Well a few of the guys who gave me a bit of advice on the tests in a previous post wanted to hear how I'd go with them. Thanks for the help guys, and here ya go....
....I failed. Damn huh. I woke up at 5am in the morning to get there for nothing. Well, almost. Here's a bit of a summary of what they do up there first:
It's probably very similar in all recruiting units. First you do quite a bit of waiting, just to help with the nerves ya know <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> Then you're put in a room, and everyone starts off with the general ability test, which is comprehensively explained. It is followed by an essay. Aircrew pilot applicants then go through an extensive battery of tests. Most are short and there's a helluva lot of maths towards the end. I actually managed to finish a couple of them, so it's not impossible to complete them. But just barely. They're all very challenging.
Then there's lunch break, followed by coordination testing. I don't think I'm allowed to mention too much about this bit, but I'll say it was slightly confusing at first. But apparently I passed it, so it couldn't have been that bad <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
The part I didn't pass was one of the instrument tests. There were 2 tests involving instruments Ripped through one and finished it. The other one, elementary number reading, I don't think I even did half before time ran low. I have no excuse, really. It was the only test that allowed you to guess without losing points, so I took advantage of that at the end, but it obviously didn't help. So that was it.....psychologist informed me later that the one bit took me out of the game. Shot down.
Went back to the recruiting Officer on the rebound, and he was a helluva good bloke about it. Very encouraging "You still have a very strong overall score.....you have high enough scores to do anything....else....Nav, ATC, Defence Controller,...."
What do you guys say? Go nav? Go fighter controller? I'd actually be pretty interested in those jobs just to get me in the military if I didn't have this great urge to fly airplanes. Well, if I can't do it for the country, I guess I'll be shipped off to university now, to be factory-pilot-trained. Try again in one year, then again the next. Heck, university can't be that bad in the meantime.
On the upside, I had a cheery chat with this Indian dude that had a suspicion - after telling me about the army nurse holding his boys and making him cough - that "Mebee she lyked my testiguls"