Army Air Corps Aptitude Tests

[steve zodiac]

Hi,

My son is about to undergo AAC Aircrew Aptitude testing at RAF Cranwell. I did Biggin Hill 25 years ago and consequently feel that my advice might be outdated. Can anyone kindly offer some insight into the testing process at Cranwell please? I assume it is all PC based with joysticks, rudder bars, moving dots etc, however, a little more info would be good.

[D2664254]

I can't say if the AAC Aircrew aptitude tests are the same as those for the RAF Officer and Aircrew aptitude tests, but I'd imagine they are close.

I attended in November 2002, so I may have forgotten some stuff, or indeed the tests may have been updated. You're right in that it was still PC based, however the actual pilot (i.e. joystick and rudder) portion of the test is actually a very short segment of the overall test designed to gauge your suitability for all roles, flight ops, pilot, supply, admin, in order to make it fair all applicants do the same tests.

I can't remember in what order the tests come, the pilot section is based on dots - white dot in the centre of the screen, is moved by the computer and you have to return it to the centre and keep it there as much as possible. Another is a vertical stream of red dots, idea being to hit the middle of as many red dots as possible with your white dot - if you pick a stream which peters out you lose out. There is a series of tests on attitude, pictures of an aircraft on screen in a certain attitude, you have to use a multiple choice display and decide which instruments are correctly displayed for that attitude and direction etc. Mental arithmetic features highly, I'd advise plenty of practice, you are only allowed a pencil and paper for one set of time/distance calculations, this then gets taken away. Obviously multi-tasking is important, the ability to perform mental arithmetic and remembering sequences of letters whilst keeping on top of little coloured triangles moving left to right across the screen and hitting a button at just the right time comes in really useful ;) . However, like I said, not all tests are relevant for the position applied for, some are related to pilot skills, some not.

To be perfectly honest, if you play enough computer games (flight sims or just anything with a joystick) it'll become easier to do the piloting part, practice the sums and do a few IQ tests online to get an idea of what they're like, it's not too bad although it is mentally draining doing it all in one morning - about 4 hours I think.

I hope some of this is of use, if you want any more info feel free to PM me, I'll see if I can dig up more info at home. Best of luck to your son.

[steve zodiac]

Thanks very much, very useful.

[PANews]

Very dated now I am afraid, but it may still apply.... in the early mid- 1990s some of the police attended Cranwell and used their training methods to filter the potential observers prior to police observer training....

APTITUDE TESTING FOR POTENTIAL AIR OBSERVERS

METHODOLOGY
The original aptitude selection model or Police Air Observers was based upon a battery of tests which were used for the recruiting and selection of pilots and air crew for the RAF at Cranwell, Lincolnshire. In effect, the model originally used for selection comprised of five aptitude domains:-

Attention Capability
It is the ability to store information accurately in short term memory and to cope with an environment in which different types of information (visual and auditory) are presented at a fast rate. The greater an individual’s attention capability the more information the individual can hold simultaneously in memory, Greater individual flexibility indicates an ability to cope with switching attention between tasks under pressure of time.

Mental Speed
The ability to perform routine mental tasks quickly and accurately. Tasks may include mental arithmetic, reckoning, checking etc.
Psychomotor
The ability to co-ordinate the hand and eye or the foot and eye. Sometimes called stick skills and can be measured using specific tracking tasks. There are two basic types of tracking task. One involves following a stimulus and is known as an “anticipatory” tracking task. The other involves holding a stimulus (e.g. dot or cross) on target whilst the stimulus is continually pulled away from the target and is known as the “compensatory” tracking task.

Spatial Ability
The ability to form mental pictures and manipulate information in what is sometimes called the “mind’s Eye”. It is related to the ability to construct mental maps and manipulate mental images.

Reasoning
The ability to reason using verbal, numerical or diagrammatic information. The ability to identify patterns in presented information and involves the combined use of sensible rules of thumb and logical approach. It is closely related to problem solving ability or general intelligence.

The Reasoning domain was deliberately excluded from the testing of police air observers as it is not aircrew specific.

Hope that helps without misleading by being 'historical' and imprecise.

[steve zodiac]

Hi,

Just thought I'd drop you a line to say that my son passed his aptitude tests today. Thanks for your help, it was greatly appreciated.

Regards

David Taylor

[Thomas coupling]

For the army aptitude test...you just have to turn up :ooh:

[NRDK]

Thats rite TC, six munz ago I kood'int spel piolot now I are one.

[steve zodiac]

'Thomas coupling'

Actually only 5 out of the 20 passed. Can't be that much of an attendance course.

[MightyGem]

I recall when I passed mine back in the '80s. The "class" were asked about previous flying experience. A couple officer types withh PPls sniggered at my 100 hours of gliding. They weren't there at the end. :ok:

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Thomas Coupling seems to have some sort of prejudice about NCO pilots ? Or is it the whole Army Aviation thing ? Surely there aren't any dinosaurs still around who think the RAF and Navy are the only ones who should fly ?!!
I did my selection and course in the 80's too. On the OASC Biggin Hill part 20 started, 2 passed (both NCO's). On the course, 22 started, 9 passed (only 2 of which were officers).
There were many exercises I took part in where the RAF provided 2 Pumas to assist. They had more personnel with them than we had to support 8 Lynx and 4 Gazelles !! The good old taxpayers would have gone mad............:rolleyes:

[The Nr Fairy]

cheese:

I would recommend a re-reading of TC's post - seems to me you have read it the wrong way round. And he may well know you !

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Fairy/TC, if I have then I unreservedly apologise. But if not, at the end of the day it's immaterial once you're a civvie isn't it ? Maybe we do know each other, looks like we did the course around the same time.:)

[MightyGem]

Cheese, APC 284. How about you?

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

MG, I am not worthy. APC 292 (2nd to last of the "old type", before they went to the P2 system). Anyway, a stimulating thread !!

[Governormalfunction]

Mighty Gem & Cheese.......
I feel decidedly 'crowish' having been on APC 296!!!

[MightyGem]

Hey, we all had to start sometime. :ok:

[attackattackattack]

Clearly I'm a real baby- APC 330 :)

(I think, it's all kind of foggy).

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Don't think it matters when, as in course number etc, or where (AAC/RN/RAF), we all had to "cut the mustard" and those of us who left and do the civvy part do the same jobs too, so good luck to all.