Boeing Test Pilot?

[amcnd]

Any info? The good and bad. Thanks

 

[Andy Neill]

I always heard that A.M. "Tex" Johnston was pretty good.

 

[Spooky 2]

Any info? The good and bad. Thanks

Not sure where your coming from on this issue based upon your experience but none the less here is the approximate deal over at TBC.

Exp. Test pilots need to have graduated from an accredited test pilot school. Interestingly, a few of the Boeing Test pilots come from purely civilian backgrounds including the VP of Operations and a few other high profile test pilots on the B777.

Production Flight test is a mixture of the above and guys/gals with engineering backgrounds along with extensive flight experience. Again, some have military backgrounds and some do not. Some actually came out of Boeing engineering with little previous flight experience in Big Boeings.

Flight Training is made up of guys/gals that have previous airline 121 experience and preferably some training or standards backgrounds. It's not unheard of for Production flight test to reach down in the flight training pool to complete customer acceptance flights (C-1) when things really get busy.

All these are proably cradle to grave flying jobs, albeit they can morf into many different assignments over ones career. Pay tends to be a little on the low side.

 

[Miyagi]

Flight Training is made up of guys/gals that have previous airline 121 experience and preferably some training or standards backgrounds. It's not unheard of for Production flight test to reach down in the flight training pool to complete customer acceptance flights (C-1) when things really get busy.

All these are proably cradle to grave flying jobs, albeit they can morf into many different assignments over ones career. Pay tends to be a little on the low side.

I would not say that a six figure salary in the first year is low pay but I have heard that the defined benefit plan is $50/month for each year of service - a whopping $1,000/month after a 20-year stint. The fellas I know that work in training seem to get more sim time than jet time but they also get to fly the newest jets. As "B" sells to customers worldwide, you should be ready to go to the customer to train their pilots. This is also not a commutable job so expect to live in Seattle.

M.

 

[Spooky 2]

I have never heard of anyone starting at a 6 figure salary in the training cadre.

 

[AA717driver]

Let's see...

I can either apply at JetBlue or Boeing Flight Test. Hummm...

Another way into being a demo pilot is from Boeing corporate flight dept. Hey, it COULD happen. TC

 

[rfresh]

A Boeing test pilot, or a test pilot for any manufacturer, isn't all that bad. You get to fly new equipment and you are usually home every nite!

I worked for Lockheed on the their L-1011 program years ago as an instructor FE. Flew mostly training flights (back in those days we flew 25 hours in the actual aircraft in addition to the sim time) but I got to do a fair amount of production flying which I enjoyed the most. I wasn't smart enough to get into the test pilot group but I knew all the test pilots as they would get pulled into production and training flying as needed.

Years later I worked for McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach in their flight training dept on the MD-80 and MD-90 jets. Most pilots can qualify to get their type in the sim and don't need to do any actual aircraft flying. Similar deal here too, the test pilots had a pretty nice job, home every nite most of the time.

So I would say flying for a manufacturer isn't bad at all. Could be a place to build more jet time (if you need it) and wait for an airline seat to open if you're still leaning that way.