If you aspire to a lifetime career as a professional pilot, you almost can’t beat getting your start in the military. Whether you fly tankers because size matters, you decide to fight both wars and forest fires in the C-130, or you give in to your inner Maverick and fly fighters, you can’t beat the experiences you’ll have as a military pilot.
If you’re smart, you’ll follow the Ultimate Military Pilot Career Path, earning free college and four years of credit toward retirement in the process. Then, when all’s said and done, you’ll be eligible to move on to the airlines where the pay is more than…well…just read this post and see.
The Federal Aviation Regulations have a section (14 CFR 61.73) that gives you credit (and a Commercial Pilot’s License) for your military pilot ratings, which is nice. For the most part, you don’t need to know or care about most of the rules for civilian pilot ratings. However, there are a couple of critical points in your career when you will need to obtain civilian ratings the hard way. We’ll discuss those situations here today, then take a look at some ways to get that done next week.