Greetings all,

it's been said here many times before but I'd like to share my personal experience with you. I'm merely a newly graduated RAAF pilot (graduated on No. 200 pilots' course on 10 December 2004). From my experience the process of becoming a RAAF pilot is a long journey filled with highs and lows of which depending on your ability will either be balanced somewhere around 'equally' or favouring the highs. If it's favouring the lows then maybe your should pick another career because you are probably working too hard (too close to maximum capacity) to get a worthwhile enjoyment out of it. Yes, pilots' course CAN and will be enjoyable! It's what you decide to make of it. If you live in fear of failure then you probably will fail. If you decide to focus your energy on fixing what instructors are telling you to fix instead of 'please don't fail' then you will be more than half way there. There will be times when you say to yourself 'why the f*ck am I doing this to myself?!', and unless you are have an extraordinary (emphasis on EXTRA, as opposed to just ordinary) you are going to be doing it tougher than most of your peers. Military pilots' course will make you sweat, and maybe even shed a few tears. You will never feel like you 'have it in the bag'. Every ride is as important as the next, but you can only focus on one ride at a time. If you get too far ahead of yourself you will trip up. At the end of it though, you will be rewarded with what is considered by many to be the best career in the world. Not a bad rap for 2 years of gritting your teeth. And remember, if it was easy your grandmother would be doing it.

Bzulu,
arm out the window,

thanks for helping clarify all that.

i am just seriously considering changing all the services to first preference. provided, of course, i'm recommended.
(a big decider was seeing a RAAF arm patch half covered by blond locks of the right seat occupier of a Sea Hawk :eek: )

Bzulu, last thing i want is to wait 12 months in vain for an offer from navy whilst i could have been finishing NEOC were i to include Army and RAAF as first pref. (not that likely, but who knows??!)

i know i'll have plenty of time before i can change - what fueled my question though was whether i needed to study up much on RAAF & Army to actually stand a chance being recommended for them,
or whether i'll just be assessed on my officer and pilot potential regardless of lack of knowledge for the other two (didn't seem all that likely).
but i think it's kinda been answered already.


pinny,
i wonder if this holiday's break's been awaited or can't be ending sooner enough?! :)

Olena

If you have a preference then stick to it. However if you really just want in than by all means put down all services as first preference. This also means that you will have some knowledge of all three services, operations, etc.

I am not to certain what you mean by waiting in vain for 12 months when you could have been finishing NEOC if you were to include RAAF and ARA as equal first pref. Making other services equal first pref will not put you into the Navy

Bzulu

Understand that people want information but when you are posting statements that are listed as facts than they should be correct, otherwise far better to say " it is my understanding" etc.
It may be better to be left in the dark about how the system works as opposed to having incorrect info on the system.

Your false assumption two and " at no time while you are in the navy pool, will you even be considered for the other services" I believe is not correct.

It is my understanding that you can still be considered for other services apart from your first preference. The way I believe this works is if you are passed over for your first pref (read others more competetive) but are still rated better than others in your 2nd/3rd pref/or there are no others in those pools you may be offered a considerd for those services.

back to the waiting game
 

A brief report on FSP205-02:
5 out of 7 of us got recommended,
yours truly received a 3 for RAN :D and is still grinning insanely for most of her waking time!!

It was an awesome experience, a huge confirmation to me of being on the right path and i couldn't be any happier. I believe to be very lucky with the amount of advice that i've received, for which i can not thank everyone enough; and especially our FSP group - couldn't find a greater bunch if i tried! it's a great shame that the other 2 missed out, they really deserved it...

so to recap-
THANK YOU!!!

back to the waiting game for me i guess.
oh, and i can now officially be the bearer of advice if required, happy to pass the favour along..

LIFE IS GREAT!!!! :D :D :D

Olena

Congrats and well done

We now look forward to you arriving at BFTS...wah ha ha ha haaa!!:E :E

wow, what a great thread, full of so much info for pilot applicants.

I have my pilot appitude testing booked for the 14th March and i am working towards that date with Maths and instrument reading in mind. The one thing i am worried about is the time/distance/fuel calculation questions, which if the chinese whispers are correct about, have to be answered with exact figures. Can anyone confirm/deny that?

Another aspect i am worried about is the hand/eye co-ord test, no one seems to know that much about it, I have heard stories about the old simulator that was used a few yrs ago, but nothing about what the current test is.

I am really looking foward to the process but the time is killing me, I finsihed uni last yr and i work all weekend at large pub in Sydney supervising the busiet bar, but that leaves me with not much to do/think about during the week.

