Hi, thanks for your question.

There's quite a few variables that will affect how long you are in the pilot role for but for simplicity I've tried to break it down as follows:

- It takes approx 4 years from starting the pilots' course to being fully qualified.
- Once fully qualified, Officer pilots will have a return of service of 6 years which will include at least 4 years in the cockpit. There are several decisions you can make once you're at this stage to either shorten or increase the length of time you spend flying and it's completely possible to go on and spend your full career flying.
- Soldier pilots' usually have much longer in the cockpit and can often spend the majority of the rest of their career flying; however they must have served for a number of years before they can apply to the pilots' course and they have to be top of their cohort to be considered.

I hope that helps.

Happy new year,
Maddie

31 December, 2020 10:32