RAF OASC Hornchurch Test In Advance

[DGAC]

Can anyone recall the minimum age at which it was possible to undertake the Test In Advance at OASC Hornchurch prior to 1962 when Hornchurch closed?

[chevvron]

I attended Biggin for one in '65 and the min age was 16 I think.

[rolling20]

Can anyone recall the minimum age at which it was possible to undertake the Test In Advance at OASC Hornchurch prior to 1962 when Hornchurch closed?
Slightly off thread, but I knew a chap who went there shortly before it closed.
One of the questions he was asked was; 'How are you going to pay your way in the mess?'
To which he replied; ' I assume you are going to pay me!'

[NRU74]

I went to Hornchurch in 1960 when I was still 16. Joined in '61.
(I'd never come across the term 'Test in Advance' until I read it here.)

[MPN11]

I did the Test in Advance at Hornchurch, but was deemed 'not the Cranwell type'! What age was I? 16/17 I guess, no idea when it was but clearly close to when it moved to Biggin. Subsequent visits to OASC Biggin eventually got me though the door.

[Sleeve Wing]

I went to RAF Hornchurch as a grammar school boy in April, 1955, at 16 and a couple of months, for what was then termed "Pre-Assessment".
This was to give a young chap some idea of whether he would be successful for a DEC or not, for Flying Scholarship or University Cadetship. It also served to help a lad to decide whether to go for a Direct Entry Commission at 17½ or, having maybe failed to impress, to go ahead with 'A' Levels and University application. I remember the educational criteria for Pilot/Navigator at that time was only 5 'O' Levels.
The only thing that sticks out in my mind, although I was successful, was how much better at everything the guys who'd been at boarding school were at that age !

[Meikleour]

I did "Pre-Assessment" at Biggin Hill in 1965 at sixteen years of age. This led to a Flying Scholarship and subsequent happy years at a UAS.

[RetiredBA/BY]

Yes, one could do pre assessment at 16. I did, in 1961, at Hornchurch, they told me not to bother coming back.
BUT a year later, went back, accepted as pilot and when I left 12 years later I was the senior standards QFI at SORF , with commandants CFS and Cranwell as two of my students !

Never say never, well hardly ever !

[Bill Macgillivray]

Pre-assessment/selection - can't remember which. I can remember attending in 1954 (that long ago !!!) at 16 and being told that I was "marginal" and to try again in a year. This I did and was told "sorry - no chance!"). National Service and after another 12 months tried again, maybe they were fed up with me but I was accepted and the rest is history! Best days ever!!

[rolling20]

I remember the educational criteria for Pilot/Navigator at that time was only 5 'O' Levels.

It was still the same in the 80s, although IIRC a couple of people from my school were encouraged to continue with A levels and university if possible.

[Union Jack]

I did the Test in Advance at Hornchurch, but was deemed 'not the Cranwell type'! What age was I? 16/17 I guess, no idea when it was but clearly close to when it moved to Biggin. Subsequent visits to OASC Biggin eventually got me though the door.
....of BRNC!:ok:

Jack

[ChrisVJ]

Went to Hornchurch Dec. 1961, aged 17, for Flying Scholarship. As it was six days before Christmas they said if we failed any part they would let us know straight away so we could go home rather than finish the tests.
Got all the way through only to be told I was Daltonic. No scholarship, no entry, no civil career. Got a PPL at Oxford the following Summer.

[Herod]

Selection at Biggin '64, aged 17. The nice letter said I hadn't passed selection for Cranwell, and gave me a choice of trying again in a year or accepting a Direct-Entry Commission. I took the DEC route; in retrospect the right choice.

Sometimes other people can see things you can't. After the JP course, my instructor said quite plainly "you would kill yourself on a Lightning". Very disappointing to a 19 year-old, but now when I look at a Lightning in the museum, I know he was right. I went mil rotary, mil fixed-wing, airlines, and lived to tell the tale.

[BEagle]

I went to Biggin Hill in July at the age of 15 having already passed 8 'O' levels at 14. A few days of tests, interviews and hangar stuff, which seemed pretty straightforward, then I won my RAF Scholarship in October. But I had to wait another 18 months before I could do my flying at Cranfield! Then Cranwell in September....and university the following September!

The RAF must have been desperate for aircrew recruits back then!

[MPN11]

....of BRNC!:ok:
Several doors, Jack, and several visits!
Test in Advance ... fail!
RAF DE pilot ... fail. eyesight.
RN Helo pilot ... passed Biggin and Gosport, failed BRNC!
RAF ATCO ... YAY! Passed!
A stressful few years.

[Fitter2]

In 1958, age 15 I went to Hornchurch when applying for an RAF Scholarship (money to see me through A levels). Did the aptitude & medical tests and interviews. On Day 3 about a third of us (the others went home) were bussed to Cranwell where we did a further 3 days of the oil barrel over crocodile infested water etc. exercises, interviews, 15 minute presentation etc. As another has said, you could easily identify the Public School educated ones. An entertaining week off school during GCE Revision.

A month later got a letter saying declined on medical grounds. I am pretty short sighted, I'm amazed I made the initial cut. Left school aged 16, spent a year as an industrial chemist and then joined as a direct entry Air Radar Fitter. Left 9 years later as a Sergeant to do Meteorological Research and ended up running an Oil Industry SME. I wonder what a career as an Engineering Officer would have been like in the 60s through the 80s if I has made it.

[76fan]

Hornchurch for aptitude tests for an Air Training Corps Flying Scholarship in the winter of 1961-1962 for me. I would have been seventeen and I remember we slept in a very cold Nissen hut "warmed" only by a single coal/wood burner. I subsequently failed the selection board for Cranwell but three years later I applied for the RN as a pilot and because the aptitude tests were only valid for two years I had to sit them again, at Biggin Hill, before going on to the Navy selection board at HMS Sultan, Gosport.

[Top West 50]

I did it and I think the minimum age was 15 years and 8 months.