Worst course ever?
The Security Officer's course had me wishing I was back on the CSRO course. But at least they had just binned the end of course exam - as no-one gave a toss wether they passed or not!
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Not really wholly relevant on a pilot thread but the ATCIC (Air Traffic Control Instructors Course) has to be the most soul destroying course I've been on.
Weeks upon weeks of being told you were not reaching the standard required - not that the standard was ever stated and not that any ATC-specific teaching techniques (such as simulator instruction) were even taught to us, the ATCIC students. Two Week GIT course followed by egomaniacs from within your own branch grinding you down so much that when you passed the course you had no belief in you own ability to do the job let alone teach it to others.
Weeks upon weeks of being told you were not reaching the standard required - not that the standard was ever stated and not that any ATC-specific teaching techniques (such as simulator instruction) were even taught to us, the ATCIC students. Two Week GIT course followed by egomaniacs from within your own branch grinding you down so much that when you passed the course you had no belief in you own ability to do the job let alone teach it to others.
Can well believe REJs assessment - especially given the utterly abyssmal standard of instruction on the basic JATC course.... on the simulator portion, that is. The initial 'ground school' was brilliant, the practical part using the real aircraft was no problem, but the sim instructors were the most appalling bunch of self-promoting wazzocks I ever had to endure in 35 years of Auntie Mary's Flying Club
Perhaps my telling one of them that his 'teaching' methods were more suited to the 18th than the 20th century didn't improve my prospects
I suppose I should have been warned by the arrival brief which referred to the remnants of a previous course of which 90% (yes NINETY) had been 'chopped' and the assurance that our course would likely suffer a similar fate. I'm not sure what these people should have been doing, but ANY form of instruction should have been a no-no
Perhaps my telling one of them that his 'teaching' methods were more suited to the 18th than the 20th century didn't improve my prospects
I suppose I should have been warned by the arrival brief which referred to the remnants of a previous course of which 90% (yes NINETY) had been 'chopped' and the assurance that our course would likely suffer a similar fate. I'm not sure what these people should have been doing, but ANY form of instruction should have been a no-no
Prior to deploying to Muscat for Saif Sareea II, and knowing that a little excursion into Afghanistan was very likely, we had to do some learning on:
1. Slit trench digging.
2. Erecting barbed wire fences (single, double and triple rolls!)
3. Using a hand-held compass (in case you had to call down fire in a certain direction .... or build your trench/fence in a certain direction.
4. Filling sand-bags and using same to build protective walls etc.
Having told us that sand-bag walls must be made with the 'footer' and 'header' layers of bags in a certain order I then questioned why their example wall was exactly the opposite of what they were stipulating. "Err, ..... you're not supposed to notice things like that Sir." Precisely - and thats why I'm not in the Regt - because stuff like that is obvious.
Next day a certain other Sqn were doing the same 'course'. After an hour of barbed wire OC of the Sqn said "Enough, my aircrew and I are not listening to this nonsense" and left! Such a shame. Regt chaps could have done with more banter about their sh1te sandbag wall.
1. Slit trench digging.
2. Erecting barbed wire fences (single, double and triple rolls!)
3. Using a hand-held compass (in case you had to call down fire in a certain direction .... or build your trench/fence in a certain direction.
4. Filling sand-bags and using same to build protective walls etc.
Having told us that sand-bag walls must be made with the 'footer' and 'header' layers of bags in a certain order I then questioned why their example wall was exactly the opposite of what they were stipulating. "Err, ..... you're not supposed to notice things like that Sir." Precisely - and thats why I'm not in the Regt - because stuff like that is obvious.
Next day a certain other Sqn were doing the same 'course'. After an hour of barbed wire OC of the Sqn said "Enough, my aircrew and I are not listening to this nonsense" and left! Such a shame. Regt chaps could have done with more banter about their sh1te sandbag wall.
Whereas your OC wouldn't have had the spherical bits to say such a thing lest it might hinder his push for Air Rank......
"Good brief, Flt Sgt, very useful....."
"Good brief, Flt Sgt, very useful....."
