Fun with Students
Sounds like a Malaysian student on my course, lovely guy, but a complete hazard to all in the Sims as he had magnetic aircraft and no English without 5 minutes thinking time. He passed with flying colours, which was obviously and absolutely nothing to with the sale of Hawks to the Malaysian Air Force at the time......
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Circuits at Linton were left hand, except for one day a week, during my JP course. The QFI gives me a simulated flameout close to the overhead; I whip straight into the pattern, rattling through through checks and radio calls, when I feel something being written on my kneepad. I glance across to read one word "Wednesday".......
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Thread Starter
Sounds like a Malaysian student on my course, lovely guy, but a complete hazard to all in the Sims as he had magnetic aircraft and no English without 5 minutes thinking time. He passed with flying colours, which was obviously and absolutely nothing to with the sale of Hawks to the Malaysian Air Force at the time......
A civil flying school was awarded a contract to train military students from a country that sounds like Saudi Arabia. They won the contract, based on a military-based curriculum and piles of manuals "borrowed" from the army aviation. Excellent standards were demonstrated, so I joined the staff. The first course of 6 went pretty well, motivated students and reasonably talented, but when the second course arrived (3 month overlap) it was apparent that the first course had been talking to the next course back home, pointing out that some exceptions were being made to the standards. Course 2 was much harder to teach, and when course 3 arrived, they couldn't give a rat's patootie about study or learning, and it was clear that 2 of them weren't even suitable to be on an airfield.
The head of school and I reached the decision to scrub these 2. Much wailing and threats of "My father is a General and you will be punished" and so on, but they were sent back home. The owner of the school then received a bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the amount that had already been spent on these students, and apparently it was a small-print clause, in arabic, that said the money had to be repaid if the student didn't finish the course.
The owner was somewhat (!) annoyed, and from then on no student ever failed the course. The owner ensured that quizzes were dumbed down, standards were NOT to be enforced, and some really unsuitable people were awarded "wings" and sent back home to fame and glory. I tolerated the school for a few years but it irked me too much to see what was going on to let these rockapes through - they paid their money and got their wings. Luckily they never had a solo, and were always accompanied by an instructor, so the rest of aviation was not at risk.
The head of school and I reached the decision to scrub these 2. Much wailing and threats of "My father is a General and you will be punished" and so on, but they were sent back home. The owner of the school then received a bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the amount that had already been spent on these students, and apparently it was a small-print clause, in arabic, that said the money had to be repaid if the student didn't finish the course.
The owner was somewhat (!) annoyed, and from then on no student ever failed the course. The owner ensured that quizzes were dumbed down, standards were NOT to be enforced, and some really unsuitable people were awarded "wings" and sent back home to fame and glory. I tolerated the school for a few years but it irked me too much to see what was going on to let these rockapes through - they paid their money and got their wings. Luckily they never had a solo, and were always accompanied by an instructor, so the rest of aviation was not at risk.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
IIRC there were three graduation grades for overseas students who were not allowed to fail,…
Successfully completed the course.
Completed the course.
Was present whilst the course took place.
Successfully completed the course.
Completed the course.
Was present whilst the course took place.
When I was doing a PPL course at Scone in the early 70's there was a Maltese Air Trafficker who had to get a PPL to fully qualify as ATC.
He had been there quite a long time and still did not have that important PPL.
Anyway his instructors finally let him have a go at the qualifying X - Country on the same day as me - which in those days was up to Dyce (Aberrrdeen Scotland).
He followed me all the way up and I joined in turn into a very busy cct of very mixed traffic - but not this guy - he just went straight in and landed
Needless to say he wasn't allowed to do the return trip - we had to land and refuel (as briefed) but they had to send an instructor up to collect his wee Cessna
He had been there quite a long time and still did not have that important PPL.
Anyway his instructors finally let him have a go at the qualifying X - Country on the same day as me - which in those days was up to Dyce (Aberrrdeen Scotland).
He followed me all the way up and I joined in turn into a very busy cct of very mixed traffic - but not this guy - he just went straight in and landed
Needless to say he wasn't allowed to do the return trip - we had to land and refuel (as briefed) but they had to send an instructor up to collect his wee Cessna
I never used multiple guess question papers when instructing. If a problem occurred in the air then the solution never appeared as an option - the student had to know it outright. (It didn't help teaching classified subjects either...the paper would be classified). I once docked a student one mark for just using his nickname at the top of the paper...he only got 99% and whinged for the next few days.
