"No - really - I wasn't chopped - honestly!"
 

There's been an interesting bit of thread drift on the Reservist tanker pilot thread about people who "weren't chopped" but left flying training before completion for all sorts of other reasons.:rolleyes:

Worthy of its own thread I thought. I'll start the ball rolling with two I heard, both at weddings recently of friends of the Teeterettes - and of course they didn't know my background.....:E Both had "left" from Valley.

1. "I really enjoyed the Hawk, but decided halfway through the course that I'd much rather be a Dental Nurse!" (this was a male)

2. "I passed the Hawk Course, but there were no OCU places left, so they reluctantly had to "let me go"."

This is going to be good- you norty boy!

CG

Some of us do at least admit to failure.

3 of the biggest lies are:

1. The cheque is in the post.
2. Of course I'll love you in the morning (there is a ruder version..).
3. I always wanted to be a navigator.

Teeter - The first... classic! The second at the moment, not so far from reality so I hear from the yoof! An awful lot of guys with not many spaces to go to...

Bit of a thread drift here. One of my buddies on the engineering degree course at Cranwell was chopped from engineering and went for pilot training instead. He became quite an eminent QHI.

Or the "IntO" who "was taking a break from flying", because he was "too aggressive at low level"... in a Tutor.... :hmm:

S41

People might think I'm waffling, but after passing the training, I decided that I really did want to be an LAC Gunner.

Promise. :cool:

On my return from Harvard FTS at Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia in 1953. I visited, by arrangement, his home to see how he was after having to transfer to the army to complete his 2 years National Service requirement.
He was a few minutes late getting home from work, so I spent a few minutes talking to his mother while I waited. He had been let go for generally not being up to the required standard.
However his mother said, "Of course, it was his own fault - flying under all those bridges" !! (Err - Yes, of course ......). :rolleyes:

Sort of inline with SOSL’s comment:

I knew a chap that was chopped from being an airframes/engines apprentice and then got kicked off the engine Direct Entry Fitters (DE) course to go onto a Mechs course. Several years later I met him when we travelling down to Deci. He was the Navigator on the Herc. Good lad.:D:D

I didn't get chopped from BFT..... really!! They were doing an experiment by sending people rotary from the Basic Handling Test to save money. They did it with some students direct from EFT. Some made it to senior officer level and were very good pilots.
However, the truth......... It was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was going to get chopped. There never ever ever has been a fast jet pilot hiding inside me :ok:

Most of us were recoursed off our basic nav course after 4 weeks. Not because we were no good but because the students ahead of us were too good and too many passed and could not go on to the advanced nav course.

Believe it or not, that was true.

Equally I am probably still alive because of it. About 2-3 were not recoursed and the one who went straight through a month ahead of me was on the Vulcan that crashed at Coningsby.

And the rotary one was well hidden!:E

To be fair, who would really say that they got chopped because they were useless?

JT2
 

If that ain't a fast jet pilot inside you, what have you got around your waist?

I got chopped from a Buccaneer squadron, because no matter how much I loved it (lots) I really wasn't very good at it!!

It would be exceptionally rare for any pilot trainee to be 'useless'. Often the reason for being removed from training is due to something else - such as limited spare mental capacity, reaching a plateau of ability, being unable to progress at the required rate. But rare indeed to be considered 'useless'. Slow learners? A chum was nearly chopped after failing the 'conversion handling check' on the JP5, but later became a top test pilot!

At the end of the old (and excellent) common-core JP course, pilots would be streamed according to their aptitude. Also, FJ streamed pilots who couldn't cope with the Gnat or TWU might find themselves re-streamed to multis - but back in about 1975-6, ME training actually stopped altogether at one stage, so there was nowhere for them to go if they were removed from training at Valley.

In fact you had to have reached the FJ OCU stage to have any chance of being re-streamed in 1976-ish. Some who subsequently went to the Vulcan did an 'asymmetric' course on the Canberra T4 which was about 3 hours of which about 20 min were on 2 engines, I gather! Great fun, or so they said.

You can indeed be 'wrong place, wrong time' if suspended from BJFT, due to the varying ME/RW requirements of the service. One chap I knew never failed a course, but was told that there were no slots available. So he became an Air Trafficker, but successfully fought his corner a few years later and became (I think) a Nimrod pilot.

Self-suspensions are equally rare. One chap I knew scared himself by seeing his cine-gun film of an A/A session against the flag behind Puddy's Meatbox - and the Meteor was in the frame whilst he was still firing. He admitted that he hadn't realised this - so asked to be re-streamed before he killed someone. Another chap simply "wasn't happy" even when tootling along on a perfect summer day at 250ft and 420 kts even if 100% sure of his position - so self-suspended and became an Engineering Officer.

But I've never heard of anyone who soloed in the JP being dismissed as 'useless'.

DeltaHotel,

Forgive what might seem a silly point, but I thought that once you got to sqn stage, you would have been deemed to have been 'very good' at it?

Or, am I not realising a wah when I see it anymore? :(

I remember a story about a Harrier pilot at Gut about 84 ish, who walked into his boss's office and basically admitted that he was on the edge with no spare capacity on just about every trip. If the story is true, he was grounded at his own request there and then.

I admired his decision. Don't know what became of him.

CG

Couldn't fit in for all the pies already there...


Met an ATCer who had been chopped whilst holding after Valley. Had been sent ATC for a tour (no TacWep slots) and his SATCO decided he should never be allowed to go back to pilot. Okaaay....

Or the pilots that decided on a career brake and decided to give fighter control a try.