Hello, I am an aerospace student in my third year. I am interested in this role. I would be grateful to receive advice.

Hi Alan, thanks for your question.

Are you looking for advice about applying for the Pilots' Course or about the job itself?

Thank you,
Maddie

Hi Maddie,

thanks for getting back to me. The answer is a little bit of both. There is several roles I am looking at including Avionics Technician. Apologies for the late response, I'm up to my eyes with exam preparations.

Hi Alan,

Not a problem, I hope your exams are going well.

I'm afraid I don't really have any information on the engineering side of life. All our engineering is done by the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) so they will be the best people to ask. They have avionic techs who will be able to give you a good steer with the requirements for the job.

As a pilot in the AAC there is a requirement for you to have a basic, broad knowledge of the aircraft you are flying. This begins with groundschool at the start of the course and leads nicely into emergency diagnosis once you start live flying. However, we would not partake in any engineering at all on the aircraft. Our job is the flying and safe management of the crew. The better understanding you have of the aircraft, the more it will assist you as a pilot but we all have the same base level training.

In terms of the job itself and getting into it. You would need to pass the selection criteria to join the army first but also the three stage selection criteria for the AAC (aptitude test, aircrew medical, flying grading.) There's lots of detail about these stages in my previously answered questions so please feel free to have a look.

I fly the Wildcat and our specialty is reconnaissance but we have several opportunities to do other things too such as: troop insertion via fast rope, under slung load movement, pairs teaming with the Apache and close air support. A lot of our training is based around live firing of both the GPMG and M3M weapons which keeps our crewmen well rehearsed on both systems.

I hope that answers some of your questions and gives you an understanding of the difference in jobs. Please let me know if you need me to elaborate on anything.

Take care,
Maddie