For a start, it's 15 hours of flying.
Officer selection board... you do a few leadership exercises, teamwork activities etc, and then the interview with the board - an officer from each service, plus a psychologist.
be yourself and KNOW YOUR STUFF!
I go next month.

For anyone who has attended the OSB before;

What type of questions will be asked?, theoretical (if i was in this situation what should i do) or knowledge based (detailed info on ADF operations etc) or a combination of both (examples would be appreciated)

I'm applying for RAAF pilot, how much should i know about the other services?

Any help is greatly appreciated as always, Peach

Hey Peach, They are looking for a lot of APTITUDE. If you have any you will already have searched PPRUNE for similar questions and answers. Believe me, ALL the answers to your questions are here on PPRUNE already. Additionally, other similar sites have good-gen for individuals such as yourself.

BTW - Good Luck.


let us know how it goes.
.

Sorry Guys, i guess i was just taking the easy road.

One question i can't find an answer to;

Do any currently serving military pilots hold an interest in GA (own their own planes, complete in competitions, fly friends to out of the way places for brunch etc).

Peach

To answer your abv question, no.

I thought the OSB was before FS?

It used to be. Now it's at the end of the two weeks of flight screening, IF you get that far.

I'm currently at flight screening at the moment (mid course), all my questions have been answered and i think i stressed alot more then i should have.

However i'm still interested in military pilots who have GA interests, so far i haven't met any.

Do military pilots (esp. fast jet) still enjoy the flying or is it just the thrill of doing something noone else can?

Replies appreciated, Peach

Hi Peaches,
To answer your question, yes. Everytime i get to fly i still get that awesome feeling. But it's more than that. If you can add to that a morning sunrise over the middle east, or a dawn airdrop of paratroopers or a evening arrival into a foreign country or a parade flypast, then that's what really makes it.

Watch the team building exercises and be good at them. Be careful in the "leadership" exercises because one of them just might be about deliberate frustration.

Tamworth, eh? That had me fooled. Couldn't think why you would want to flog up the A5 to Tamworth, Staffs, even if it was to ski at Britain's and Europe's (second, now, I believe) largest indoor Snowdome or shop at Ventura Park.

So tell us a bit about the Oz Tamworth. Is your OASC or something similar?

*BUMP* for the benefit of superlukeyboy.

(All RAF links now include a short description of what the thread is about)

Thanks Couger, i was afraid that regulations, protocol, procedures and the regimantal lifestyle would eliminate the free spirit and detract from the joy of actually flying the aircraft. I was hoping to be proved wrong and i'm glad you could show me the lighter side.

Cheers, Peach

Just a quick Q for you, Peachy.
After passing all the interviews/tests and being recommended for the FSP, how long did they take to get back to you regarding start dates for FSP? It's been around a Month for me now, hoping it hasn't been lost en-route to the paper board...

I was pretty sure it was September from what I heard...but that just might be me...

Whiskey226

It took me around 4 weeks to get a position at FSP, but there are people on the course who waited up to 3 months. The people who had to wait the longest were shouted a day at the Avalon airshow (including travel to and from). So no need to worry yet, give it 3 months then contact your local recruiter if your still concerned.

Peach

yeah it took me about 4 weeks to get a spot. i fly out to tamworth to start my flight screening in just over a week.

best of luck with OSB peach! :ok:

Time to drag this thread back to the surface! :D

I'm off to flight screening at the end of next week (11-25 June). Is anyone else on here going to be joining me?

I've logged a few hours flying, been studying and preparing and hopefully I'll go well. My application has been good so far - I applied just before Christmas last year, and for my aircrew testing I was told that I got the top scores out of the group (the testing officer told me I had very high scores, even for a pilot applicant, which is strange because I didn't think I went well at the time!). If all goes well then in just over three weeks I'll walk out of BAe with a giant grin on my face.

