Cockpit to Cockpit
The Cockpit to Cockpit book provides military pilots a step-by-step guide on how to make a successful
Cockpit to Cockpit is a book to help military pilots make a successful transition to a second flying career in the airlines. Commercial airlines love hiring military pilots, yet getting hired can be a challenge. With the help of Cockpit to Cockpit, learn how to land a lucrative second career as an airline pilot. Lt Col (Ret) Marc Himelhoch interviewed and received conditional job offers from XOJET, Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest. Now he shares his tips and tricks to help you transition from military to airline aviation. Finally, pilots have one resource with everything needed to make a seamless military to airline transition! Cockpit to Cockpit gives pilots a detailed guide covering the transition process from A–Z. Marc packages proven résumé and application techniques with valuable, direct-sourced airline hiring department information, and tips learned through personal experience to increase your chances of scoring interviews with your top airline choices. If you’re a military pilot past or present, seeking a future airline career, Cockpit to Cockpit will help make that dream a reality!
09/02/2026
Registration is now open for one-on-one meeting slots with Delta Pilot Recruiters at this year’s RTAG Conference in Orlando, FL, October 16-17, 2026.
Registration will remain open for two days. Candidates will be invited based on a combination of overall qualifications and random selection.
To be considered for a meeting with a recruiter, you must meet all of the following criteria at the time of registration:
- Meet all minimum qualification requirements.
- Have a complete, submitted application on file with Delta that has been updated within the past 90 days
- Not have completed the online assessment or in person interview within the past 90 days.
- Not met with one of our recruiters at an in-person event within the past 180 days.
Please register only once. Duplicate registrations will be deleted!
There will be an on-site standby list that candidates can sign up for as last-minute appointments become available.
As always, feel free to DM us or email [email protected] with any questions.
Link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=XUPmRRzc40KJvucubI8HLTQ3V4bBdupGliJsyix_NEhUQ1BCQTZKNjFUQ1k2SDcwMVA2WDJEQ1NDQS4u&route=shorturl
09/02/2026
State of the Industry… The Airline Pilot Hiring Picture as of September 2026 — Cockpit2Cockpit With hiring returning to more historic norms, many of the post-pandemic hiring boom irregularities are going away if not already gone. Don’t expect to get hired out of a regional right-seat with zero turbine-PIC time, that was a limited-time only good deal. Four year degrees may not be required bu...
If any of my peeps on here has a recent ride report from Southwest interview please PM me. Trying to help a friend with an interview coming up in a few weeks. Thanks!
03/10/2026
Delta applicants take notice …
As we near a year since the rollout of our new application system, common errors in the application process have begun to emerge. To help support all of you as candidates, and help you present your qualifications in a way that will make you most likely to succeed as candidates to become Delta pilots, we will post some updates that we hope will help you navigate this new process. Today’s update will focus on common issues we’ve seen regarding application updates.
Update Your Application:
Our application system is designed to let your application evolve along with your experience and accomplishments. As such, we ask that you update it regularly, so that we can be sure we are considering you based on an up to date picture of your qualifications. We recommend updating it at least every 60 days to err on the side of caution, as we will not consider applications that have not been updated in the last 90 days. When you do make updates, be sure to go through the entire application to make sure all data is current, as there is more to it than simply updating your flight time totals. We have seen a trend of candidates updating their flight time in an aircraft, but forgetting to update the last date they flew that aircraft. Failure to updates to time sensitive documents like FAA Medical Certificates and Passports can make candidates appear to no longer be qualified applicants even if their flight time is regularly kept up to date.
As our application review team evaluates your application, any information that is missing or out of date will result in you receiving an email directing you to correct the discrepancy. If you have not fixed the issue with your application within 7 days of that email being sent, our review team will be forced to move on, and your application won’t be eligible for consideration for at least 90 days. Please make sure to keep an eye on your email, and check to make sure it does not block or send emails to the junk folder from [email protected].
Date of Availability:
If you have a specific future date that you will be able to commit to Delta training, including planned military separation and retirement dates, please include it in your application. If you do not have a specific time frame and will just need to turn in notice to your current employer, selecting the option for “2 weeks notice" will generally suffice. If you did list a specific date that you would be available, please keep that up to date as it changes over time, just like everything else on your application. We have a number of applications on file with availability dates listed back in 2025, and we have no way to know how soon those candidates might really be available if they were interviewed today.
