What an airline application asks for

Pilot applications ask for more precise numbers than most job applications ask for anything. They want your experience broken into columns, your licences and ratings with their numbers, your medical with its expiry, and they want it all to agree with your logbook, because at some point someone will check.

The time to assemble all of this is before an application opens, not during the week it is open. Every pilot who has done it in a hurry has a story about getting a number wrong.

The hours breakdown

Not every operator asks for every column, and some ask for columns not listed here. These are the ones that come up again and again:

The single most common problem is that these columns do not add up the way people expect, because one flight can count towards several of them at once. A multi-engine night instrument flight as pilot in command belongs in four columns. Keep a logbook that totals each column for you — our free logbook does this in your own authority's layout, and AvLog Plus has a tab that lays the figures out in the order application forms ask for them.

Licences, ratings and the medical

• Your licence — the type, the issuing authority and the licence number. If you hold licences from more than one authority, expect to be asked for each.
• Ratings — instrument, multi-engine, any type ratings, and anything else endorsed on your licence, with the dates they are valid until.
• Your medical — its class and its expiry. An application from someone whose medical lapses during the recruitment process can stall on that alone.
• Language proficiency — the level endorsed on your licence, where your authority records one.

Documents to have ready

• Your logbook, current and totalled, in whatever form you keep it.
• Copies of your licence, ratings and medical certificate.
• Your passport, and evidence of your right to work where the job is.
• A CV that states your hours the same way your application does.
• Any training records, check reports or references the operator asks for — these vary widely, so read the advertisement.

The mistakes that cost people interviews

• Numbers that disagree. A total on the form that differs from the total on the CV, or from the logbook, reads as carelessness in a profession built on precision. Take every figure from one source.
• Applying below the stated minimum and hoping. Some operators do consider it; many screen automatically on the numbers and never see the application. Know which you are dealing with.
• Letting something expire. A medical, a rating or a recency requirement lapsing during a long recruitment process is avoidable and surprisingly common. Track every date that can ground you, not just the obvious ones.
• The right to work. The licence tells an employer you can fly; your visa tells them you can be employed. An operator usually cannot fix the second for you. If you are applying across a border, read where to train if you want to fly somewhere else and our licence conversion tracker.

Then find the roles that fit

AvLink matches you against real roles using the hours, ratings and type ratings you actually hold, so you can see which you already clear before you spend an evening on a form. Set up your profile or browse the roles. If you are not there yet, building hours after your licence covers the gap.