Hi. I am currently a Test Pilot at AETE. I have a Mech Eng degree from RMC and flew/fly the Hornet operationally. After my Hornet course, I did 6 years operationally before going to Test Pilot School. You need 1,000 hrs total time, flight lead or AC category and preferably a STEM degree. After you apply, you’ll be administered a math exam. Pass mark is 70%. The intent is to make sure the the candidates have the drive to get back in the books and teach themselves again. After the math exam, a board decides which candidates to invite to an in-person evaluation. The in-person evaluation consists of flight test academics, four flights (most likely in aircraft you haven’t flown - to test your adaptability), technical report writing and oral presentation on test results. If you are successful you will then be placed in a pool of successful candidates waiting for a course. To be placed on a course, we need money (~$2M for one candidate), a slot at one of the recognized schools (5 in the world for us) and the proper candidate with the proper background for our requirements. That is a lot of stars to align but it should not discourage you to strive for it. I went through the US Naval Test Pilot School and it was the best and most rewarding year of my life. I flew 25 types in a year (helicopters, fighters (F/A-18E/F, F-16 Block 40, F-15E, Mirage 2000D, Mirage 2000N), transport, sailplanes, formally qualified on 3 types. It was an incredible amount of work (lots of academics, lots of test planning, test flying and a lot of test reporting). To give you an idea, my final project test plan was 92 pages, my final test report was 135 pages for 6 hours of flying. After test pilot school, you will owe 5 years to the CAF and it assumed these 5 years will be at AETE.
