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Old 30th Jun 2004, 03:06
  #107 (permalink)  
Surditas
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Australia
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Itchy,

Funny you should talk about intelligence. I've met some not so bright people who express themselves very well and some intelligent people who have dreadful diction and expression. I don't believe I am alone in assuming someone is a moron if they display poor grammar, punctuation and spelling, either that or laziness. Still, Allan907 is spot on when he says the young folk stand up when called. You'd be hard pressed to criticise the way the guys (and girls of course!) are going about things over in the Sandpit.
Anecdotal evidence, but backed up by quite a bit of experience, in the military flying schools shows that military pilots need to be intelligent, but not too intelligent. The usual example is engineers, who fail pilots course at a higher rate then non-engineers because engineers are trained to analyse problems in detail. eg:
Situation: your aeroplane is on fire.
Non-engineer reaction: "Hmm, I think I'll eject. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Those flames a rather big and scary"
Engineer reaction: "Ah, a fire!. Well now, that's very interesting. I wonder if is the turbine, or the oil supply or maybe some bleed air? Of course, it could be a false indication. No, there seem to be large flames coming out of the cowling. Of course, that could be from something else and maybe the engine is fine. And what an engine it is! There little turbo-props are just sensational! Lightweight, powerful, not really prone to catching fire..."
I've overdone it a bit, but you get the idea.
As for DE vs Academy, aside from not having a degree, you don't seem to be too disadvantaged by going DE. You can't sit around the crewroom reliving your days back in the Div or go "Shazaam!", but the career people don't discriminate against you if you are DE. You even have some advantages, as in four and a half years in a SQN as a PLTOFF thence FLGOFF where you are given zero responsibility and not expected to do anything sensible except fly aeroplanes. You even only get given secondary duties that aren't that important and no-one cares about.


Kev Riv: Are you serious? I imagine you are because your name has been changed.
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