As an "other ethnic" myself, I reckon that the best thing to do is learn to take the p!ss out of yourself before anyone else has the chance. That way it not only takes away ammunition from people but also means that you get used to laughing at such comments when they are meant as slurs - nothing annoys the bigot more than when you laugh at their "finest riposte"!

Edited to add that I've never experienced any serious attempt at racial abuse during my 11 years in.

oz mate,

Crack on and get your qualifications and get in the service.

It's actually fairly cool in, even reading the down-beat posts that the RAF is being sent to s:mad: t by the govt etc. Its still a great life.

As previously alluded to, the only major hassle that I've seen mates from minorities (ethnic, gender etc) have to deal with is the endless stream of PR rollouts that they have to deal with.

If you can put up with being nudged in front of the cameras, you'll be fine!

Remember, virtually everybody in rates folk on ability. They'd be 'kin stupid not to.

Good luck
Turbine

"If you can put up with being nudged in front of the cameras, you'll be fine!"

True. As one black chum once said in an exasperated voice on hearing that a film crew was due: "Oh bloody great! I suppose they'll want the f***ing token n****r again, will they Boss?" And it was similar tokenism which really used to hack off the girls when the press kept clamouring for 'girlie pilot' stories....

You've got no worries, mate.

reacher, check this link out

http://www.cadetnet.gov.au/aafc-apps...&f=39&t=000237

quite recent & relevant


finestkind, thank you this time personally :)

Captain Sand Dune- not for another year dammit!!!! can't imagine what'll be like flying the parrots 2-3 times a week as opposed to twice a day. (or nil now :{ )

where is my letter of offer?!! must be the post's fault!

Hey all. I am due to go through the aptitude tests for another time in June. I came out of the testing last year mentally exhausted and pretty nervous especially in regards to the distance/speed/fuel calculations knowing I wasn't happy with my efforts.

I wrote to Canberra and asked for a copy of my results. It seems I passed on the distance problems and missed out on the first test of the day, an instrument speed and accuracy tests. It was the only non computer based test of the day and we did the EXACT same test again on the computer at the end. According to my results I performed very will on this one. I was offered NAV or ATC but politely declined the offer.

The advice I can give from my experience is practise Maths/Physics problems without the use of a calculator. Get good at estimation and percentages. I am not sure if this book has been recommended previously but I have ordered a copy of "Wings - Becoming an Air Force Pilot". It is quite expensive but have been told it is very useful. I guess I will put that to the test shortly.

Good luck to all the cadets out there I hope I'm not far behind you.

RAAF Assessment Day
 

Evening/Morning!

I have applied for the position of RAAF(pilot) and so far have been through the JOES day and specialist testing.

On notification that i was through the assessment day i was bombarded with doomsday and end of the world type letters (most important stage in recruiting.....you must leave a good impression....ect,ect)

This is a shout out to others who are up to this stage or have been through it already. I would appreciate any hints, tips or techniques to help me prepare for 'the end of the world'.

Also stories from any brave souls who have faced the stony gaze of a DF recruiter would be largly appreciated.


Cheers,

Peachface

Good work, if i read your post right you are waiting for your assesement day?
(can i ask what band u got for spec testing?)

If so they would have already given/told you about the timings and content of the day which is a medical, and 2 interview(i think), one with a pysch and the other with a DF recuriiter. One thing to remember is that the DF member can overrule the head doctor.

To impress the DFR u have to have a indepth knowledge of what position u want and the responibilites including secondary duties, posting locations, training bases and lengths(You should know each step of the way in depth by now, etc.

There's not much to say about the pysch, you have to be yourself and answer the questions truthfully, they will pick out liers straight away.

Have a good knowledge of military lifestyle and try to talk to some ppl already "In", of varying occupations

It also helps to have a basic understanding of the other forces and what they are comprised of to show that if u are offered Army or Navy that u already have some basic knowledge.

I'll PM u with some other hint and tips for flight screening and what not.

Good luck mate.

Just a little tip if I may,

Apart from knowing your stuff about bases and training, lifestyle, and aircraft, there is one more thing that could help. I've been through more than my share of shrinks as I worked through various hold-ups in my recruiting process, and I realised one thing about them. These guys look at nervous, freckle-faced wannabe's all day, and probe them for better or worse. I've talked to a lot of people who have said the psych absolutely grilled them, but my experience with the various psychs has not shown me this side to them. You see, if you are the one person that day to make them smile (you dont HAVE to be a comedian to achieve this, just be polite and smile yourself), they might just think twice before glaring down on you, instead preferring to assume the better of you. They are, after all, human. And the exchange could be far more pleasant, with ice broken and all.

