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Aircrew Selection/ACS (Merged)

Firstly I’d like to say that this is my first post and I am a long-time viewer of various forums, threads and posts. This site is wonderful. It’s extremely informative and very helpful to prospective and veteran CF personnel.

I am to attend ASC in Trenton this month and have meticulously searched every thread there was regarding CFASC and CAPSS. Good stuff all around. However, I have a situation regarding pilot experience prior to attending ASC.

It goes something like this;

I currently hold a student pilot permit, working towards my PPL. I have done approx. 90% of my flying minus the flight test and written exam by TC. A buddy of mine went to ASC with a completed PPL, failed and they told him to comeback with a CPL. My question is as follows. If I were to fail with my pre-mature PPL will they require me to get a CPL next time around or to finish off the PPL? Should I halt my PPL training immediately?

Is 90% of a PPL = no PPL…I guess it is but I want to hear what you guys think.

I asked the CO at the CFRC in Kitchener and he didn’t know so I come to you guys to give me some thoughts.

Thanks everyone.
 
does anybody know this stuff about trenton and toronto? i assumed it was all in trenton but from reading the stuff it looks like theres medical testing in toronto and whatnot (providing u pass acs of course)
 
ballz said:
does anybody know this stuff about trenton and toronto? i assumed it was all in trenton but from reading the stuff it looks like theres medical testing in toronto and whatnot (providing u pass acs of course)

Yes, the medical portion is done in Toronto on the last 2 days.
 
airman87 said:
Firstly I’d like to say that this is my first post and I am a long-time viewer of various forums, threads and posts. This site is wonderful. It’s extremely informative and very helpful to prospective and veteran CF personnel.

I am to attend ASC in Trenton this month and have meticulously searched every thread there was regarding CFASC and CAPSS. Good stuff all around. However, I have a situation regarding pilot experience prior to attending ASC.

It goes something like this;

I currently hold a student pilot permit, working towards my PPL. I have done approx. 90% of my flying minus the flight test and written exam by TC. A buddy of mine went to ASC with a completed PPL, failed and they told him to comeback with a CPL. My question is as follows. If I were to fail with my pre-mature PPL will they require me to get a CPL next time around or to finish off the PPL? Should I halt my PPL training immediately?

Is 90% of a PPL = no PPL…I guess it is but I want to hear what you guys think.

I asked the CO at the CFRC in Kitchener and he didn’t know so I come to you guys to give me some thoughts.

Thanks everyone.

If you failed without a ppl!!! Then you'll be asked to finish your ppl and wait a year.
 
ballz said:
I ask because i'm driving 5 hours away to prepare for ACS (i have zero flying experience) and their sim doesn't move around and stuff like that, so the guy i was talking to said it might be worth my while to just get a couple hours of flying under my belt instead of practicing on their sim. I just wanna know if i should do that cause it costs quite a bit more money and i'm at college living off kd and noodles.

I don't know why so many of the people have noted on the boards that they are driving 5 hours out of their way, spending however much money to get a few hours in a plane, buying $300 yoke and pedals and flight sims off eBay all to prepare for Aircrew Selection, etc. etc. A few hours in a small plane or spending forty million dollars on top notch flight sim equipment and decking out your entire basement is not going to determine whether you pass or fail - it may not even really help you prepare "properly".

Each simulator flies differently, the CAPSS simulators as well. The CAPSS simulator isn't even designed to fly as a real aircraft would - it's designed to simulate FLYING an aircraft, but not designed to simulate how an aircraft actually flies. If you are really intent on passing ACS, ENSURE you know your instruments, where each of them are and what each corresponds to - that will make your crosscheck (another important element of ACS) much, much more efficient as you won't spend that extra 2 seconds making sure you are, in fact, looking at your climb and descent rate, or your airspeed indicator, etc. Read and re-read and then re-read again the study manual the CFRC gives you, and then when you're done re-reading it, re-read it again. Once you've finished that, re-read it again. And then again.

As noted in the CAPSS study guide, session #4 measures your ability to fly around a traffic pattern. My advice for this session (obviously, this session is the most important as it has an entire two pages (?) on it in the study guide) is to (in your re-reading of the study guide a thousand times, like I mentioned) memorize the traffic pattern as best as you can. If you memorize the traffic pattern, just like where/what all the instruments are, you won't spend that extra, crucial 3 seconds looking at the screen in front of you and reading and interpreting what you have to do next. If you have to spend those 3 seconds reading and interpreting the next maneuver on the traffic pattern, those 3 seconds are all it takes to let your instruments get away from you, potentially ruining your flight performance. If you know all the maneuvers you're going to be having to make ahead of time, you can execute the motions no problem (maybe with a quick double-check to confirm, although that is better than however long it may take you to look at, read, and interpret the upcoming maneuver).

