Aviation BS and Photo Thread

I will give my opinion on the matter, but in short, flying in the military does help your aviation career. Not as much as it used to though.

I always wanted to join the Marines and fly F-18's. It was my life goal from about 7
years old and on. Didn't happen for various reasons, including getting married. I actually gave up on the idea of flying because I didn't join the military and ended up getting a degree in Advertising/Photography. I worked as a photographer for several years before getting back into aviation.

Enough about me. Getting into a major airline takes time. No way around it. I would estimate that from learning to fly to getting a job at a major airline is roughly an 8-10 year process - minimum. Below is a somewhat standard track pilots take to get into a major airline.

Your training - Flight Instruction - Regional Airlines/Corporate - Major Airline

You can trade out flight instruction for various jobs to get the required 1500 hours to work at a regional...... Or you can join the military.

The flight training in the military is strict, fast, and you will become a better aviator faster than someone learning at their local flight school. You are also learning to become a professional pilot from day 1. Airlines like these things. But it still takes time.... about 4-8 years of your life.

Military flying holds more "value" than civilian flying. If you give 4-8 years serving your country, you get to walk to the front of the line, so to speak. You can have fewer hours of flight time than your civilian competitors to get the same jobs. You get to skip flight instruction, probably still have to join the regionals but for a shorter amount of time, and the majors consider the military an excellent resume builder. In the end, you're still looking at 8-10 years to get into the majors.

Here is the upside, when you finish college and get your pilot certificates, flying for a living is pretty fun. I enjoyed flight instructing and I enjoy corporate aviation. The years it takes to end up at a major are full of good flying.... and you are getting paid for it! So even it takes me 10-15 years to end up at Southwest (my goal), that's fine with me because the rest of it is pretty sweet!

 

It's on this F4U



It's at a flying museum in Virginia Beach

http://www.militaryaviationmuseum.org/

 

Thats a sweet goal, the benefits package alone working for them is insane. Hopefully you like 737's lol

 

Last float flight of the season for me. Back to my day job early Tuesday morning. Couldn't of asked for a nicer morning over Lake of the Woods.

 

Wife has never seen this.

I know, ridiculous! It's on tonight!

 

Awesome thanks for getting back to me! After you did flight instructing to get your 1500 hours, was it very difficult to find a job with a Regional Airliner? I'm definitely considering going the military route, but at the same time I'm not sure if it's something I'd want to commit to. Sounds like regardless of the route that you go, that the time to achieve working for a major airliner isn't a huge difference, although I'm sure military piloting experience does help on a resume.

 

Flying in the military is a vastly different experience compared to flying in the civilian world. Sure, we get to fly some awesome machines and do stuff most civilian pilots will never do but it comes with the cost of all the bullshit the military adds to everything. You will also build time faster as a civilian pilot, especially if you're doing flight instructing immediately after finishing your CFI/II.

 

First, don't join the military to get a future flying job. Do it out of passion, flying awesome machines, and service for your country. My biggest regret in life is not joining the military, but that is only because I missed out on flying a fighter jet and reaching the ultimate level of patriotism.
There are SO MANY flying jobs. I have not flown for the regionals. I fly small, corporate jets for wealthy people. It's a great job with a terrible schedule, but I like it for now. You will be able to find work as a pilot, regardless of the military.

All of this is true.

 

It's an incredible museum. Love that place. Love the planes and the people.

 

@300AACTaco, meet @Mtnflyer and @NumNutz. They have tons of info on flying in the military (living my dream). They can answer your questions better than I.

 

I used to volunteer at that place. So many cool airplanes there, and they were all in flying condition too.

 

Can confirm, am neither.

 

Ahh okay so there's a difference between flying for a regional airliner and corporate, good to know! The military is something I've definitely been considering for a while, all it takes is one or two cockpit view videos from an F-18 or something on YouTube to make you wish you were up in one of those things lol and thanks for the great info and help!

 

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...^^^... Bushed .... you are living my dream ...

 

Air Force/Navy/Marine pilots seem like they get taken care of better and deal with a lot less of the bullshit compared to Army pilots. I've talked to a bunch of them when they're doing Red Flag and that seems to be the general consensus among them. Like @justinmbowen said, don't join the military to be a pilot just because you want to fly. The people I've seen do that are usually the most miserable guy in the unit.

 

That 100% describes working for any airline, regardless of you job title

 

I agree.

But being on-call 26 days a month like my current job sucks, a lot.

 

Hope you get there too! Wish I could give a blue print and say if you follow, it'll happen. Stamp it! But I honestly don't know how I've gotten where I am. Credit a strong support network and having absolutely no background in aviation. I was too ignorant to listen to the people who told me it was too hard, or that you had to do things a certain way, or kiss so and so's ass, lol!

 

Don't know if this was posted before, but I thought it was pretty cool....