Ok, here's the story...
Said military pilot (recently retired military pilot, actually) was offered a job flying a PC-12. So he came to me wanting to get a commercial ASEL add-on rating.
First, I'll say this: I have no doubt this guy was qualified to fly Hueys and C-12s. He's intelligent, methodical, follows the checklist, has professional radio comm skills, etc. I'm not doubting his skills as a military aviator in any way.
The problem I have with him comes from a few areas. The first that I noticed came from his overall lack of understanding for how things are done in the civilian world. Very little to no knowledge of civilian maintenance requirements, currency requirements, paperwork requirements, etc.
In day to day flying, MikeD is right...the rules aren't very different. He knows how far away from clouds to be when operating VFR and he knows when he needs to talk to a control tower. But if he ever gets ramp checked, he would have been screwed. Had no idea what a 100 hour inspection is, airworthiness directives, time logging requirements to prove currency, the AROW documents required to be on board an aircraft, etc. I don't think it's too much to ask of a commercial pilot to know these things.
Hell, he didn't even know what he was allowed to do as a commercial pilot! Nobody had ever talked to him about the difference between Part 91 and 135 operations, holding out, common carriage, etc. He essentially stepped out of the military with a certificate he had no clue how to properly use.
Does this make him a bad pilot? Of course not. But he shouldn't be given privileges that he doesn't understand, either. That's why I don't think it's too much to ask to do a civilian checkride with a complete civilian oral exam and flight check over civilian operating procedures. It's a different world, plain and simple.
Ok, so that's the "academic" side of this guy. Nothing life-threatening, even if I don't like it.
When it came to the flying, he's done fine in all areas except one fairly important one...landing. I'd place him on the same level as a 10-12 hour student pilot when it comes to landings. I'm not trying to be a jerk when I say that, either. I'm just stating my honest evaluation of his skills. He doesn't have adequate skills to land a Cessna in even a mild crosswind. Bad pilot? Nope. With some practice he'll be fine. But I don't think he should be licensed to fly something that he so obviously is nowhere close to commercial pilot standards, either. If I hadn't assisted with several landings he would have crashed, simple as that. I don't think that's acceptable performance for a commercial pilot.
The final part that irks me is his attitude. I'd always heard jokes about the stereotypical cocky military pilots, but never actually trained one...until now.
I'm not sure if it's even cockiness as much as it's an obliviousness to what he's trying to accomplish. He seems to be approaching this whole training/checking process as some trivial little formality before hopping in the left seat of a PC-12. He's not approaching it as learning a new type of flying.
After our second flight (the one during which I needed to assist with half of the landings) he told me he'd like to shoot for taking a checkride the next week. I told him I wasn't sure of that, but I'd do everything I could to help him get it done as quickly as possible.
The next day we talked over the phone about a few things. He seemed a little irritated that I hadn't even mentioned short/soft field takeoffs and landings yet. I said, "Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you were super solid with normal landings before getting in to performance landings." He seemed to get the point.
Today we met to go over what would be expected of him during the oral exam. He basically said, "I don't get it...it's a 172. What kind of limitations are there really?" as though he might as well be flying a powered parachute. When I started showing him the POH limitations section and everything the examiner would be expecting him to know, he almost didn't believe me. He said, "Really?? Even though I'm probably never going to fly this plane again after the checkride?"
I said, "Right.........it's a checkride." I think it finally started to dawn on him what he needs to do.
So when it comes down to it, the guy is a good guy. I'm confident that he'll make a solid PC-12 pilot. But I also think he was grossly under-prepared to operate as a commercial pilot in the civilian world, and I don't think it's unreasonable for military pilots to be re-checked as civilian pilots before entering civilian jobs. My beef isn't with this individual pilot, it's with the entire system that allowed him to get to where he is, the way he is.
