Page 107 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

Flying Grading is the last of three hurdles to be eligible to start the Army Air Corps Pilots Course. It is undertaken by serving offic-
ers and NCOs looking to transfer to the Army Air Corps as a pilot, as well as Officer Cadets whilst at Sandhurst and pre-Sandhurst Potential Officers. The Easter Recess Leave 2019 saw 10 OCdts from Sandhurst undertake the course; eight Junior term Officer Cadets and two Inter- mediate Cadets who had been accepted into the Army Air Corps at RSBs, provided they passed grading. The following is an account of the course, which is hopefully of interest to all, but should be especially helpful to future pro- spective Army Air Corps pilots.
Day 0
The course arrived in dribs and drabs on the Sunday evening prior to the course start on the Monday. Dinner and the mess were quiet; it was the case of a soft drink or single pint in The Tavern (the Army Air
Flight Grading
Corps officer’s mess bar resembling an old country pub with lots of memorabilia on the walls) and an early night.
Day 1
From the get-go, there was no hiding that the course was going to be less than ideal
We made our way
over to the hanger and were greeted by the course leader, a Falklands veteran Para turned pilot. From the get-go, there was no hiding that the course was going to be less than ideal, with only two instructors available to get 10 candi- dates through 13 hours of flying. Due to the bank holiday we had 13 days to do this and due to no flying on day 1 of the course we were already down to 12, and the weather for the week already looked poor. This didn’t dampen our excitement as we went away to get kitted out with flight coveralls and helmets.
Day 2
The morning met brief was poor as expected so we used the day to sit in the aircraft in the hanger to learn the flying checks. A daunting number of 278 indicators, switches and gauges to check over 19 different checklists. There is no short- cut to learn them but to break them down into groups of six to eight checks and keep adding.
Another foggy morning – no flying today
This would become a theme of the course, talk- ing over lunch and dinner like a bunch of loons: pilot heat on function check off, stall warning system function check, nav lights on, acs set as required, alt static normal, vsi condition and so on and so on. We were told learning the checks is the only thing you can control in the course as the rest is down to your natural ability. We had all passed the flying aptitude tests by nature of being there, but they don’t promise much as we learnt of an individual who scored incredibly highly – much higher than any of us up in the fast
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