Then again, when it got to the OSB, it got a lot harder to relax...

Bump ...

Good work but maybe suggest as well that a short description of the general content of each thread be included.

Also ... "joining the RAF"? There's a huge thread about RAAF applications that I've found very useful.

Here 'tis:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...threadid=39266

Seeing as I'd typed this out for the other thread, I thought it would be useful to post here as well ...

... in Australian Army Aviation we are promoted from Officer Cadet to 2nd Lt on getting our Wings. :ok:

... [snip] ...

Perhaps it would help to describe the process we go through over here ...

1. Job Options and Evaluation Session (JOES) Day - basic psychometric testing, basic medical, watch a video, bring all your paperwork along and have an interview with a recruiter to talk about your preferred job.

2. Spec Testing (aptitude testing) - all the flight crew related aptitude tests. Find out at the end of the day what jobs you qualify for (pilot, loadie, ATC, Defence Controller, etc), and wait for a date for Assessment Day.

3. Assessment Day - full flight medical, in depth psych interview, in depth Defence interview. This is where it starts to get really interesting, because the responses you give at this stage all go towards a score that determines whether or not you proceed. You have to know everything about the job, the Corps you're going into, promotion structure, equipment to be used, expectations of the military, all sorts of stuff that is relevant to a potential new career. This is all in the letter you get.

At this stage your dossier is sent to the The Australian Defence Force Pilot Selection Agency (ADF PSA), which processes pilot applications for all services, where it is reviewed by the Officer Selection Board and given a score. That score puts you in the queue to be invited to Flight Screening. Every two weeks the top 7 are invited from that list, so you can see that if you're not in the top 7 in week one, you could float up and down in that queue as more applicants enter the process. Some people wait months, some never get invited.

4. The Flight Screening Program is an intensive two weeks of testing to see if you've got what it takes to learn new material quickly and be an officer. There are group activities, individual activities, ground school classes and simulator sessions. An applicant could be scrubbed at any point in that two weeks.

The Officer Selection Board is at the end of the two weeks, and each applicant is given a score from that. Each applicant nominates their preferred Service, and their name then goes into a queue for that Service, again in rank order. When the Service needs pilots, they contact the PSA and say "we need 'n' pilots to start next month". So the top 'n' pilots on that Service's list get called and offered the job.

You have the option of turning down that offer. For instance if your first preference is RAAF but you also said you'd consider Navy, you might be high enough to be offered the Navy job but just below the standard of other RAAF applicants. If you turn down the Navy job, hanging out for the RAAF job, you might never get a job at all.

Anyway, that's just a bit of a brain dump of the process I'm in the middle of. Anyone directly involved in the process should feel welcome to set me straight with any details I'm wrong on.

olena, I know the blonde locks you are talking about, lovely girl!

To whoever is interested in fast jet world:

You wont get a hard and fast answer on the ability to change FEGs, aircraft or service as a pilot because it is highly variable. In the fighter world specifically the acceptance of pilots from other roles and services comes and goes, and depends on many factors such as demand for new Hornet bograts vs willingness of other FEGs to let pilots go, lateral recruits available, the mood of OC 78 wing at the time, and many other factors.

Planning to get foot in door and then come across is a real hit and miss affair, and I wouldn't plan on it as a career move. Retreads dont have a fantastic pass rate when they are suddenly thrown into a fast jet after a few years on autopilot, logging hours whilst in the kip.

I quote senior RAAF flying instructor "Your best ever chance of going to fast jets is straight off pilots course".

All flying is good work if you can get it, and my advice to those who had their heart set on getting in as a pilot is if flying is what you want to do then dont restrict yourself to the ADF if all you want to do is fly. I have several mates who failed pilots course and are now Cathay or Qantas pilots, the funny thing is, they are doing what most of us military pilots want to do as soon as we can anyway!!! They just got there five years earlier than the rest of us. (I might get a bit of heat from the career men for that last paragraph)

Well after a long wait I've just received the call to head over to Tamworth for FSP in mid May. Very excited and anxious. I'd love to hear from some of those most recently having been through FSP. Any advice you can give is welcome and appreciated.

Cheers,
Coran

... am waiting for that call ... hopefully it will be around the end of May, that's what I nominated for anyway.

Assessment Day jitters all forgotten, now it gets really interesting!

Does anyone have any thoughts on getting an hour or two logged before going to FSP? Good idea, bad idea? Some I've spoken to say they want to see your ability to learn from dot, but I kind of feel it would be good to at least have a feel for how a light FW aircraft feels in a final approach.