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Kuet posted an update
Hi everyone,
This is my first post and I just wanted to gauge everyone’s opinion on something core to me.
I have a fair level of skydiving experience (1300 jumps) with over half of those being instructor jumps split between tandem and accelerated freefall. For background, I’m considered part-time weekend staff at the drop zone and work my DoD Mechanical Engineering job at Lockheed during the week and hold a clearance. I am 28 and have a PPL w/ 84 hours currently working on my instrument rating.
I love being at the airport around all the different aircraft and teaching folks what most people would conclude as an insane or difficult endeavor. I have dealt with complex problems and situations while falling through the sky with people very fresh to the sport. I’m hoping the teaching methods I’ve formed and practiced will translate well to my eventual civilian goal of becoming a CFI or even Pilot Instructor if selected to a squadron.
Civil aviation from my experience generally holds a negative perception of skydivers and I was wondering if this experience would be viewed as negatively to a squadron board. There are several skydivers I know who have troubled pasts, giant egos, or maybe a few less brain cells than preferred but the majority are good well-intentioned people trying to make their way like everyone else.
I’ve applied to several open fighter slots heavily leveraging this experience. I haven’t received any feedback yet, but I’m just putting feelers out on this platform to see if it’s all a folly.
Looking forward to your input!
1 Comment-
Kuet, your experience as a skydiver is no factor to units hiring now. In fact, its probably a positive factor because it is aviation-adjacent and involves complex decision making in a stressful environment. There are over a dozen fighter pilots I know personally with the same experience (800+ jumps w/ AFF instructor exp).
The obvious caveat here is that if you share the same personality traits (checkered past, ego, etc) that may pose a problem regardless of your skydiving background. But skydiving by itself; no factor at all.
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