Ask a Pilot anything....

[Strudul]

What's the best route to a career as a pilot?

Wanted to fly fast jet, but believe I'm too tall and my eyesight isn't perfect, so think I'm swaying more to commercial. Don't want to invest serious time / money for it to be wasted and never go anywhere though.

Will be finishing a Master's in Engineering this year if that makes a difference.

[frisbee]

Strudul said:

What's the best route to a career as a pilot?

Wanted to fly fast jet, but believe I'm too tall and my eyesight isn't perfect, so think I'm swaying more to commercial. Don't want to invest serious time / money for it to be wasted and never go anywhere though.

Will be finishing a Master's in Engineering this year if that makes a difference.

JSF? That's something like 5th percentile female to 95th percentile male, 5' to 6'2", 108lbs to 225lbs.

[Strudul]

frisbee said:

Strudul said:

What's the best route to a career as a pilot?

Wanted to fly fast jet, but believe I'm too tall and my eyesight isn't perfect, so think I'm swaying more to commercial. Don't want to invest serious time / money for it to be wasted and never go anywhere though.

Will be finishing a Master's in Engineering this year if that makes a difference.

JSF? That's something like 5th percentile female to 95th percentile male, 5' to 6'2", 108lbs to 225lbs.

Almost 6'5

Edited by Strudul on Wednesday 10th January 19:21

[48k]

Strudul said:

Almost 6'5

[IforB]

Strudul said:

What's the best route to a career as a pilot?

Wanted to fly fast jet, but believe I'm too tall and my eyesight isn't perfect, so think I'm swaying more to commercial. Don't want to invest serious time / money for it to be wasted and never go anywhere though.

Will be finishing a Master's in Engineering this year if that makes a difference.

Do you have a UAS branch at your uni? (University Air Squadron) worth going along for a chat if you want to be in the RAF. Eyesight is an issue, height not so much. I know ex-RAF pilots who were a good bit over 6ft, but they tended to be on helicopters rather than fast jets.

[Ayahuasca]

IforB said:

Strudul said:

What's the best route to a career as a pilot?

Wanted to fly fast jet, but believe I'm too tall and my eyesight isn't perfect, so think I'm swaying more to commercial. Don't want to invest serious time / money for it to be wasted and never go anywhere though.

Will be finishing a Master's in Engineering this year if that makes a difference.

Do you have a UAS branch at your uni? (University Air Squadron) worth going along for a chat if you want to be in the RAF. Eyesight is an issue, height not so much. I know ex-RAF pilots who were a good bit over 6ft, but they tended to be on helicopters rather than fast jets.

6'5" = no chance of fast jets. In an ejection you would leave your legs behind.

I suggest checking out the military aviation forum on pprune - lots of RAF recruitment info there.

[Strudul]

IforB said:

Strudul said:

What's the best route to a career as a pilot?

Wanted to fly fast jet, but believe I'm too tall and my eyesight isn't perfect, so think I'm swaying more to commercial. Don't want to invest serious time / money for it to be wasted and never go anywhere though.

Will be finishing a Master's in Engineering this year if that makes a difference.

Do you have a UAS branch at your uni? (University Air Squadron) worth going along for a chat if you want to be in the RAF. Eyesight is an issue, height not so much. I know ex-RAF pilots who were a good bit over 6ft, but they tended to be on helicopters rather than fast jets.

Not directly, but affiliated with York UAS. Looked into joining, but the distance wasn't convenient.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

The anthropomorphic requirements don't revolve merely around height per sé, but take in to account things like buttock to knee length and length of the spine, such that a successful ejection can be made with the various bang seat / cockpit combinations in service with the RAF.

[Strudul]

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

The anthropomorphic requirements don't revolve merely around height per sé, but take in to account things like buttock to knee length and length of the spine, such that a successful ejection can be made with the various bang seat / cockpit combinations in service with the RAF.

But unfortunately at 6'5 there's no chance of meeting the requirements. I believe the max height you could possibly be is 6'4 to meet the anthropomorphic requirements, but most application processes I looked at stated 6'2 max.

