Hi everyone, I'm a new poster here and I'm departing to Tamworth Flight Screening in 3 weeks (21st August, 2016 - DEO).
I'm just looking to pick up and tips / areas of study / personal anecdotes that might assist me in my dream to becoming an F/A-18 / E/A-18G / F-35 Pilot (and give me a chuckle too!).
I'm barely 18 years old, finished my HSC last year and got an ATAR of 79.55 (no bonus points included - elligbile for +5 at some universities and +3 at others that don't support local / isolated schools). While I'll admit its not exactly a great score, there were many factors that contributed to this - primarily, a family tragedy (my sister died - twice - and then came back but with serious disability) and social obligations (gf had depression, spent alot of time with her instead of studying). I did pursue mathematics seriously and managed to get some decent scores in that respect however other subjects suffered to neglect.
I'm not trying to gain sympathy and I don't regret anything from high school, if anything, it strengthened my resolve to success in military aviation.
At this point in time I've passed all the tests first go and I'm getting pretty nervous about flight screening. As a note, I have zero previous flying experience.
The main, singularly most important question I have for this thread is - what can I do to increase my chances of passing flight screening and the officer selection board.
Here is some of the stuff I have done so far:
Study Section (Relatively in-depth):
-Fixed-wing Aircraft Structure
-Fuselage
-Wings
-Airfoils
-Powerplant (engine + propeller for prop-driven aeroplanes)
-Landing Gear
-Empennage
-Newtons laws (already did these at high school but general brush-up)
-Flight theory and the flight envelope
-Axes of flight
-Primary and secondary flight controls
-Flight instruments
-Basic flight maneuvers
-Climbs, turns, descents, power & pitch
-Rotary wing aircraft
-Airport and runway information
I know it may be a bit over the top but I want to know as much as I possibly can and hence make-up for gaps in my knowledge and skills (such as actually flying an aeroplane) that other candidates will surely have. I've also been adjusting my personal wake-up time to 0500 and have been exercising. I've also purchased a Basic Aeronautical Knowledge (BAK) book and plan on going through that too when it arrives.
I'm thinking of scheduling a visit with RAAF Base Richmond (closest base - also has the C-130 too so I could check that out hopefully).
Is there anything else I can do / things YOU might have done to get through this next section?
TL;DR Any tips / Advice to help me pass Tamworth Flight Screening?
Thanks Guys (and gals), I really appreciate anything you might have to share. If your going to TFS on the 21st of August feel free to PM me and we can share ideas / exchange some notes. (lame joke incoming) It would be cool to get in touch with somebody before lift-off!
Thanks again,
Toriki