Congrats on everyone here who has gotten through selection and is living the dream, and for the not so fortunate, keep your chin up and keep trying! Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread, there's some great advice from a lot of people. If anyone else has more pearls of wisdom then feel free to share!

RAAF Eyesight requirement
 

Hi Guys,

I was hoping to get some response from some RAAFies out there about eyesight requirements for pilot selection.
I understand that vision of 20/20 is required for pilot applicants, but i have also spoken to some ADF pilots about the matter and have been told that some guys that have joined have had correction surgery/treatments in order to regain normal vision.
I've seen afew active ADF pilots wearing glasses and i would assume that is OK after the government has spent pleny of $$$ on training which is fair enough.

I've been dead keen for years to join the RAAF, but due to having vision slightly below the requirement and after initial interviews with defence recuiters i had given up hope until speaking with former/current pilots of the ADF.

Any infomation would be greatly appriciated,

Cheers

I've had more medical issues - a "minor abnormality" on my ECG that has resulted in another month of farting around with cardiologist, etc. Cardiologist says I'm fine, reports sent off to AvMed, now waiting to hear back to see if they agree, *then* my dossier gets sent to Tamworth for review.

Fingers crossed ...

Do NOT even consider laser corrective surgery before getting information from the RAAF Doctors.

RAF Pilot Entry statistics
 

Hi there. I am just curious; does anybody know what the average ratio of applicants to acceptances is for becoming a Pilot in the RAF in the past few years?

From personal experience.
As long as your eyes go bad after half way through course ($$$ remember) and you can be corrected back to 6/6 vision, then you can get corrective glasses/contacts. You had to join with 6/6 and experience degradation later.

Not sure of current policy but this was applicable a few years back.

Re-iterate RG's post. There are 2 laser surgery techniques and one of them disqualifies you for life IIRC. The other technique is allowed after RAAF Medical approval.

HTH

slim, how would that do you? Given FJ slots at about 24 per year and all branch presentation at 30 per week!

Eyes
 

I know a bloke who started pilots course with glasses.

From what I know (which is not with any authority!!) they want 20/20 when you join. Can go bad the following day so long as it's correctable with glasses to 20/20.

If you have bad eyes to begin with, appeal all the way up and you may get a nod. The theory is they get enough applicants with good eyes so why bother with the others. Appeal to DG Air Force Health (is he still called this) , then when he says no (and he will) to SGADF (Surgeon General -ADF), then when he says no (and he most probably will ), Dear Minister..

PAF

I dont know about the RAF, but the RAAF ratio of applicants to badged FJ pilots is around the order of 1:750.

As the ADF as a whole, all pilots positions to applicants is around 1:90

I cant remember where I have heard these numbers been thrown about so I am happy to be corrected.

Just finished OSB,

Not Yet 18 was the verdict (come back in 18 months). Happy with the result and will try again.

Cheers to everyone who posted on this thread. I now understand why it all has to be kept under wraps....

Peach

Hey FastJetz,

It all depends who you speak to, unfortunately. I found not all the medical staff were aware of the latest adjustments when I was researching, and I'd imagine it would be hard to be. But there were some fantastic people who went all out to help me. (And some not so fantastic who couldn't be bothered, and one in particular who referred me to the wrong type of surgery being the only type allowed!!)

I can't give you all the specific references as I'm...well....on the other side of the globe at the moment, but I think Health Bulletin 11/02 was one of them, regarding laser eye surgery. There was another one regarding visual acuity that you may find in an old thread titled "Glasses in the RAAF" or something similar. And some medical staff actually handed me an actual refractive surgery summary page for applicants (not comprehensive), but it all takes a bit of asking around.

To the best of my knowledge, it is now 6/12 uncorrected, but there are also dioptre limits. If you exceed those, then PRK is allowed, not LASIK. LASEK, a form of PRK, is also allowed. But there are requirements pre- and post-op that you must fulfil. Feel free to PM with any more specific questions, and I'll do what I can when I get home in a few weeks. But once again, the moral to everyone's story is to double check/make sure of everything yourself. Especially as the rules have been quite fluid with such changes lately.