On my course, there were four candidates - half passed for pilot, and half failed. The two candidates that failed BOTH had prior flying experience, and one of them had his PPL. The two of us that passed (myself and another younger individual) both had/have no prior flying experience whatsoever - I have never touched a private airplane and I have spent a maximum of maybe 2 hours in my lifetime on a flight simulator on my computer, just farting around. The reason a seemingly unreal amount of people with their PPL's fail is simply due to the fact that because they are already qualified pilots, they know that it is OK in the real world to fly 20 ft above or below assigned altitude, to fly 5 kts faster or slower than the assigned airspeed, etc. These pilots go into the CAPSS simulator with these pilot habits, and blindly fail simply due to the fact that the simulator is measuring your ability to follow instructions and how well you can maintain perfection of all the instruments.

Like someone else mentioned in another similar thread, which candidates do you think are going to pass? The one who keeps the aircraft perfectly steady at 2,200 ft when the ASSIGNED altitude is 2,000 ft and fly at 180 kts when the assigned airspeed is 160 kts... or the candidate who fluctuates above and below the assigned altitude and faster and slower than the assigned airspeed but does everything in his power to attempt to maintain an altitude of 2000 ft and an airspeed of 160 kts? Think about it.

The CFRC gives you the study guide for a reason. Read. Re-read. Re-read again. And then, yes, you got it, re-read one more time. Then maybe once more just for poops and giggles. Stop going out and spending eighty thousand dollars on flight simulators, private airplanes, neon blue flight suits to wear to bed at night, personal plastic wings to wear on your back while you watch Jetstream, Mayday, or Flight Path on TV. It will not prepare you for ACS and the stresses you will face there. (Oh yes, stress being another thing you will have to deal with... that is a whole other story, trust me). Just memorize the study manual. The only thing prior experience does to help you is ensure you know the instruments, their locations, and functions.

Feel free to ask if you have any more questions. While at Trenton, relax, enjoy the great mess food @ Yukon Galley, go sightseeing and see some Hercs and Globemasters, watch some good TV but most importantly, study study study.

$0.02

Dave
 
Well, Dave, your 2 cents is definitely noted by me. I just want to throw out there that the reason I want a couple hours in a sim or a plane is because my biggest concern is how sensitive the controls are going to be. I think the instruments will be the #1 priority, but under pressure, one who isn't used to the sensitive controls and needs to correct some like their bank, may be inclined to jerk the yoke a little too fast and too much? That's the part I'm worried about. I feel like I can keep reading this book and keep the cross-check going fine, I'm just worried I'm going to lose control of the aircraft and instead of fluctuating from 18 to 22 degrees while trying to obtain 20 degrees, I'm going to be fluctuating between 20 degrees to the left and 60 degrees to the right while trying to keep a 20 degree right bank?

Do you think I'm overestimating the challenge I'm up against?

And do they really make neon blue pj's that are like flying suits? That'd be sweet! Lol
 
ballz said:
Well, Dave, your 2 cents is definitely noted by me. I just want to throw out there that the reason I want a couple hours in a sim or a plane is because my biggest concern is how sensitive the controls are going to be. I think the instruments will be the #1 priority, but under pressure, one who isn't used to the sensitive controls and needs to correct some like their bank, may be inclined to jerk the yoke a little too fast and too much? That's the part I'm worried about. I feel like I can keep reading this book and keep the cross-check going fine, I'm just worried I'm going to lose control of the aircraft and instead of fluctuating from 18 to 22 degrees while trying to obtain 20 degrees, I'm going to be fluctuating between 20 degrees to the left and 60 degrees to the right while trying to keep a 20 degree right bank?

Do you think I'm overestimating the challenge I'm up against?

And do they really make neon blue pj's that are like flying suits? That'd be sweet! Lol

To answer your question, the CAPSS simulator is VERY, very sensitive. To overcome this (the instructors @ ACS will say the same thing), sit in a position that allows your wrists to rest on your knees and use ONLY your fingertips (your forefinger and thumb of each hand) on each side of the control yoke to manipulate the control yoke. If you grab the yoke and leave your hands on it, it will only destroy your performance in the air as it is VERY, very sensitive. Almost overwhelming sensitive. That said, you will actually get used to its level of sensitivity quite fast. Corrections are made by almost barely touching the control yoke... you should get a feel for what will cause you to over-correct quite quickly.

