Page 36 - Australian Defence Mag Jul-Aug 2020

36 SIMULATION TRAINING
JULY/AUGUST 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LEFT: Wing Commander Mark Broadbridge fits a fast jet helmet to student Bela, during the AIR4 and Jasper Launch at Luna Park in Melbourne.
WGCDR Broadbridge had a good grasp of the issues with flight screening and what was needed to make OA assess- ment more accurate and efficient.
“We didn’t know right at the start what the solution was for the new screening system,” he said. “We had a look at many systems from around the world: US, UK, NZ and Germany. Eventually we chose the system the UK had been using for quite some time. While we did consider keeping with the same flight screening format, but in simulators in- stead of aircraft, we would have ended up with the same re-
lieves ASP is not only capable of pin-pointing the candidates most suited for OA training, but also gives the candidates insights into their career options and the military culture.
“We encourage all applicants to consider Officer Avia- tion as a career,” Hinton said. “The OA selection process and ASP were designed to assist candidates understand the different roles in OA, what they are motivated towards and where their best job-fit may be.
“The Military Aviation Cognitive Testing System (MACTS), delivered during the ASP, is used to both deter- mine the candidate’s training potential for OA, and provide the candidate an understanding of the cognitive attributes required for these roles.
“Cognitive assessment is an important component of the OA selection system and there are test standards needing to be met for progression in OA to ensure candidates have the capacity to undertake the technical aspects of training.
“However, a candidate’s motivation, work ethic, self-reg- ulation etcetera are very important to their training success and we look for these attributes during the selection pro- cess also,” Hinton concluded.
BAPTISM OF FLIER
Candidates invited to RAAF Base East Sale should be pat- ting themselves on the back before they even get there; they have already been eyed by the ADF as potential OA. They are the chosen few from a very large field of hopefuls.
“To get to ASP, candidates have already met high edu- cational standards, rigorous medical standards and shown some very strong cognitive ability,” WGCDR Broadbridge pointed out.
“Recruiting before candidates get to ASP is a screen-out process, which means that if they meet the standard they automatically progress. But once a candidate gets to East
“ASP TAKES ONLY FOUR DAYS AND USES NO AIRCRAFT AND NO FLYING INSTRUCTORS, AND CAN PROCESS NEARLY FOUR TIMES AS MANY PEOPLE AS FLIGHT SCREENING EVER COULD.”
striction that we had with flight screening; the number of quali- fied flying instructors that we would need to take out of the training system, and limitation on the number of candidates that we could assess each year.
“We wanted to be able to screen more than 220 people per year and wanted the can- didates to be aware of all the other amazing aviation careers
that are available in the ADF, aside from being a pilot, and that meant changing the system completely.”
Out with the aircraft and in with cognitive tests. Rather than being kitted up and strapped into a cockpit, candi- dates are now sat in front of computer screens and chal- lenged with a series of tests designed to reveal their ca- pacity to cope with the very demanding training program ahead of them and ultimately their ability to make the right decisions quickly. ASP’s test battery is grounded more in psychology than it is in physical capability.
Melinda Hinton is a civilian Behavioural Scientist charged with watching over the ASP program at ACMC. Hinton be-
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