An odd career path..

[CirrusF]

I received a first class honours in aeronautical engineering from Cambridge University in 1984, and had two years of flying with CUAS on Bulldogs under my belt. I was all set to join the RN FAA, but (unfortunately!) I won a scholarship to do a masters degree in aero engineering at M.I.T. and got sidetracked out of a naval flying career.

I graduated from M.I.T, but then got into a non-aviation career for some 20 years - which gained me a lot of worldly experience and fluency in five languages - but did not advance my flying career.

But now (at the age of 44), I have just got my French JAR CPL/IR and ATPL theory. I still love engineering and technical aspects of flying.

My question is, whether this experience might translate into something useful for an aircraft manufacturer - maybe in sales demonstration flying?

Any advice most welcome..

[Genghis the Engineer]

Offering an opinion, the easy answer is yes. The difficult answer to give, is doing what, or for whom?

I'm guessing that most of your experience is likely in GA types - that may well work to your advantage. Medium sized GA manufacturers (I'm thinking of people like B-N, Diamond, Adams, P&M, Cirrus...) tend to have quite multi-tasking workforces, and the flexibility to adapt jobs to people. Alternatively, you might find potential (albeit with a probably slow and painful start) to develop a consultancy activity serving several.

I'd suggest going and talking to companies like that - probably directly if you can (finding the "in" may be difficult, but worth the effort), and seeing if perhaps you can fit one or more roles that they could have. This is likely to be the only way ahead, since you almost certainly don't fit any standard job description that anybody's thinking of at the moment.

My feeling is that you are less likely to attract the interest of a bigger company (Airbus, BAE, Dornier...) since they tend to compartmentalise roles a bit more, and lack the flexibility to really use that sort of broad skills set. But, I could be wrong.

G

[portsharbourflyer]

G, all of B-Ns work is now based around military/ (can't remember the number) but I think it is annex 2 (government aircraft on civil register), so they have no requirement for a civil qualified pilot with engineering experience (especially one only holding a fATPL).
You are quite right BAE, Dorneir, Airbus would not be able to offer any opportunities to our colleague, well BAE are now only involved in military airframes, Airbus (small to medium sized airliners) so unless our colleague here has 1000's of hours on the Airbus airliners I don't think sales demo flying is going to be a possibility there.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Agree broadly about B-N; they've not used me in the last couple of years. But, an engineer with substantial flying experience can still be very useful (which is the role in which I used to consult for them).

G

[portsharbourflyer]

It is true several engineering companies have recognised the value of the knowledge that my flight training has given me. It is also the case knowledge from my flight training has certainly helped in certain aspects of my engineering; interestingly several engineering companies have also offered me permanent positons even kwowing that my intentions is to go into full time professional flying.
However my engineering experience has never really helped me gain a flying position.