When I was at OSB toward the end of last year, the Wing Commander said there was one guy who had gone through with laser surgery before me (mind you I hadn't conducted surgery yet, as I appealed to sit FSP/OSB first), so I suppose I'm the second. Now I've done the surgery, waited the 3 months post-op, and my file is sitting somewhere in Canberra waiting to be medically cleared. It's a long process mate. But if you want it enough....

Cheers and Good Luck

Cheers Peach, sorry to hear you didn't get through straight away, but persistance is the key, right? I got knocked back firt time outright. This time they didn't seem to care about that...
Here's hoping, anyway!

Happy trails

Here are some fairly accurate figures.

Applicants for officer - all branches - 12,000 per year of whom 7,000 apply for pilot.

3,000 actually get to OASC of whom 1,200 are wanabees.

Of the pilot applicants there are 80 slots.

So work out the appropriate ratio. Even the best works out at 1:15.

GA flying for mil aircrew
 

G'day Mate,

I did Point Cook way back when on 52 Army Pilot Basic Course. After 56 APBC, it moved to Tamworth... so the PSA course is foreign to me... but the stress and style isn't.

As for GA flying, I guess we all have an interest in it, but don't often have the time to take advantage of it. What's more, after flying very capable and battle worthy aircraft (for the most part), jumping into a GA lightie seems to be more bother than it's worth... until you actually do it and then you remember how much fun it is (except for the part about paying the bill at the end of the flight.)

My background is Black Hawk and Chinook, but I recently did my FWMECIR and NVFR and CPL etc, etc. It was quite a change to go from a multi-crew environment to single pilot ops again. It was more challenging than I remember... but like I said, lots of fun.

Good luck for your return to TW. Check out the website at www.ipas.com.au for some images.
CB

I guess its changed a bit since I did Flight Screening but I have never played so much tennis as the two weeks at Tamworth.

We only played tennis once, cos it rained practically the whole two weeks! Played lots of table tennis though. Went go-karting, went to the Impy a few times, and we went flying every now and then too...

Ahhh the Impy. Many drunken memories of the various drinking establishments in Tamworth. The Q bar was the place to go when I was there.

Australian Army Recruitment
 

Does anyone know if the Australian Army are still recruiting Chinook pilots?

I know they were after people over the last couple of years, but what does the future hold for recruitment?

Also what are they after in terms of experience?

Can anyone answer? Just wanting to keep my options open..........Many thanks!

EnnArr :ok:

Im sure they would be interested in an experienced lateral recruit, if you fit the bill.

Pretty sure that C SQN is a 2nd term only posting. Same with FW AAAvn posting as well.

Bit worried that PMA website has a link to RAAF 'crossover' - are they trying to tell us something?

Edited for spelling defunkt

Try here:

http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/default.asp?p=122

;)

back again..
 

Well it's approaching 12 months since my pilot specific test. Last time I wasn't recommended for Pilot - in addition to not meeting eyesight requirements after seeing an ophthalmologist. I'll probably call them soon and see if any requirements have been reduced.

Anyway, I've been doing aerobatic training and I'm on my way to a CPL. Next year I'll complete my Bach. Aerospace Eng and hopefully start work in flight test engineering and end up a test pilot - but who knows!

I'd love to fly in the RAAF, but the likelihood of that happening is slowly drifting away...

I wanted to ask if anyone knew the specific differences between civil and military training?

Good luck to everyone who's got the bug!
Oh and you too can fly a fast jet to the edge of space: http://www.incredible-adventures.com/edgeofspace.html

Can anyone give me some more information regarding the "team building" and "leadership" excercises for OSB at Tamworth.

I've been waiting about a month to get on the 2 wk course.

Cheers

PS I take it I should pack a tennis racquet as well :D