Great insight, thanks hans and others.
Aside from the structured “tests” at ASP, did the assessment and grading of the candidates cross over into other personal aspects such as service knowledge, personal motivation, conduct, teamwork, leadership, knowledge of training, career expectations etc? Obviously not from formal interviews but in any way contributing the competitiveness of the candidate.
Naturally these are critical and will bear out during OSB, but in preparing for ASP as efficiently as possible it would helpful to get a sense of these other items that don’t feature as highly or at all. If someone had entered this process from the pilot candidate side for example, is there any advantage or benefit in getting across all roles covered by ASP before arriving?
Many thanks to the contributors and best of luck to all candidates!

ASP offer
 

Hi all,

My EC advised in mid Feb that there are around 200 people in total recommended from previous OSBs (Pilots, ACOs & JBACs). Virtually everyone validity in the pool had to run out before the ASP kicked in on March 6th.

ASPs will consist of new candidates and the previous recommended lot.

The ASPs are all back to back in March. 4 ASP the 1st wk, 4 the second, 3 the third and 2 in the last wk of march.

Next ASP rounds will be in May.

Hope this helps those wondering what is going on.

So they have actually created two distinct sets of testing for both officer aviation pathways? I would imagine there absolutely would be a large degree of overlap in requirements for both roles.

From the research I've done on the RAF testing (which I believe is what we've adapted/licensed), their tests are split into aptitude domains of:

verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, spatial reasoning, work rate, attentional capability and psychomotor coordination. They test all 6 domains and then perform what they've defined to be an optimal weighting of each to give you your pilot/aco/jbac etc. score.

The only possible non-crossover domain for JBAC/ACO would be pyschomotor coordination (which isn't even the highest weighted domain for pilot in the RAF).

But I guess this is all needless speculation and I'll find out what's what in about a week. In my view it would be entirely pointless to perform worse on the mission elementary testing in some hope that it will put you in higher contention for a pilot OSB.

There's nothing wrong with people knowing what they want. The RAAF will take as much (if not more) out of you than it will ever give you in return. No point playing the game if it isn't worth the prize at the end in your personal desires.

I wouldn't have joined the RAAF as anything other than a pilot. That doesn't make me a bad officer, if that was the case there'd be a lot less pilots...

Hans the world is not a fair place. The RAAF has been hiring pilots for a long time. They know what you need to pass the course, and what you need to have a successful career.
Someone totally focused of being a RAAF Pilot with no interest in being a NAV etc, is not a lesser candidate to someone who wants so badly to be in the military they would take any job.
You either pass the selection or you don't. If you don't, it's a personal choice what you choose to do next.
But I agree with you about someone thinking doing badly in the non pilot tests is somehow going to help their application. They would seem to have some gaps in critical reasoning, and perhaps a different career choice would better suit.

Thanks hans, you’ve answered the question in your response. The question wasn’t about effort in any particular test but rather being caught off guard in a conversation about other roles and having little knowledge about them. For what’s it worth, these recent contributions have prompted me to at least gain an overview of these roles before ASP.

Wow, you sure know a lot about aviation, military and civilian, for someone who's just starting out...

I'd rather sit up the front of any aircraft as a pilot, any day, than sit down the back of anything (super hornet included).

You got that right.


I like being a pilot, if it didn't work out here I'd be giving it a crack somewhere else. You should go have a chat to any ACO's working in the civilian sector of aviation post leaving the RAAF and their employability... there's a lot more to think of when joining Defence than just being keen to do everything. It doesn't make anyone less of a candidate when they know what they want to do and what they're not interested in.


Just as an offside remark as well, there's no such thing as applying yourself for only a "fighter pilot" role, by the time you find out if you're going fighters or not it's too late to just disappear into the ether if you find out you're going multi crew. That’s not how pilots course works.

Where is the civilian equivalent of fast jet aircrew? I guarantee there are lot more ex Fast Jet Pilots working at the mainlines right now than there are ACO’s.

Haha, I got my first job out of high school for being the only one at a group interview not wearing thongs and boardies.

I don't think it's unreasonable for people going through these first ASPs to only want the job they've applied for. I want to be a pilot and an Officer in the RAAF... at the same time. It's going to be different for everyone. If it actually becomes the case that you don't know which job pathway you're on till after OTS then yeah, it seems very likely that some people will jump ship during their IMPS grace period if they dont get what they want. So as it stands, those self-selecting themselves out of contention is good thing. As for the people being bitter after failing, this is likely the first major 'NO' that some of them have received in their lives. Especially because it's almost a personal attack of 'no you as a person do not have the aptitude to do this job'. Whether or not they bounce back and learn from it before having another crack is the main concern.

After some more cyber sleuthing I found those 7 domains that you mentioned. Looks like they've introduced some new names for them whilst the tests remain the same. Hope you did well on the CLAN test if it was covered. It's the most significant (statistical) indicator of IFR performance apparently.

Thanks to all the contributors, the info has definitely made me more confident.

During the ASP test, I am guessing they don't give you any feedback for individual answers? Like a green tick.
And I couldn't find anything about it online, but is it true that there is a verbal reasoning test in the ASP?

Hey thunder, you guess right. Practice questions will give you a green tick, but the testing questions won’t. The only feedback you get is at the end of course, which is still just a general overview.

There is a bit of verbal reasoning, but it’s not especially difficult.

@hansfalkenhagen - congratulations on the recommendation. You seem very motivated and keen to do well, which will stand you in good stead in your future training.

To all others reading his advice, take it with a grain of salt.

Many years ago I received a phone call to congratulate me on being offered the role of Navigator. I declined, and 3 days later received the offer of Pilot, a decision which I cannot thank my 17 year old self enough for.
DFR and the RAAF will try and get you in for whatever role they can, knowing there is a trickle down to other specialisations from those that initially applied for Pilot.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with knowing what you want. There are many great careers in the RAAF, however being 'in the RAAF' is not the be all and end all, and it is 100% OK to say you only want to be a Pilot.

Also, '3000 pilot applicants a year' is drastically overstated. We are chronically short and can't get enough good people in the door, let alone out the end of the training pipeline.

In the late 90's/early 2000's there were approx 10,000 applications for pilot across all three services per year. There has been a steady decline in interest over the last 15 years or so. In 2016 there were 400 people who walked through the door and said I want to be a military pilot.

Because people of the current generation aren’t stupid enough to sign on to something for 11.5 years with so many variables when they can just get a HECS loan and do a Cadetship...

The RAAF will figure that out, eventually.

Is the IMPS really the defining factor? If you read these forums for any amount of time it doesn't seem like anyone is painting Civil aviation in the best light either.

Times are and have been changing for a while.

I like the RAAF, I’m not dumb enough to think it’s the best wicket in the world though. The exodus underway is enough to demonstrate that.

But I’ll never regret it, hell, I love the actual flying more than I could ever explain.

My thoughts exactly!

But... I believe it's a young mans game, unless you want to be CAF.

Have done both. Much preferred being with Ronny.

Yeah, below average pay, moving every 3 years, secondary duties that have zero to do with being a pilot, ground jobs, etc...

The best wicket it aint, don't get me wrong, it's good for a while but you cant do it forever.

Dude, you haven’t done it, don’t pretend you know more than the people who have.

Like I said, it’s the best flying I have or ever will do.

That’s about the end of it.