RNZAF minimum NCEA results

[Spanners Watson]

Hello

I'm new to pprunne so bare with me.I recently applied for pilot in the RNZAF however only having IGCSE O levels and a PPL I do not meet the minimum requirements.Therefore I am after some advice as I am already 27 yrs old is it to late to go back and study to make up the marks to join,or am I better off just paying for and completing a Diploma of aviation through a flight school.
Also if I did go back to study NCEA does any one know of preferred places to undertake the study and what kind of time frame this would take.

Any information or guidance would be greatly a appreciated.

Thank you

[ozziekiwi]

Nobody wants to ""BARE"" with you but of course we could ""bear"" with you !!!

Cheers and Good Luck !!

Ozzie Kiwi :cool:

[baron_beeza]

I joined at 23 years of age and I was the old man at the pre-selection stages. There were a couple of pilots I can recall joining about the same time as older men but they both had CPL's and had been flying commercially for a time.

Times may have changed but you may have missed the boat in some respects and that is just to get to the interview stage. Did someone give you a strong indication that you would be considered if you managed to gain minimum education levels ?
I would have thought your option 2 would be a goer though as if you are prepared to study it will be at least on aviation related topics and heading in the right direction.
There is no minimum education level in GA, you just need to pass the CPL exams.
No-one cares, or asks, what you got up to at school.
I met one Boeing 737 pilot that said he used to be a policeman and only started flying when he was in his 30's.

[MetGirl]

If you want to progess further than GA (ie Air NZ) you will need university entrance or equivalent. I don't have all the details but there is plenty of information out there, including on this site (search old threads).

[Spanners Watson]

Iv decided to go back an study my ncea 2 at Hagely College and do my cpl part time in Christchurch in June.That gives me a few more months to work in the mines to help with funds.Then plan to reapply for RNZAF as I have pervious army experience defence won't be knew for me ,hopefully they don't mind an old bloke.However if it doesn't work out will head down the GA route and see we're that takes me.Im not really doing it for the money or racing to be a airline pilot more after an interesting career were il be challenged an enjoy it.

Thankyou all for your comments

[baron_beeza]

The RNZAF pilots are all officers and you would have to get through Officer selection.
That would be very tough if your essay writing is of the same style as your writing here. Officers are expected to be able to communicate clearly and there are many very smart men in all ranks.
Part of the selection is to ensure the Officer will have the respect of the men under his command and as I said some of the Air Force types are very smart cookies. That part may be a little different to the Army.
There would be many very capable candidates fronting for selection including a number seeking CFR. The selection committee would be seeing any deficiency as a fail.
The minimum grades are never going to guarantee you will even get to pre-selection. In my day only about 100 got that far and that must have been out of literally hundreds of applicants.
Of those 100 only about 15 were taken on, it is a very competitive business and while I won't say only the best get through the selection panel do know what they want.
I am sure there must be other threads in this forum about the process. A search there may provide some more info as well.

[aero junkie]

Also if I did go back to study NCEA does any one know of preferred places to undertake the study and what kind of time frame this would take.

When I completed high school/NCEA level 3, I some how was a few credits short in english for UE. So I just signed up through the correspondence school (Te Kura) and did the required papers. Its distance learning so working at your own pace etc. I found it really good, and I had what I needed after a couple of months, the results were on my NZQA record the same day the credits were achieved. Any help or questions the tutor was only a call or email away.

If your location is Brisbane... why not look into the RAAF? Plenty more options through them than the RNZAF

[Spanners Watson]

No one is good at something before they study it. Thanks for the advice though.:ok:

[27/09]

No one is good at something before they study it. Thanks for the advice though.

I think he's referring to a skill you should have well and truly sorted by now, that is a good command of the written language. I know none of us are perfect and you may well find the odd error in my posts.

Having spelling errors like Iv instead of I've, knew instead of new, il instead of I'll, we're instead of where and pervious instead of previous isn't a good look though I'll accept the last one might be a typo.

When using any acronyms like cpl and ncea it's usual to use capitals e.g. CPL and NCEA. Sentences have a space between the full stop and the start of the next sentence.

At the very least the way your post is written shows there was no review for correctness prior to posting or, at the worst, you didn't know you'd made any mistakes, and there are several. I know some devices don't make it easy to ensure a post is presented the way you want it, that doesn't mean you shouldn't edit it later.

If I saw an application with these errors, I'd be wondering is he/she sloppy or lacking basic writing skills? I'm not suggesting you are either sloppy or lacking writing skills, however your writing style in the above post does you no favours.

Sure the way your posts are written on PPRUNE isn't that important. I think Baron was making the point that if this is how you write normally you need to up your game.

[mattyj]

Get real you ol' fogeys!! The writing ability shown above represents the epitome of modern "tomorrow's schools" education..I would be very surprised if his writing abilities didn't represent NCEA "excellence" levels!

Garbage in, garbage out!

[baron_beeza]

There will be guys here that have 'been there, done that'.
We get a 'wannabe' write requesting info so a few here reply with their experiences and knowledge in an effort to help.

Somehow I am now wrong and the OP not only knows it all but actually may even know better.

Go figure !

Indeed I thought the replies were all helpful and should have answered the question. I know I stand by all my comments.
I agree with most of the other contributions here as well.
You can tell when a guy knows the subject under discussion.

Basic NCEA an Officer does not make..

[troppo]

mattyj, you deserve a beer for that post.