Back in the deep and distant past on the Chipmunk, there were a few tests in the ground school phase. They had been the same for years, the questions and answers were freely available. The staff knew this, we knew the staff knew this, they knew etc etc….. it suited everybody, but there was a game to play. Most of us used the answers to help in the swotting, knew which answer was correct, but perhaps just as importantly why. Come the debrief to the first, which we have of course all passed remarkably well, let’s go through the paper, question 1, “Dave you got this right, the answer was a, 12v, can you tell us why?”, “because…{correct answer}”. Question 2, “Mike, you got this right, the answer was c, 10 gallons, can you tell us how you got that answer?”, “errrrrrrrrr…..”. Question 3, someone else gets it right. Question 4, “Mike?” “ errrrrrr”. **** had just learned ABADCBA etc and and had no idea.
Next exam, new papers. Cheers Mikey.
Like ninthace above, I had to attend an early computer course at RAF Newton, as I had been given the job of 'computer manager' on the Sqn at Aldergrove. However, this was run by the RAF Police, and was on 'computer security'. However, it was all based on the BBC Computer (remember those?) and early Commodore machines - and even better the lectures (!) were all done using OHPs, and mainly consisted of ensuring you switched them off at night and tied them to the desk or put them in a cupboard to prevent theft. When I asked about proper security measures - we were already using windows based desktops llinked to an internal network and under a constant threat from the various factions in NI - there was a very large silence from the WO lecturer, before he asked what a network was as he didn't understand the question. Even better he didn't know the threat as he had never been to NI, and as for passwords...........!
No one else from the Squadron attended again.
No one else from the Squadron attended again.
Late 60s at Shawbury, back when the helicopters were still flying at Tern Hill, the based flying units were UBAS and 8 AEF flying Chipmunks, and Marshall's Vampires and Piston Provosts, which were used as training targets for the baby ATCOs, learning their trade at the Central Air Traffic Control School. Shawbury at that time was no longer a Master Diversion Airtield, so the only itinerant traffic consisted of occasional Gnats and Hunters from Valley, practicing PARs and diversions plus aircraft coming to 27 MU, mainly for scrapping.
One day I was flying a Chipmunk with an instructor to the west of Shawbury. Unless we were going to do instrument approaches, we always stayed on the Local (Tower) frequency. We heard a Hunter T8 from Valley on the frequency and it was obvious that the student had a poor command of English and was having trouble understanding the ATC instructions. My instructor, Brian N, was intrigued and when the Hunter went around and was passed back to Approach, he switched to Approach as well, without bothering to tell the Local controller. During the vectoring for the next approach, the controller starts giving headings to the Hunter, to steer around a target at "unknown altitude". The penny dropped and we looked up to see the Hunter several thousand feet higher, making a dog-leg around us!
A quick switch back to Local and we heard the controller calling us, complaining that he hadn't been able to reach us. We didn't confess!
One day I was flying a Chipmunk with an instructor to the west of Shawbury. Unless we were going to do instrument approaches, we always stayed on the Local (Tower) frequency. We heard a Hunter T8 from Valley on the frequency and it was obvious that the student had a poor command of English and was having trouble understanding the ATC instructions. My instructor, Brian N, was intrigued and when the Hunter went around and was passed back to Approach, he switched to Approach as well, without bothering to tell the Local controller. During the vectoring for the next approach, the controller starts giving headings to the Hunter, to steer around a target at "unknown altitude". The penny dropped and we looked up to see the Hunter several thousand feet higher, making a dog-leg around us!
A quick switch back to Local and we heard the controller calling us, complaining that he hadn't been able to reach us. We didn't confess!
Per Ardua
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Tabs please !
You didn't lecture at Shinfield by any chance ? I was on a course where an exam question was to calculate the cloudbase. I took the dry bulb temp and dewpoint, multiplying the difference by 400. (The intent was to have the student do a long winded calculation using DALR yawn.......). I was deducted a mark on the grounds that while the method used was commonplace and perfectly ok, nobody likes a smartass.
You didn't lecture at Shinfield by any chance ? I was on a course where an exam question was to calculate the cloudbase. I took the dry bulb temp and dewpoint, multiplying the difference by 400. (The intent was to have the student do a long winded calculation using DALR yawn.......). I was deducted a mark on the grounds that while the method used was commonplace and perfectly ok, nobody likes a smartass.
