# ACSO Sea King/Cyclone Selection



## Skydiv3r (3 Feb 2013)

Hello,

I'll be finishing my degree, commissioning and hopefully starting at 1 CFFTS sometime before the end of 2013 to train as an ACSO. Considering the timeline, I'm guessing I'll be finishing my ACSO course mid-to-late 2014, counting for delays, etc.

I was wondering if anyone is aware of how many candidates are selected per course on average for Sea King/Cyclone, and if the number is going up, or down currently in anticipation of the Cyclones hopefully, someday being delivered? From what I've heard from a couple of friends currently on course, everybody and their brother wants to go Sea King/Cyclone. Is the only realistic shot at getting it to be top of course?

Also, in the interests of getting top of course, is there anything that I can do in advance while on OJT to prep for the new ACSO course? Will reviewing my civilian flying books, such as FTGU, for topics like Air Law, Meteorology and Navigation help?

Thanks,
Tom


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## dimsum (3 Feb 2013)

Skydiv3r said:
			
		

> I was wondering if anyone is aware of how many candidates are selected per course on average for Sea King/Cyclone, and if the number is going up, or down currently in anticipation of the Cyclones hopefully, someday being delivered? From what I've heard from a couple of friends currently on course, everybody and their brother wants to go Sea King/Cyclone. Is the only realistic shot at getting it to be top of course?
> 
> Also, in the interests of getting top of course, is there anything that I can do in advance while on OJT to prep for the new ACSO course? Will reviewing my civilian flying books, such as FTGU, for topics like Air Law, Meteorology and Navigation help?



The number of slots will change every course.  Mine in 2009 had none even though a few of us asked for it.  The next course had 2.  All that to say that until the actual messages come out, no one really knows.  Being top student will help regardless; you may find that in MOTIVEX you might a) not like ship life and sailing/length of deployments as much or b) you'll like another platform more.  There are also other platforms that don't usually get exposure on MOTIVEX (Alpha Jet and Tankers being the ones off the top of my head).

As for prep, I don't know about the new course but I'd suspect that what you said is worthwhile, and especially IFR stuff.  Airspace, approach plate reading, etc is a good thing to know prior to the course.


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## Skydiv3r (3 Feb 2013)

Dimsum said:
			
		

> The number of slots will change every course.  Mine in 2009 had none even though a few of us asked for it.  The next course had 2.  All that to say that until the actual messages come out, no one really knows.  Being top student will help regardless; you may find that in MOTIVEX you might a) not like ship life and sailing/length of deployments as much or b) you'll like another platform more.  There are also other platforms that don't usually get exposure on MOTIVEX (Alpha Jet and Tankers being the ones off the top of my head).
> 
> As for prep, I don't know about the new course but I'd suspect that what you said is worthwhile, and especially IFR stuff.  Airspace, approach plate reading, etc is a good thing to know prior to the course.



Thanks for the quick reply. I've been lucky enough to have the chance to do summer OJTs in Comox and Shearwater, so I've been able to fly on both the Sea King and Auroras and get a _very_ general sense of what I would be doing on both platforms. Obviously I'm not aware of a lot of what each position entails, but it's clear to me that between the two, I would MUCH rather the Sea Kings. It figures that Alpha Jet wouldn't get much exposure on MOTIVEX - that's likely the platform I would want second, although I don't know many details about it.

Okay, so I get that the average number of MH spots given per course varies. I guess what I *should* have asked is whether anyone knows the forecast - don't the career managers usually forecast whether the number of positions in a given fleet are going up or down in the next couple years? I swear I've seen it once or twice before on a career manager's information slides.

Good to know with the IFR, airspace and approach plate reading! I'll make sure I add that to my studying.


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