Flying for the military
The Royal Navy, Army and RAF all recruit direct entry pilots. But only once you are a trained military officer will you begin to be trained as a pilot. Failure in either professional field will mean entering another branch of the military or a return to civilian life, and the assessment is constant and uncompromising.
The first step is to apply to join the Service of your choice; the RAF operates a mixture of fast-jets, helicopters and transport aircraft, whereas the Navy flies helicopters almost exclusively, as do the Army. You should be in no doubt that you are not applying to be a pilot at this stage, you’re applying to be a military officer. There’s no ‘key’ to being selected; it truly does take all sorts, but somebody who has challenged themselves physically and mentally, and who can demonstrate that they are responsible and composed has a good chance. They’re not looking for the finished article, so don’t pretend. Be yourself. They are looking for someone that can be trained to the required standard quickly.
This article won’t cover the rigorous officer selection process, but once you are successful you will need to pass between 6 to 10 months of officer training, depending on which service you’ve joined. Once you’re through that you will begin your flying training, and for all the services that starts at the same place; Groundschool at RAF Cranwell.
Day one starts with a test on papers issued before the course commenced, and the following course will take a complete aviation novice and teach them to recognise frontal weather systems, file flight plans and plan low level navigation sorties along with a whole host of other principles of flight, navigation, operational rules and technical details required to start their flying training. The Americans call it ‘drinking from the fire hose’ and you need to be able to do it — the whole groundschool course lasts just six weeks.
Once you pass groundschool you’re off to start flying training. The Royal Navy and the Army go to Barkston Heath in Lincolnshire, the RAF stay at Cranwell. Over the following few years you will progress incrementally towards becoming a front-line pilot. You will be assessed every day in three areas; flying, groundwork and what the military calls ‘character and leadership’. Every flight you have will need to be briefed for — the briefing will be done mostly by you. Every brief must be prepared for by reading the student study guide, and all the reading must be done while you’re preparing for, and flying, other sorties.
If you fail a sortie you will be placed on a ‘warning’ that will last until you have proven yourself competent at that skill or procedure and you will re-fly the sortie. A further failure while still on ‘warning’ will mean remedial training and another re-fly. Fail this and you will fly with a member of Central Flying School on a ‘chop ride’; get this right, or when you get out of the aircraft it will be for good.
The process can be compared to having a job interview every month, an exam every week and a driving test every day. It is stressful and unrelenting, but the bottom line is this: the taxpayer is paying a huge amount for your training and your salary; they expect success, in training and beyond. Not to mention that you will be flying the most exciting machines in the most challenging situations to the most ridiculously slim margins. Surely you didn’t expect it to be easy!
