Remember the OASC Aptitude Tests ?
 

From the WSJ this weekend ...

Well ... it would seem our American cousins are now to use similar psychometric techniques/tests on 4 year olds to select pupils to enter their NY Gifted & Talented Programme ...

Wind the clock back to Biggin Hill and have a go ... Answers provided :ok:

Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test

What next ... :confused:

Best ...

Coff.

Sorry CS, have you never heard of 'being commissioned in the field'.

That, of course, was when we was needin 'em not feeding 'em.

O-D

OD ...

Sure do ... my father received a Field Commission in the Royal Engineers during WWII and went on to be decorated with the MC by FM Montgomery for his bravery during the early hours (H hour) of D-Day :ok:

What's this Biggin Hill nonsense - real (old) men did them at Hornchurch!

And were then taken to Cranwell if they got through stage 1.

Can I sue the MOD for 50 year old oil drum injury?

ISTR a contraption from selection - "stick" to keep the light in a circle - at the RAF Museum - even had a go a few years ago. Then kicked my then 10 year old out of the JP cockpit as it was ana irframe I had flown years before.

Then a teacher, I attended a short Cadet Force Officer Training Course a few years ago. Another teacher/ancient ex-Lightning pilot and myself were there to to "help the others along". A couple of hours were at OASC, and we were all invited to 'have a go' at the pilot aptitude tests. We both passed easily again, whereas the very keen computer game generation / fit young P Ed teachers were hopeless. They were gutted. It was all we could do to avoid looking surpassingly smug.


OK, it was more than we could do..:E

I went to OASC two Januaries in succession. The first was for an RAF Flying Scholarship, so just a day. The second was for FAA aircrew aptitude tests, so again just one day.

I remember the fruit machine test Columns of symbols moving downwards through a panel, with a panel at the bottom with changing symbols - the objective was to hit the button when the panels matched. There was also a delayed-reaction (controls inverted?) keep the dot in the middle and that's about all I remember. 1977/8 is a while ago.

Not as long ago as 1959/60 - I did Flying Scholarship, and then Cranditz RAF scholarship selection

D - if late 50s guy with the DT would doubles have been S.... B.....k

Wander00 ...

Sorry ... didn't mean to exclude those who attended RAF Hornchurch :ok:

So you don't feel left out here is a pic of some young "hopefuls" in 1960 headed for selection ...

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...church1960.jpg

Best regards ...

Coff.

Just about the biggest shock of my life came on Day 2 at OASC, when they read out all the names of those who were to move to the next stage. My surname is about a third of the way through the alphabet, so I had been called out about two minutes down the list about 15 times over.
This time it went Adams, Atkinson, Boyle, Brown, me.

Thinks: (F#ck! What happened to all the others????)

Coff

Thanks - can just about remember it - now what did I have for breakfast...................

ISTR lots of flipped shapes, odd one outs and number sequences.
I was fairly stunned as they went through the names telling people "You've
failed for ATC, failed for Engineer" then told me I'd passed for all ground branches. Just a shame I failed most of the rest of it! :(

We colonials who signed on at various High Commisions or Embassies around the world didn't have to put up with that. They gave me a book with pictures of instrument panels with questions as to what the aircraft should been doing. The rest was sorted out in a bar.

I remember doing the scrolling dots (Move joystick left/right to hit vertical scrolling dots)

I thought I was doing excellent
Beep...Beep...Beep..Beep....Beep.Beep..Beep.....Beep...Beep. ...Beep.....Beep.Beep.BeepBeep..Beep..Beep.....Beep....Beep. ..Beep...












Then one ear suddenly tuned in to the bloke next-door
BipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBip BipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBipBip BipBip

Remember the Control of Velocities Test ... The vertical steering wheel with delayed action that moved a pointer over a horizontal rotating drum with a spiral dual path of contacts ... more points were available on the more deviating path requiring frantic predictive steering of the vertical wheel ! Is that still done or, as I suspect, has the PC taken over from these electro-mechanical contraptions ?

Most (if not all, and including the wheel thingie) of the mechanical devices are now in a 'museum' section in the foyer.

Probably where I belong these days ...

It's all computer based now. I remember they had just introduced the CLAN test when I went through. As a test of capacity it must have been quite good because the amount of muttering and swearing that could be heard around the room was quite amusing.

If memory serves it was a series of vertical coloured blocks with same coloured circles moving across the screen at different rates. When the red circle passed over the red block you pressed the red button and so on - I think there were 4 colours IIRC. Then on top of that you had to do mental arithmetic problems; again IIRC the question came up at the bottom of the screen and you had to select the correct answer a,b,c,d (or something like it). And then finally there was memory test element where a string of letters / numbers came up and you had to memorise them and then either type the string back in again when prompted or select the right one from a choice. All the elements were in themselves very simple, but start to do them all simultaneously and it got interesting. Speed things up and it got really interesting.

The RAF Driving School at St Athan in 1969 had a classroom fitted with about 12 consoles containing a steering wheel, gear lever, dashboard and a brake, clutch and accelerator. A 16mm film was projected on the screen and you had to "drive" your desk according to the road shown on the film. At one stage there was a 3 point turn where you reversed, turning round you viewed the screen in a mirror. It did not seem very realistic, not sure how long it was in use.

I remember those 2 machines - the steering wheel and the drum with the spiral of metal contacts with a delayed connecting wiper arem. But I spotted immediately that if you kept your eyes glued to the top of the drum and steered as though you were on that bit, it was dead easy. Hence my score was pretty good.