Checkride Failures:
When listing failures of checkrides and other checking events, please include the date, the type of checkride, and a brief explanation.
Employment/Education Gaps
Giving us a full understanding of your work excperience, training, and education is critical to being considered for a position as a Delta pilot. Following your high school graduation date your employment history should contain a listing for every job that you’ve had, even minor ones that were only second jobs or where you worked part time during school. The education section, similarly, should contain entires for every time you were enrolled in a college or professional development program, and the flight training should contain the same level of detail for all flight training programs. If there is any period of more than 30 days that is not accounted for by an entry in one or more of those sections, it must be listed as a gap in employment. The application contains a timeline tool to help you in case there are unexplained gaps. When the application was rolled out we discovered it had an error that caused it to flag gaps in timelines that were, in fact, accounted for, but that bug has been fixed and we ask you to use that tool to help make sure your application is complete and correct before submitting it.
If you were in the military, we want you to list each of your assignments separately starting with Basic Training or a Commissioning program.
In the Employment History section, there is a column labeled "Aircraft Flown". If your employment involved pilot experience, please tell us what aircraft you flew at that school, company or branch of military service.
Aircraft and Flight Summary:
To ensure your PIC time is calculated correctly, include all Instructor Time (Dual Given) in the PIC block as well for each aircraft you've instructed in. This is not how some other application systems work, but it is how we ask you to list this time in ours.
If you are listing flight time in a turbine aircraft, fill out the PIC and SIC blocks as well as the Turbine PIC and Turbine SIC blocks. Finally, for each turbine aircraft, complete the Turbine MEL or Turbine SEL blocks as appropriate. We know some of these may seem redundant, but failure to fill out all the appropriate blocks may make it appear to our reviewers at first glance that you have less experience in turbine aircraft that you actually do, and could lead to them moving on to candidates whose applications show their turbine flight time correctly.
As we mentioned above, don't forget to update the last flown date for each aircraft, as well as your total time in the last 12 months.
As ever, never hesitate to reach out to us through our DMs here on Facebook, Instagram or [email protected] if you have any questions.
12/12/2025
Projected pilot hiring is ramping up in 2026. Are you prepared? Military to Airline Pilot Transition E-learning course 25% off with code C2CXMAS25. www.cockpit2cockpit.com
11/08/2025
40% off Veterans Day discount on all products through November 15th. Use discount code C2CVETS25 at checkout. https://www.cockpit2cockpit.com/
As Veterans Day approaches, Cockpit to Cockpit would like to extend a heartfelt message of gratitude for those who currently serve as well as those who have served this great nation in the past.
For those pilots who are considering making the jump from flight suit to flight deck, the process can seem overwhelming. Cockpit to Cockpit is a book that gives military pilots a step-by-step guide that details the process; no matter if you’re a newly “winged” military aviator or ready to start sending out airline applications, Cockpit to Cockpit is here to help you prepare.
Military pilots finally have one resource for all the info needed to make a seamless military to airline transition. The book packages proven résumé and application techniques with valuable, direct-sourced airline hiring department info, and tips learned through personal experience to enhance your chances of scoring an interview and passing it to land your dream job!
THE TIME TO START PREPARING FOR YOUR AIRLINE PILOT CAREER IS NOW!
Cockpit2Cockpit Your ultimate resource for transition gouge Buy Now Are you prepared? “I just read Cockpit 2 Cockpit in one setting and it’s arguably the best book I’ve read on making the jump.” -Aaron, B-52 pilot Commercial airlines love hiring military pilots, yet getting hired can be a challenge. With th...
04/24/2025
Heads up, Delta is leaving Airline Apps and now has their own application website
https://www.instagram.com/p/DIwcle4T_Uc/?img_index=6&igsh=czdkNzVhZHZtbnRt
04/16/2025
Southwest Airlines schedule flexibility:
-83% of scheduled trips 3 days or less
-Max scheduled duty days 15 per month
-Line bid vs PBS. Longer vacations w/more pay.
04/16/2025
Southwest Airlines Pay & Benefits.
-2026: 18% 401K, 2% MBCBP, + Profit Share
-Industry leading narrow body & FO pay
-Minimum Line Guarantee:
31 day month: 89 TFP
30 day month: 87 TFP
28/29 day month: 84 TFP
04/16/2025
“Come to events like this…it’s important and it does help your application stand out from your peers.” - American Airlines Senior Director of Pilot Hiring.
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