OctoberCharlie
Active Member
Hi everybody,
I'm currently active duty military and prior medium size aircraft instructor. Everything was going great for me, never failed a flight, no flight violations or any pink sheets of any kind in my record, last speeding ticket even was 5 years ago. After my first operational tour I got orders to train new jet students (I didn't ask for or want these orders but the military is the military so I went determined to do great things). I was struggling pretty badly, I know I'm a good pilot but everything in that little jet just seemed so backwards compared to what I had spent the last 6 years of my career doing. After about 3 months there I had an instrument flight in the back under the hood. The flight was not going stellar and on the final approach we were doing a PAR where I was supposed to turn off all my displays and fly partial panel. While doing this I got some severe spatial disorientation and the instructor had to take the controls to get us back on course. Not able to overcome the vertigo and below 1000 feet I didn't feel safe (all self perceived since the instructor in the front had a full view of everything) and ended up turning my displays back on. Jump ahead to the debrief I was incredibly embarrassed that I had resorted to turning my screens on and basically cheating which got the best of me and I didn't say anything about turning them back on (which I know was stupid and not like me at all). They knew and I got kicked out of the command and am now on non flying orders. I'm not barred from flying and really nothing went into my record other than "member did not make it through training."
This has been the worst part of my military career and I don't blame anyone but myself. I learned a very valuable lesson in one of the hardest ways, my integrity has always in the past been rock solid and I allowed it to falter and have seen first hand what that brings.
My question now is have I totally ruined my aviation career and shot at the airlines or any good reputable pilot job when I do get out of the military? Even though there's no record of what happened (PRIA and all that) I know this is something that I'll have to explain to any future employers (can't really say I learned anything if I were to hide it). I'm planning on getting my CFI and doing some civilian instructing on the side, and am gonna do everything I can to get flying orders again (I've seen way bigger miracles than myself happen there). By the time I'm looking for jobs I'll have put some years behind this and truly be able to say I've learned a lot and grew in ways I never would have thought necessary before.
Any constructive advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'm currently active duty military and prior medium size aircraft instructor. Everything was going great for me, never failed a flight, no flight violations or any pink sheets of any kind in my record, last speeding ticket even was 5 years ago. After my first operational tour I got orders to train new jet students (I didn't ask for or want these orders but the military is the military so I went determined to do great things). I was struggling pretty badly, I know I'm a good pilot but everything in that little jet just seemed so backwards compared to what I had spent the last 6 years of my career doing. After about 3 months there I had an instrument flight in the back under the hood. The flight was not going stellar and on the final approach we were doing a PAR where I was supposed to turn off all my displays and fly partial panel. While doing this I got some severe spatial disorientation and the instructor had to take the controls to get us back on course. Not able to overcome the vertigo and below 1000 feet I didn't feel safe (all self perceived since the instructor in the front had a full view of everything) and ended up turning my displays back on. Jump ahead to the debrief I was incredibly embarrassed that I had resorted to turning my screens on and basically cheating which got the best of me and I didn't say anything about turning them back on (which I know was stupid and not like me at all). They knew and I got kicked out of the command and am now on non flying orders. I'm not barred from flying and really nothing went into my record other than "member did not make it through training."
This has been the worst part of my military career and I don't blame anyone but myself. I learned a very valuable lesson in one of the hardest ways, my integrity has always in the past been rock solid and I allowed it to falter and have seen first hand what that brings.
My question now is have I totally ruined my aviation career and shot at the airlines or any good reputable pilot job when I do get out of the military? Even though there's no record of what happened (PRIA and all that) I know this is something that I'll have to explain to any future employers (can't really say I learned anything if I were to hide it). I'm planning on getting my CFI and doing some civilian instructing on the side, and am gonna do everything I can to get flying orders again (I've seen way bigger miracles than myself happen there). By the time I'm looking for jobs I'll have put some years behind this and truly be able to say I've learned a lot and grew in ways I never would have thought necessary before.
Any constructive advice would be greatly appreciated.