Many pilots and those with experience will agree that the sensitivity of the CAPSS simulator is quite sensitive in comparison to flying an actual aircraft, so I doubt a few hours in an aircraft will really (adequately) prepare you in the way of knowing how sensitive the CAPSS simulator is. As long as you can adapt to it when you get there, you'll be fine. Just don't swing the control yoke around uncontrollably when trying to correct yourself  ;)
 
If male-pattern baldness wasn't going to get me the stress will haha.

See the nice thing is I've kept a level head under pressure in lots of situations in my life, and so I don't think I'll be prone to freaking out and overcorrecting just because I'm being tested (especially since crashing this thing will be more embarrassing instead of life-threatening haha). It's more of the unknown factors like not being used to something so touchy that I worry about. I just wish I could go for one spin on this CAPSS before the testing begins. But thanks for the pointer, that alone takes away from the unknown factors.
 
No worries. It's all part of the evaluation. Going into something new and seeing how you adapt to it is all part of the test as well, don't forget.
 
Hey ballz

I did my ACS in sep 06, and yes I was one of the guys that bought a 200 dolar state of the art simulator and played around with it. Was it worth it? Absolutely, now as everyone else have said, there are many factors in ACS that you won't be able to practice for, but you can familiarize yourself with using pedals and a yoke and basic controls and how they react. But again beware, the sim is really sensative and it's really on purpose, calculating how you react to task overload and such.
I'll repeat the others, when you go there, enjoy the experience, try!! :) not to get nervous and you'll be fine. There's nothing wrong with trying to find out information about what you are going to go through, I was doing it :)
As I have said if you think playing around with sim controls is gonna help you , buy it.. it's for a price of going out on the weekend right?
Best of Luck to you...
 
Is there any truth to what I've heard about so many pilots applying that they stopped taking applications and everything? News like that sure is a get-cha-downer
 
Mods, infamous_p's posts have this all pretty covered, I recommend a lock. If ballz or anyone else has further questions you can go ahead and PM me, or I'm sure other guys who have posted here and have been to Aircrew wouldn't mind either.

Good luck ballz!

Benny
 
And even if you pass Aircrew AND Airnav in Trenton, dont expect to be offered a contract, especially if your ROTP.
 
because i went to aircrew last year passed for pilot AND air nav. Unfortunatly due to the amount of ROTP applicants Im still on the waiting list. I believe the board sat on jan 29th so my recruiter told me that i would probably be selected now since I have done a semester of university with a A average. But yeah, you pass capss, does not mean you get an offer, man people from my group still have not recieved an offer.
 
Interesting, just goes to show that it's not a done deal with passing ASC and the medicals. From what I've heard, pilot is the most competitive MOC out there. Hopefully with all the procurements and contract getting new tac/strategic airlift A/C and the TV show 'Jetstream" the CF is actually looking for a larger number of  pilots.
 
airman87 said:
Hopefully with all the procurements and contract getting new tac/strategic airlift A/C and the TV show 'Jetstream" the CF is actually looking for a larger number of  pilots.

You are missing part of the problem. We need lots of pilots thats for sure BUT we only have the capacity to train so many at a time. So that limits the number we take in every year. Anf as far as the new aircraft are concerned, its not always a growth in the number of seats available for pilots. Some of those new birds will replace older ones so the net gain is not always what it seems.
 
CDN Aviator said:
You are missing part of the problem. We need lots of pilots thats for sure BUT we only have the capacity to train so many at a time. So that limits the number we take in every year. Anf as far as the new aircraft are concerned, its not always a growth in the number of seats available for pilots. Some of those new birds will replace older ones so the net gain is not always what it seems.

Granted. Not to mention the millions of dollars it cost to train CF pilots so they really have to be selective while staying in the budget. But this belongs in another thread someother day...
 
The CF is short quite a number of pilots (in the hundreds) - that being said, we are short operational pilots, not student pilots.

The current CAS' direction is that pilot training will be the number one priority of the Airforce, followed by SAR and then operations.  Aurora, Hornet, Hercules <etc> squadron will continue to be undermanned while DMilC fills all training billets. 

I am off to teach at 3 CFFTS next year - I was one of the lucky ones swept up in the training priority message and sent off to teach.
 
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