On the stick and rudder pedals CRT dot device, it was quite simple to keep the dot within the target zone. You also had to move a 'throttle' lever if a light came on; the thing was, everyones' lights came on one after the other, so you just had to watch them coming on along the row of consoles and move the lever in time with the sequence - again they must have thought I had lightning quick reactions. Wrong, just a little cunning!

One of those things is now at the Newark Air Museum, but doesn't work. Along with an F-4 simulator which does - a much better aptitude tester!

However, I always maintained that half an hour in a Chipmunk and a weekend in a wet tent would soon identify the 'right stuff'!

Gents, a picture paints a thousand words;

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1.../aptitude2.jpg

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1.../aptitude1.jpg


If you give OASC a quick bell, I'm sure they could power them up again... now there's a possible venue for a reunion :ok:

25 years later and we now use this instead...

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcollegecran...0FDA8D029C.jpg

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcollegecran...B751301893.JPG

I went through on kit somewhere inbetween in the late 80s - looked like it was based on the BBC Microcomputer. The cubicle still looks the same though - they must have brought them up to Cranditz from Biggin-on-th-Bump!

LJ

If you ever go to the Space Centre at Leicester they have a wall with lights you have to thump to test your reaction, I was easily beaten by a bloody 8 year old :{:{

I too go back to Hornchurch, c.1950, but for those who might be interested, the British Army accepted childhood commissions in the 17th century. It was a method by which an officer, who had given meritorious service, could be rewarded by a commission for his son at little cost to the State.

The youngest was supposedly aged 12 months. The practice died out with a four year old, born 1696, commissioned as an Ensign in 1700, aged just 4.

For those who wish to follow it up further:
Notes & Queries, 8th Edition, Vol. VIII, Nov.30th, 1895.

Many thanks SilsoeSid ... I love the note on the COVT contraption ... London Bus Driver ... another career opportunity missed :E

BEagle ... to quote a previous quote of yours ... that's a "wet tent in Wales" :ok:

I guess most won't remember the name of their Review Officer at OASC (Biggin Hill) ... but does anyone remember Wing Commander David Penman DSO OBE DFC ?

I had the great pleasure of knowing and flying with Wg Cdr Penman when I was in short trousers while he undertook his final tour at Biggin before retirement.

He was on the famous WWII Augsburg raid ... here he is as a young Flt. Lt. A very inspirational man ... sadly no longer with us.

David Penman Augsburg British Pathetic News

Best regards ...

Coff.

The dot-on-the-screen was the hardest for me, as the rest of my testees were hopeless. The machine went 'beep' when the dot was outside the box IIRC, and I had an aural deluge of beeps around me. I wouldn't be surprised if this was intentional.

The interview questions were very tricky too. I remember being asked what I would do if I arrived in my hypothetical strike Jaguar at my nuclear target to discover the aiming point was a primary school playground.

Those questions are bit mean, I've had several in my time. You feel a right arse giving the Jimmy Savile answer - "F*** the kids" :E, but in the final analysis, what else to say? If the school is on the enemy equivalent of JHQ, then what difference does it make if the aiming point is a school playground or the guardroom? Evil bastards who set those questions, and then watch you squirm while you justify carrying out your orders.

I much prefer shark infested custard.

You should have told him by the time your Jag had got there the war would have been over..

I seem to remember that my main concern was that perhaps I was on the wrong target, and I remember asking whether I would have been told what my aiming point was.
I hadn't had a happy time at school over the previous few years, so I was quite happy to pickle away on a school. Beats burning the place down in the hols!:E

If I remember rightly, wasn't there 2 coloured lights; one needing a push forward and the other a pull back of the lever? Hitting the lever in good time was a piece of p**s but it was getting the right direction that was a bugger.

I also remember those pictures of a JP in various attitudes and having to choose which blind flying panel picture best matched it.

When I went to the Hill in '66 for Test in Advance, there was no "fruit machine" test. When I went back in '68 with my A Levels, some evil sod had introduced it.



Edited to correct TiA year being the same as the "live" test (fail) date. Thank Heavens they never tested my typing skills.

Yes, one white light and one red.

I never did the 'fruit machine' test either - thank heavens! I'm not sure, but I think I did the tests in about 1966. Written tests and aptitude machine tests first, then if you were selected for the next phase you did the hangar games and leadership exercises. I guess I was young and naïve in those days - I quite enjoyed my time there.

I somehow managed to beat the system at the time but the thing that really freaked me out was the medical tests.

ISTR starting with about 100 candidates and as we progressed through the phases the herd got thinned out with alarming rapidity. We could have ended up with only ten people!

The 10 minute "think about it" tests was the one I remember 'fondly'. You were given a scenario and had 10 minutes to come up with a plan which you were then questioned on.

Mine was a mountain rescue scenario which fortunately I had some experience in. I was pushed on my answer; "Yes, but if you do x and y you will get there 5 minutes before". "Bugger that", I said. "That involves miles of carrying a stretcher and you'll end up f*cking the rescuers and probably the casualty. Better to wait for the tide to go out and drive the casualty out".

They were impressed that I couldn't change my mind under pressure.

I spent two days at Biggin Hill, being assessed for a Flying Scholarship. I remember the CVT machine, but I didn't remember it looking anything like the picture.

My most clear memory was the eye test, which was more of a memory test, because while waiting my turn, I was sat next to the chart!