assessment day?

[keenas]

Hi guys, this is my first time on this site so excuse me if i have done anything wrong! I am an applicant for pilot and have passed the aircrew testing and have the assessment day with the medical, psych and defence interview coming up fairly soon. I was just wondering if anybody out there might be able to give me a heads up about what to expect? Also i have been having a little trouble with one of the preparation questions, "what is the difference between an officer and a non-commissioned rank?".

From what i can figure, aside from being in charge of the non-commisioned rank, the officer has overall responsibility. Just wondering if i am missing something that is very obvious and pehaps how others have answered the q?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[Pontius Navigator]

I won't try and give an authoritative answer, but an LAC is a newly posted airman capble of working under supervision. This is the same skill set that you, as a newly commissioned pilot, will have immediately after Cranwell.

An SAC is capable of unsupervised work. Typically they will have a better idea of hour sqn ops works than you do, probably for the first 6 months of more after you finish your OCU.

A cpl is the first level of junior management. A Cpl earns the same as a Fg Off.

Getting the message?

A sgt might have 10 years or more experience before he got promoted. A FS is starting to become a rare beast. As for a WO, treat carefully at all times.

It is almost a question of a parallel universe. As far as aircrew go that is even truer as you would have very little to do with the other half BUT . . .

At IOT they do not take in to account your potential as a pilot as they recognise that many only become officers and not aircrew.

An officer must therefore be willing to listen, to take advice, consider a problem and then make a plan rather than simply follow a set of rules. For much of the time you will be controlled by rules but every so often you must make your own mind up.

The Brigader in Basra would certainly not have said 'knock that wall down' but would probably have asked for views first. What he did not do was 'staff it'. He made a decision and stuck with it.

An offcier must know his limitations, he must respect the views of other but he must not shy away from the uncomfortable to appease the mass.

<<You are in charge of 8 men. One is lost. It is getting dark. You are wet, tired and hungry. The path is well worn. Off the trail is gorse, bramble and tussock grass. Your party is trudging head down following the boots of the person in front.>> What do you do?

[ProfessionalStudent]

An officer is one who holds a Queens commission and with whom the buck stops. The military has a 2-tier system, the 2 tiers being exclusive but neither of which can operate without the other.

A 30yr WO may come up with the best plan to skin said cat, but it would be the (maybe) 2yr Fg Off that finally rubber-stamped the plan, thus carrying the can if it all went Pete Wrong. Geddit?

As Pontius said, the similarities between the 2 tiers are many, but the officers will eventually (though not always a good thing) pull the biggest punches.

A good officer will listen to those around him, take in all the facts, formulate a plan and then put forward a coherent method of executing said plan. The important bit is being able to communicate that plan in a way that can be instantly understood by all. THAT'S the difficult bit. Just ask the Air Force Board.:E

[Talking Radalt]

This is a very tricky question to answer nowadays. All of the above is technically true but bear in mind we now have 'orrible crewmen (for example) with degrees. Real ones that is, not degrees of attitude.
The traditional and somewhat old fashioned social divide twixt Rodneys and the working-class military is long gone with some SNCOs showing all the qualities of the Os and certain Os showing none.

And as for:<<You are in charge of 8 men. One is lost. It is getting dark. You are wet, tired and hungry. The path is well worn. Off the trail is gorse, bramble and tussock grass. Your party is trudging head down following the boots of the person in front.>> What do you do?
My answer would be:
Keep trudging, muttering to myself, "He was a prick anyway" :E

[Pontius Navigator]

My answer got brownie points. As we had the better plan we only had to carry the 16 stone of fat and gritsle down the mountain. The other team had to carry the 9 stone bone and sinew all the way back.

[kitwe]

Have the previous posters noted that Keenas is probably a candidate for the RAAF?

[Pontius Navigator]

Is that relevant?

The question was . . .

[ProfessionalStudent]

I didn't notice it was the RAAF (1 for awareness Bloggs) but surely the values are the same/similar?

[kitwe]

Pontius,

You talk of relevance? You say "The question was ..."? If you had troubled to read Keenas's post you would have seen that he initially asked if "anybody out there might be able to give me a heads up about what to expect?" I assume from that that he is asking what to expect during the RAAF assessment procedure. Surely he will get better advice from someone who has recently undergone that procedure, rather than someone who underwent RAF assessment/IOT even longer ago than me (40+ years).

[Talking Radalt]

So are the qualites of Antipodean O's and SNCOs , and therefore the answers to the initial line of enquiry, so vastly different to those of their British cousins?

For the purposes of this discussion we'll assume the game of cricket was never invented....
And also assume that when burnt, little pieces of wood (possibly known as "Bails") do not form "Ashes" :E