I later did three years at Shinfield and accepted the posting on a promise of a full tour in RAFG. That was honoured.
One of my best memories was End of Course thrashes at the Merry Maidens .............. the waitresses were topless on certain evenings by arrangement. That would be c. 1975.
Tabs please !
Ahhhhhhhhhh.........."Thrupenny bit Thursdays"......... they got bottomless too but that would be 1983.
ECMWF was "early closing Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays". Happy days, no money but happy all the same. Our course speciality was indoor mountaineering where we would find ways of circumnavigating the bar without touching the floor.
Talking of overseas students, one chap from the large continent was tasked with using a computer. The lecturer.....sorry, instructor.... explained that it was just like a typewriter. "What's a typewriter ?" was the inevitable reply.
No doubt the cheque was cashed and he was sent home with top marks.
ECMWF was "early closing Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays". Happy days, no money but happy all the same. Our course speciality was indoor mountaineering where we would find ways of circumnavigating the bar without touching the floor.
Talking of overseas students, one chap from the large continent was tasked with using a computer. The lecturer.....sorry, instructor.... explained that it was just like a typewriter. "What's a typewriter ?" was the inevitable reply.
No doubt the cheque was cashed and he was sent home with top marks.
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RAF Halton plastic Jag that was not a Jag, but an engine ground running trainer that sported a simulated Adour mounted and a plastic Jaguar, but not a Jaguar fuselage, complete with a working Jaguar but not a Jaguar cockpit.
Engine run ongoing, student in cockpit going through the runs canopy shut, all of the studes on headsets where the engine noise and comms is being played and a display board off to one side is showing a simulation of what is happening engine wise... Quite impressive, the stude in the cockpit has a motor mounted under his seat to simulate the rumble and as it starts to fail the cockpit is slowly filling up with smoke, still determined the said stude is trying to waft it away to read the instruments... coughing heard and everyone looks at the smoke filled cockpit,
Exercise over and a dead not a Jag, but a Jag trainer. They kept drilling it into us all, even us ex Jaguar Engineers that this is NOT a Jaguar.
Engine run ongoing, student in cockpit going through the runs canopy shut, all of the studes on headsets where the engine noise and comms is being played and a display board off to one side is showing a simulation of what is happening engine wise... Quite impressive, the stude in the cockpit has a motor mounted under his seat to simulate the rumble and as it starts to fail the cockpit is slowly filling up with smoke, still determined the said stude is trying to waft it away to read the instruments... coughing heard and everyone looks at the smoke filled cockpit,
Exercise over and a dead not a Jag, but a Jag trainer. They kept drilling it into us all, even us ex Jaguar Engineers that this is NOT a Jaguar.
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One country that had the RAF teaching their engineers realised they were getting dumbed down engineers as the course was simplified for them, so insisted in intergrated classes with the RAF.
Shinfield, Met Office College observers' and technicians' initial course, in the days of mercury column barometers. Practical session.
Muffled commotion at the back, followed by by "please, I have let all the little ball-bearings out of the barometer" or some such confession. Nasty stuff, every office had a yard of it on the wall until quality aneroids were issued.
Muffled commotion at the back, followed by by "please, I have let all the little ball-bearings out of the barometer" or some such confession. Nasty stuff, every office had a yard of it on the wall until quality aneroids were issued.
Then there were the ME students on a Helicopter Underwater Escape Training course who just sat in the submerged ‘helicopter’ waiting to be rescued by the safety divers. How did they expect to survive in an actual emergency? Inshallah.
Then there were the ME students on a Helicopter Underwater Escape Training course who just sat in the submerged ‘helicopter’ waiting to be rescued by the safety divers. How did they expect to survive in an actual emergency? Inshallah.
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There was a lad at Halton while I was there beat the monkey.
Apparently folk law stated that a trained monkey taught to tick random boxes could attain a mark of about 25% on a “vote for Joe” multi choice exam paper, so even if you just ticked random boxes you were guaranteed a 25% mark. He got 24% and never lived it down from everyone else.
Apparently folk law stated that a trained monkey taught to tick random boxes could attain a mark of about 25% on a “vote for Joe” multi choice exam paper, so even if you just ticked random boxes you were guaranteed a 25% mark. He got 24% and never lived it down from everyone else.