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CAC - Conduct after capture
Pure practice bleeding, almost literally
Having talked to the boys who spend some time with the Baath party in Bagdad in GW 1, whatever came your way was going to be FAR worse than could ever be handed out by the DS/Regiment/Army at St Mawgan
I'd have rather have had lectures. I can believe in extreme pain without having to experience it 'voluntarily'
Pure practice bleeding, almost literally
Having talked to the boys who spend some time with the Baath party in Bagdad in GW 1, whatever came your way was going to be FAR worse than could ever be handed out by the DS/Regiment/Army at St Mawgan
I'd have rather have had lectures. I can believe in extreme pain without having to experience it 'voluntarily'
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Got to agree with you guys about the GIT Course. Two weeks of character assasination by so called experts. Funniest moments on my course were when a Nav teaching advanced maths took his lessons - there was always a fight to operate the video as he was the only one not liable to be questioned...
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Officer training, although it did prepare me for the worst of things to come in the future.
I hated every second of it - it was only the sight of the JP's flying round the Cranwell circuit that got me through to the flying phase of the course.
And yes, Beagle, I know I was a GE and missed out on the rest of the cr@p that you had to put up with, but it was still my worst course!
At the other end of the scale, the French TP course had to be the best. Whenever things got difficult, we used to take lunch.....and after that, who cared anyway.
A
I hated every second of it - it was only the sight of the JP's flying round the Cranwell circuit that got me through to the flying phase of the course.
And yes, Beagle, I know I was a GE and missed out on the rest of the cr@p that you had to put up with, but it was still my worst course!
At the other end of the scale, the French TP course had to be the best. Whenever things got difficult, we used to take lunch.....and after that, who cared anyway.
A
Inter Arma Enim Silentius Lex Legis
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For me it has just got to be the AAITC when it was run at Finningley by Aircrew Ego's!!
Having been a groundcrew Sgt for 2 years and remustering to the rank of plastic Sgt, it has to be said that very few Officer Aircrew from the NCO Aircrew world as was, had any idea about leadership!!
The course was designed by bullies and run by bullies. Most of the useful stuff was a direct takeoff from GST 2 at Hereford and the slides still had the GST 2 Logos on them. The rest of the course was merely designed to destroy your confidence and humiliate you, physically and mentally and they wouldn't get away with it today.
They even had the cheek to try and fail an ex groundcrew Sgt because his leadership qualities weren't up to the grade of Plastique, oh really! That issue was resolved by AOC/Air Sec intervention in double quick time!!
It was a good day when Finningley shut and the AATS was closed to become NAAS at Cranwell. The Regiment have taken over and the AAITC is run properly. One of the many times I have been grateful to the Navigator branch!!
Having been a groundcrew Sgt for 2 years and remustering to the rank of plastic Sgt, it has to be said that very few Officer Aircrew from the NCO Aircrew world as was, had any idea about leadership!!
The course was designed by bullies and run by bullies. Most of the useful stuff was a direct takeoff from GST 2 at Hereford and the slides still had the GST 2 Logos on them. The rest of the course was merely designed to destroy your confidence and humiliate you, physically and mentally and they wouldn't get away with it today.
They even had the cheek to try and fail an ex groundcrew Sgt because his leadership qualities weren't up to the grade of Plastique, oh really! That issue was resolved by AOC/Air Sec intervention in double quick time!!
It was a good day when Finningley shut and the AATS was closed to become NAAS at Cranwell. The Regiment have taken over and the AAITC is run properly. One of the many times I have been grateful to the Navigator branch!!
Gentleman Aviator
And so well informed too chutley .
I remember when I did the equal opps course, I asked about transsexuals to be put down with a:
"The RAF doesn't have any!"
"Funny", I replied, "there are 2 on my present Station!"
I remember when I did the equal opps course, I asked about transsexuals to be put down with a:
"The RAF doesn't have any!"
"Funny", I replied, "there are 2 on my present Station!"
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
NorthernSid, quite right. All the CAC course does is make you want to win the Evade bit and avoid the Escape bit. Only lesson you're going to remember is the pain.
