Hi everyone,
I would like to share the following helpful hints for those who are heading off to flight screening.
1. Listen to your instructor, and do your best to do exactly what they tell you to. Sounds simple, but commonly done quite poorly.
2. You do not know how to a fly an aircraft the way the ADF want you to, unless you have been taught to wings standard in ADF training aircraft - so don't think your civilian flying experience makes you more prepared than the next guy. It usually works the opposite, as most young guys who have hundreds of hours of flying tend to think they know better than the guy sitting next to them.
3. Don't answer the instructor back. Explanations at the time are called reasons, those in retrospect are called excuses. The instructors are not interested in your excuses - they know why you stuff things up
4. You are not being taught to fly the CT4 at flight screening, so having the manual and knowing it front to back before hand matters not. You are being screened - not taught. Understand this core concept and why things flow fast on FSP will make sense.
5. If you aren't successful at flight screening, you are being saved from a tough, thankless job that you would end up hating. It doesn't make you any less of a person, so while it might be hard, take the positives out of it - accepting this before you go there lessens anxiety.
6. If you aren't interested in flying fighters - as in you don't really want to fly hornets, then don't bother applying. You should be aiming as high as you can, not looking for a cushy job hauling trash and earning cash like some people. Go work for the mines driving a truck if you want that life style. The RAAF want an airlift/maritime force of pilots who worked as hard as they could on course, not guys who did 'just enough' because they are allergic to hard work - those guys kill people. You think flying night low level in a P3 is an easy job that requires a low tolerance for hard work? Be serious with yourself about the hard work required.
7. If you have a uni degree, you will need to work hard to learn how to learn airborne. If you have only high school, you will need to work hard to learn how to learn airborne. If you have a CPL with 2000 hours, you will have to work hard to learn how to learn airborne.....get the picture? The way the ADF train is not replicated many places - so be ready to feel like you have no idea, its the normal.
8. Enjoy the program for what it is, and ask questions of the instructors about what life in the ADF is like for them.
Good luck people!