I was a S-3 COTAC/TACCO. Was a rated civ pilot when I went into the Navy with the happy goal of becoming a NFO. I was hired by a major carrier in 1989 and now fly the MD-80. I was not planning on becoming an airline pilot. A local commuter was hiring when I got out of the Navy and my wife encouraged me to go and have some fun! If a guy was a NFO and wanted to become a professional pilot he should build the same resume as any other civ applicant in terms of flight time and certificates. All the NFO stuff is a bonus or tie breaker. If you are lucky it might put you on top of a civ guy with less time but I never counted on that. When I was hired I had just about the same time as all the other civ applicants. Unlike most of them though, I had much more aeronautical maturity. An hour spent as an NFO may not be logged as PIC but it sure is great airmanship experience. Everyone I interviewed with recognized that. If you have been an NFO you have been NATOPS qualified on at least three different Navy aircraft and underwent annual requal for years. You may have experienced life threatening emergenices, high stress missions, mission planning requireing great detail, been a maintenance div off, safety off, or training off. I even carried nukes (cold war). Your typical civ guy doesn't come close to those resume bullets. He has the flight time but it is anyones guess whether he has the command attitude and airmanship required of the job. An airline hiring a former NFO can be nearly certain that he will not experience any problems in training or when given the responsibility of Captain. At the time of my hiring my company had a dual track interview process, one for military guys the other for civilian. I went throught the military route even though I had a civ log book! About logging SIC as an NFO. It might depend on who is reading it. Look it up your self, FAR 61.55. The Fed that certified my log book for my ATP didn't care a bit that I had logged SIC time in the S-3. The airline knew it was NFO (special crew) logged as SIC and it didn't keep me from being hired. What ever you do don't misrepresent your flight time. Your total NFO experience is more valuable then a few hundred hours of SIC you may have been able to log as an NFO. The highlights are: The aircraft must require a second in command. To the FAA that means a pilot not designated as PIC but required for the flight. You must have proper ratings, ie multi, intrument, etc. 61.55b is very important. You must have certain training and demonstrate certain things in the airplane. Using the flight sim is OK. If you can meet all the requirements of 61.55 and fly with a stick between your legs with the ability to take control of the aircraft (sorry, no TACCOs or Prowler ECCMOs) you can probably log SIC. You log the entire mission time not just when or if you actually fly the aircraft. Keep in mind that it must require two crew members to fly. Time spent in the training command in a T-6 or T-45 won't hack it. Time in the T-39 won't, even though it requires two crew, because you will not have demonstrated landings, engine-out work, etc. as a SNFO. Remember now, I'm an old out of practice sea lawyer, not a Fed. It is, however, my experience that if an NFO works at it to get the tickets, builds some time while in the Navy, plans on spending a year or so in a regional airline, and the majors are hiring, he can be an outstanding applicant with a leg up on the typical civ only guy. I know several NFOs that have done the same as I have.