Hence i'm leaning towards commercial, but even that seems to have height restrictions.

[peter tdci]

IforB said:

Turbulence is highly unlikely to cause a structural failure, but get caught in something like a dissipating mountain wave and you could encounter severe or extreme turbulence forms, so it is possible.

I remember watching a documentary years ago about the building of the Boeing 777 which showed the static wing deflection test, which has been very reassuring when watching the wings move a little in flight!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai2HmvAXcU0

[HOGEPH]

griffdude said:

Clue= Don’t touch any button that is red.

[Countdown]

Do airline pilots get any bonuses for saving fuel ?

[Prawo Jazdy]

Strudul said:

Not directly, but affiliated with York UAS. Looked into joining, but the distance wasn't convenient.

They would train you to fly light aircraft for free (or they might even still pay a small amount to be in the UAS). Frankly, if you actually want to fly for a living, then make it convenient!

GG15G is right about how the measurements work. Take it from someone who was 8mm over.

[Strudul]

Prawo Jazdy said:

They would train you to fly light aircraft for free (or they might even still pay a small amount to be in the UAS). Frankly, if you actually want to fly for a living, then make it convenient!

GG15G is right about how the measurements work. Take it from someone who was 8mm over.

They wouldn't - UAS has the same eyesight and height restrictions.

Yes, it's anthropomorphic measurement, but at 6'5 it's physically impossible to be within spec. E.g. The max buttock-heel is 1200mm, mine is circa 1260mm, and even if it was 1200mm, my sitting height would be way over cos you just can't squeeze 1950mm into those measurements.

Have an astigmatism in my right eye won't get me very far either.

[Mastiff]

So, you're too tall to fit in the plane, you cannot see well enough to fly the thing and it's too far for you to be bothered to travel.

It MIGHT be an idea for you to look down another career path?

Just a thought.

[Strudul]

Mastiff said:

So, you're too tall to fit in the plane, you cannot see well enough to fly the thing and it's too far for you to be bothered to travel.

It MIGHT be an idea for you to look down another career path?

Just a thought.

I did say that was the plan in my first post, but for some reason just got military related responses

Strudul said:

...but believe I'm too tall and my eyesight isn't perfect, so think I'm swaying more to commercial.

[220]

Strudul said:

Mastiff said:

So, you're too tall to fit in the plane, you cannot see well enough to fly the thing and it's too far for you to be bothered to travel.

It MIGHT be an idea for you to look down another career path?

Just a thought.

I did say that was the plan in my first post, but for some reason just got military related responses

Strudul said:

...but believe I'm too tall and my eyesight isn't perfect, so think I'm swaying more to commercial.

BA Pilots Scheme


From the above:
Height must be between 1.57m (5'2") and 1.90m (6'3"). Height is accurately determined during the assessment process. Candidates who are taller than 1.90m may submit an application but may be required to undergo a functionality check

[Strudul]

220 said:

https://jobs.ba.com/jobs/futurepilot/

From the above:
Height must be between 1.57m (5'2") and 1.90m (6'3"). Height is accurately determined during the assessment process. Candidates who are taller than 1.90m may submit an application but may be required to undergo a functionality check

Yeh, already looked into it. Different commercial airlines have different height restrictions, but they all seem to be advisory rather than mandatory like military is, so they are still a possibility.

Question was, what the best path to take.

[stuttgartmetal]

jinkster said:

Following on from different professions. Ask away.

Why ?

[khaosai]

IforB said:

wolfracesonic said:

One for Ifor, Ginetta and the other contributing pilots I guess; what do you think happened to MH 370 and do you think it will turn up before the OP of this thread?

No idea what happened to MH370, but I know a bit about the new search being launched for by Ocean Infinity and with the capability they are deploying, then they've got a chance of finding it.

Not sure if it's soon enough though!

Based on the reports I think it was deliberately flown to the southern Indian Ocean, most likely by one of the pilots.

I hope they find it so we have a definitive answer.