Now the class training on the sqn, when as V-force we were far to precious to damage, was much better. The USAAC film in the Italian camp, the captain having a cigarette and the men being treated like SH1T was a good one. Only last year I saw the original model for that film, a French WW1 based movie. There was a raport between the aristicratic Hun and the noble Frenchman with everyone else being treated as boot dirt.
Then there was the Korean war film. Again excellent with a side bet of who was who in the actors - famous faces in unfamiliar roles.
Now the class training on the sqn, when as V-force we were far to precious to damage, was much better. The USAAC film in the Italian camp, the captain having a cigarette and the men being treated like SH1T was a good one. Only last year I saw the original model for that film, a French WW1 based movie. There was a raport between the aristicratic Hun and the noble Frenchman with everyone else being treated as boot dirt.
Then there was the Korean war film. Again excellent with a side bet of who was who in the actors - famous faces in unfamiliar roles.
Airbedane wrote (about Officer Training): "I hated every second of it - it was only the sight of the JP's flying round the Cranwell circuit that got me through to the flying phase of the course.
And yes, Beagle, I know I was a GE and missed out on the rest of the cr@p that you had to put up with, but it was still my worst course!"
Yes, the motivating effect of the JPs flying around RAFC was indeed highly valuable and I'm sure that many cadets or student officers going round the Knocker course or building pine pole A-frames in Bristol Woods would agree that it was only the thought of "Mates did years in the bag in WW2 - all I've got to do is to put up with this utter horse$hit for a bit longer and it'll be me up there looking down on all this sort of cr@p in a few months' time!"
Actually, time as a Flt Cdt wasn't that bad, really. Although I only did a year before escaping to University, you were treated like an Officer cadet, not some grunt recruit. The OT Sqn Cdrs and Flt Cdrs all had to have been cadets themselves, we had some excellent educational training and some reasonable trips (such as a week playing with the Army in BFG) - OK, there was drill, PT, and lots of marching about to do, but on the whole it was a pretty damn good course. The old Flt Cdt system which took people from spotty 17 year old schoolkid to Pilot Officer with RAF wings in 2 1/2 years was a very good system indeed. Much as we loathed polishing curtain rails (thank you, 94 Entry...) and sweeping the Cadets' garage on Saturday mornings, the knowledge that next year you'd be up in one of those JPs really kept you going.
Removing BFT (and I mean that, not that stupid BFJT acronym) from Cranwell was one of the biggest crimes that has ever been perpetrated. Even though it was only in the Spicano.
Worst course by far? 237 OCU in the late 1970s...........
Best course by far? No 1 course at 'New Chivenor'!! Heaven truly was in Devon!!
And yes, Beagle, I know I was a GE and missed out on the rest of the cr@p that you had to put up with, but it was still my worst course!"
Yes, the motivating effect of the JPs flying around RAFC was indeed highly valuable and I'm sure that many cadets or student officers going round the Knocker course or building pine pole A-frames in Bristol Woods would agree that it was only the thought of "Mates did years in the bag in WW2 - all I've got to do is to put up with this utter horse$hit for a bit longer and it'll be me up there looking down on all this sort of cr@p in a few months' time!"
Actually, time as a Flt Cdt wasn't that bad, really. Although I only did a year before escaping to University, you were treated like an Officer cadet, not some grunt recruit. The OT Sqn Cdrs and Flt Cdrs all had to have been cadets themselves, we had some excellent educational training and some reasonable trips (such as a week playing with the Army in BFG) - OK, there was drill, PT, and lots of marching about to do, but on the whole it was a pretty damn good course. The old Flt Cdt system which took people from spotty 17 year old schoolkid to Pilot Officer with RAF wings in 2 1/2 years was a very good system indeed. Much as we loathed polishing curtain rails (thank you, 94 Entry...) and sweeping the Cadets' garage on Saturday mornings, the knowledge that next year you'd be up in one of those JPs really kept you going.
Removing BFT (and I mean that, not that stupid BFJT acronym) from Cranwell was one of the biggest crimes that has ever been perpetrated. Even though it was only in the Spicano.
Worst course by far? 237 OCU in the late 1970s...........
Best course by far? No 1 course at 'New Chivenor'!! Heaven truly was in Devon!!
Last edited by BEagle; 30th Sep 2004 at 13:02.
