RAF in 1949 - aptitude tests for would-be aircrew

[ricardian]

1949 - Aptitude tests for would-be pilots or flight engineers at RAF Hornchurch, London

[CharlieOneSix]

I went to RAF Hornchurch when I was 15 for what I think was called pre-aptitude tests, plus leadership tests and medical to see if I might be okay to join the RAF as a pilot when I was old enough. I don't recognise the first test but the second one was still being used when I was there in January 1960. I passed everything except the medical where my eyesight didn't meet the required standard but the RN had lower eyesight standards for helicopter pilots so I signed up at 17 and the rest is history.....

[Smeagol]

Test 2 is familiar to me also from attending RAF Biggin Hill for a Test in Advance when I was 16 in 1968. Must have done something right as I was recommended for a Special Flying Award and got my PPL a year later. Unfortunately things went downhill two years after that when I failed the medical with a heart murmur. Couldn't have been too serious as I'm still here 55 years later with the same heart with no modifications so far!

[ExSp33db1rd]

Been there, done that. 1955

[CharlieOneSix]

Another aptitude test at Hornchurch that I remember ........

Selection1.jpg (89.52 KiB) Viewed 2366 times

scanned from my treasured copy of "The Wonder Book Of The RAF".....

Wonderbook.jpg (62.38 KiB) Viewed 2366 times

[PHXPhlyer]

Another aptitude test at Hornchurch that I remember ........
Selection1.jpg

scanned from my treasured copy of "The Wonder Book Of The RAF".....
Wonderbook.jpg

Please describe the test / apparatus.

PP

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The driving wheel was in use for me in 1981.
The wheel controlled a pointer.
There was a lag in the response of the pointer that one had to allow for.
The aim was to follow a wandering track of holes in a paper roll as the drum rotated.
The machine registered a point for each hole intercepted, as the metal pointer was able to make electrical contact with the metal drum beneath the paper roll.

When I was at the test centre in 2001, there was an electronic version of it, functionally identical it seemed.

[CharlieOneSix]

Please describe the test / apparatus.

PP

Fox3 describes it well - had to keep the pointer on track on the drum with variable lag.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

There was, in 1981, a control column and rudder pedals connected to a TV screen.
The control column only worked in pitch (up/down), and the pedals controlled lateral movement.
There was a dot in the centre of the screen at the start of the test, with a small marked box around it.
The dot was moved in apparently random directions and rates, and one had to move the controls to recentre it without it going outside the box.
An audible beep was emitted every second the dot was outside the box.
The guy next to me had the co-ordination of a drunken rhinoceros, and his machine emitted almost continuous beeps throughout the test. We could all hear it.

In 2001, there was a computerised version of the same test, with the same controls, but with much quieter beeps. The group I was with was invited to try it, and we all did.
I was on a 2 week volunteer reserve officer training course (school cadet force), a 59yo former Lightning pilot and myself having been nobbled to help those new to the RAF through.
There was a particularly loud PE teacher on the course, who proclaimed his certainty of winning.
The results were (low score is good, below 50 required for acceptance to pilot training)
Loud PE teacher: 400
WIWOL: 41 (v.g. for age 59)
Fox3: 7

The two former RAF pilots were the only ones to pass. Most had scores in the 100-200 range.
It shut the PE teacher up for the rest of the course!

[CharlieOneSix]

Fox3 - I think the exercise shown in ricardian's #1 post - check in at 0:50 - was an early version of your 1981 version.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Yup, that's it!
By 1981, the dot was more stable due to better TVs.
I think the throttle control needed moving when one of the off screen lights lit up (randomly), to turn it off. See bottom left of the screen at 1:17.
This tested peripheral vision and the ability to divide attention.

[Pontius Navigator]

I recall very little of my selection;

A very loud, world experienced, cocky Londoner; he didn't get through.
A complex diagram where you had to follow through complex engineering drawings to determine whether the output was clockwise or anti clockwise. I deduced that a high score would have qualified me for engineer.
The hangar exercises were the usual.
But the interview included current affairs questions about parts of the world never heard of and I was pretty well clued up: Quemoy and Amoy, and Habanyia and H3. This was 1961. I didn't know about Green lights then but when the wg cdr started telling tales about the sqn ldr losing his luggage in Habanyia.
The other thing in the interview still shocks me today. One candidate spoke with, to my ear, a barely intelligible Brim accent. They asked me what I would think about him being in the Mess. I can't remember what I said and no idea what answer they expected.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The only things I remember were:
Having listened to the same list of around 70 names being called out for a day and a half, when they read out the list of those who were through to the second stage, they called my name about 5 times earlier than usual. Only about 15% progressed from my lot. I was very surprised, as they all seemed like good guys.
One of the interview questions asked me what I would do when, in the final seconds before dropping a nuke from my Jaguar, I noticed the target was a school playground. After some confusion about my questioning of the scenario, they were relieved to hear that my reason was not wanting to waste the bomb if it had been the wrong target and I'd mucked up somewhere, rather than being reluctant to bomb a school directly if it was the correct target.

[CharlieOneSix]

I don't remember much about the other guys at Hornchurch or the Admiralty Interview Board. 28 of us started at Dartmouth, 17 completed flying training and 6 of the 17 lost their lives in flying accidents within 5 years of going front line. 8 of the 11 survivors are still with us.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Scary stuff.
My course of 10 starting pilot training in 1985 all ended up as aircrew; 6 fast jet pilots, 3 multi, 1 fast jet nav. None died, although one turned in his wings on a squadron as he felt he was about to kill himself. Mind you, the next course only had 1 pilot left out of 14 after the Basic mid-course review, though he went on to be a Red Arrow.
A former 'Looker' I served with lost a quarter of his course dead just on the 4 month Sea Vixen OCU in the 1950s. One of the two crews lost just never came back from a night sortie - no clue what happened to them.

[CharlieOneSix]

The 1960s were horrific for the number of accidents and losses of life in both the RAF and RN. Out of a production number of 145 there were 55 Sea Vixen accidents resulting in the loss of the aircraft, 30 of these were fatal and of these 21 were fatal to both operating aircrew. In other words 51 Royal Navy Aircrew were lost in the 12 years of Sea Vixen.

The mother of actress Kristin Scott Thomas married two Sea Vixen pilots, both of whom were killed in accidents.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The chap who turned in his wings from my course was married to a woman who had already lost one RAF pilot husband to a flying accident.
Personally, I was very lucky, and only experienced one same-base fatal accident and one on-airfield write-off (pilot ejected successfully, I witnessed it) in 9 years post-UAS.
Mind you, I had 7 very close shaves myself, which seemed to be typical for the 1980s.
I'm not quite sure why we transitioned from fatals to close shaves - though reading all the previous accident reports probably helped!

[CharlieOneSix]

A slight correction to my last - whilst the second husband of Kristin Scott Thomas's mother was previously a Sea Vixen pilot - and leader of the the Sea Vixen aerobatic team Simon's Sircus - his accident was in a Phantom.

[Pontius Navigator]

In Nav training, 1962, our deputy course commander took one of the lectures. He looked around and then said half of us would be dead before we retired. He was right.

Canberras claimed a number but I think the first was a Vulcan nav on IX. Without check my books. I think IX Sqn lost 5 crews.