That'll be ineresting as they're not training any new ones, only recycling the ones not good enough for pilot crossover or promotion.

Someone has to put the blanks on...

Evalu8ter
 

Good Post .. Useful stuff. i wonder if some of the yung'uns are being offered a re-role?

I seem to remember they were dumped on us because it was jobs for the boys when the GR1 force started getting reduced and they had nowhere else to put them. Anyone else there at the start when several with major chips arrived? MVB and The Judge spring to mind. Sadly the next bunch of first tourist navs ruined it all by being good eggs.
Jenks - saved my life once, dontchaknow?

What does a helicopter nav do?
 

How on earth has this thread managed to run to 2 pages???
Life at 100 kts.

Dunhovrin, it also happened when the Shack 'force' reduced for those that did not want the Nimwacs.

Of course, aside from navigation, they are fully trained aircrew and as capable of mission accomplishment as any other aircrew (or they should be).

Bull****. So they can fly at 100' on NVG and land a load in the desert at night.

All of this stuff was being done by a less well paid crewman long before the Navigator was dropped on the SH fleet!

I was at Odiham when the first guys arrived, most of them were decent blokes who couldnt give any more of a rational explanation for their career moves than those already expounded by the resident crews. "Why the F***K!" seemed to be the most common expression.

Now seen it a many times! Maritime, SH, now watch out for the FSTA......Navigator position made redundant then find another seat irrespective of whether any use or not. Some sort of handshake ritual I think.

Klingon, can't argue with what you said, and the only times I have been in a military chopper was as a survivor on training or exercise.

As I think I alluded to earlier, a redundant navigator posted to helos provides better VFM than a redundant navigator made redundant.

To retain her or him as a make weight is cheaper than paying redundancy money and pension and trainning a NCA alternative.

Navigators were employed on the SAR Wessex and some SeaKing posts as winch operators weren't they? Didn't they only take the best ones from a selection course?

Sam, quite right. I know several that failed. However I also know of one nav whose vocation was SAR. He fought tooth and nail to get off the Nimrod, which he did after two tours and finished the rest of his career, at least 25 yrs on the SAR choppers.

It wasnt a case of training an NCA replacement as no training was ever needed! The crewmen were already VERY competent in both the middle and LH seat.

Shame that only 10 years or so later (1992) they offered redundancies but still persisted with the Navigator on SH.

How did the Puma fleet ever cope without a Navigator flying around Germany with only TANS and two crew?

'RAF Helicopter Navigators - What do they actually do?'

I have known a couple in my time, before they crossed to the dark side. As to what they do, probably......


Draw a reasonable salary.

Attempt to do their job to the best of their ability. Despite the fact that it was almost certainly not the posting they initially asked for or wanted.

Go to some c**p places in the world and get shot at.

Put up with all the pilot put downs.

Put up with the (hopefully small number of) crewmen who have 'chips' on their shoulder about helicopter Navs.


What else would you expect them to do?????

Talking of chips, can I have a whopper too, oh and I'll go supersize please Mr Nav.

Wokkameister

I wondered how long it would be before you got hold of this one!

I couldn't find my arse in a bath, me...

But the galling thing is, they get paid more than you and have a comfier seat than you. 50% more money, 50% less work.:ouch:

But at least you can live with yourself...:ok:

Ha Ha,

Sorry, couldn't resist it. Some of my best friends are Navs/Ex Navs, but don't tell anybody!

Compass, watch, map; the TANS was a luxury that you could live without. In any case, if you updated it frequently, it was quite reliable, it had a Decca input you know. ........and if Kaunitz to the Bielefeld gap by the safari park is 065`, I did it far to often. N51556....... E000 08189 I wonder if that is right.

Did you have those god awful Decca maps with lines all over the place and the four instruments to make sense of it all?

Yup, but in fairness, you would set them up and let them feed the TANS.