humorous, but not really a thing in practice. Some of the biggest challenges military pilots face transitioning to the airlines are that the vast majority of them worked far more independently in their roles in the military. So cockpit resource management for a lot of them is a huge challenge. Airline pilots also are responsible for a lot more "working with the masses" type work.
- psunavy03 3y ago
  No. Any Navy pilot is skilled enough to flare. The descent rate necessary to land on a carrier is 600-800 feet per minute, which would literally break the landing gear on any airliner, or at least cause a hard landing inspection to have to be done to the airframe looking for potential damage. Airliners and civilian aircraft "hit hard" for two reasons usually. Either the pilot mildly goofed the flare and "dropped it in" slightly at the end, or else the runway is slick and/or short. In which case, they are aiming to put the aircraft down early and somewhat firmly so they can get on the thrust reversers and/or brakes quickly. A nice greaser of a landing tends to allow the aircraft to float awhile in ground effect, and sometimes the runway is short or slick enough that style points don't count.
  - BobaFloutist 3y ago
    > Either the pilot mildly goofed the flare and "dropped it in" slightly at the end It's funny, I'm sure it's much more difficult in a plane, but this sounds like such a similar experience to thinking you've braked smoothly but accidentally having your final complete stop become sharp because you've overestimated how much speed you've shed.
    - psunavy03 3y ago
      It's more or less the same thing. You look down the runway as you break your descent rate, and then use your peripheral vision to kind of ease the aircraft down smoothly. But the whole time you're doing this, you're bleeding airspeed and eventually the aircraft doesn't want to fly any more. So if you end up just a smidge higher than you thought . . . clunk. If you really screw it up, you need to go around, or else you'll have a hard landing. Which is embarrassing at best and career-ending at worst depending on what it does to the aircraft.

jonhohle 3y ago

A few months ago a former Navy guy mentioned to me that you can tell if your pilot is Navy or Air Force by the landing. Air Force pilots will come in nice and smooth, but Navy pilots, having been trained to land on carriers, will hit hard. I don’t know if there is truth to that, but if so, I’ve definitely had more than a few Navy pilots.

jonah 3y ago
My cousin - RIP - who was former Air Force, flew for FedEx. He said he preferred flying freight to passengers because you didn't have to worry about being has gradual on the climb out or smooth on the approach and landing and he didn't have to deal with annoying passengers. ;)
- bombcar 3y ago
  Probably the 'optimal' path to a pilot's job would be to fly bulk for the military (boring things like the C130), not the fighters, and transition to a freight airline. The UPS planes out of Ontario, CA would climb a hell of a lot faster than the passenger jets out of LAX.
blantonl 3y ago
It's kind of a fun old wives tale that is humorous, but not really a thing in practice. Some of the biggest challenges military pilots face transitioning to the airlines are that the vast majority of them worked far more independently in their roles in the military. So cockpit resource management for a lot of them is a huge challenge. Airline pilots also are responsible for a lot more "working with the masses" type work.
psunavy03 3y ago
No. Any Navy pilot is skilled enough to flare. The descent rate necessary to land on a carrier is 600-800 feet per minute, which would literally break the landing gear on any airliner, or at least cause a hard landing inspection to have to be done to the airframe looking for potential damage. Airliners and civilian aircraft "hit hard" for two reasons usually. Either the pilot mildly goofed the flare and "dropped it in" slightly at the end, or else the runway is slick and/or short. In which case, they are aiming to put the aircraft down early and somewhat firmly so they can get on the thrust reversers and/or brakes quickly. A nice greaser of a landing tends to allow the aircraft to float awhile in ground effect, and sometimes the runway is short or slick enough that style points don't count.
- BobaFloutist 3y ago
  > Either the pilot mildly goofed the flare and "dropped it in" slightly at the end It's funny, I'm sure it's much more difficult in a plane, but this sounds like such a similar experience to thinking you've braked smoothly but accidentally having your final complete stop become sharp because you've overestimated how much speed you've shed.
  - psunavy03 3y ago
    It's more or less the same thing. You look down the runway as you break your descent rate, and then use your peripheral vision to kind of ease the aircraft down smoothly. But the whole time you're doing this, you're bleeding airspeed and eventually the aircraft doesn't want to fly any more. So if you end up just a smidge higher than you thought . . . clunk. If you really screw it up, you need to go around, or else you'll have a hard landing. Which is embarrassing at best and career-ending at worst depending on what it does to the aircraft.