Fun stuff?

[inferno]

I know that while your waiting for assignment, or flight training, or any other thing you need to wait for, the AirForce likes to get you to do more training... but i was just wondering if there's a list of the stuff you can train for, or if it's fairly limited? fairly unlimited?

I'm pretty interested in FirstAid, Driving, Paracuting, Diving... and all that other "fun" stuff..

What have you guys done courses in? How are the courses?

I guess I'm kind of looking for ways to do all the stuff I want to do before I retire. Drive a tank, blow something big up, shoot some big cannons, skydive, rapel down a... something big..

So how does that all work?

 

[Strike]

Fun stuff, let's see.

Sea Survival in Comox.  Nothing better than doing the one man dinghy and having a seal pop up next to you.  Just try not to fall out.

Basic and Advanced SERE in Winnipeg.  Some would argue that these are not fun.  The Basic course is like camping for dummies and the advanced is escape and evasion.  Not really fun at the time, but when your done you feel great -- not so much so that you want to do it again though.  ;D

First-Aid -- get it out of the way.

Get your Defensive Driving course (through the military) for your 404.  It will really help you out in the future.  You need it to be able to drive even a staff car.

Those are the good ones.  Then there are numerous staff courses and OPMEs that you can get out of the way.  Better to do them now than when you're in Sqn and too busy.  Gives you more time to fly!

 

[TheCheez]

Ones that were mentioned to me were BOAC or the space course. My squadron has pretty much indicated that the money isn't available for the plane ticket and TD and whatnot so I'm not doing any courses I can't complete on base or which are not required to get MOC qualified(sea survival etc)

So far, that's Faffe, Driving and OPMEs. I'm open to other suggestions though!

 

[inferno]

Ones that were mentioned to me were BOAC or the space course. My squadron has pretty much indicated that the money isn't available for the plane ticket and TD and whatnot so I'm not doing any courses I can't complete on base or which are not required to get MOC qualified(sea survival etc)

So far, that's Faffe, Driving and OPMEs. I'm open to other suggestions though!

Space? Faffe? Sorry, new here.

I actually just searched and found a little bit of informaiton, but most of it wasn't Airforce based, and stated that most courses, (even driving) were hard to get for officers.

What exactly would the Airforce have me doing in the "downtime" between the second language and flight training? assuming there was some downtime in there. I wouldn't be qualified to do much of anything, so wouldn't be getting me trained in atleast one area a priority so I could be assigned to be an instructor in that area until the flying opens up?

I really wish there were more webpages/information on this...

 

[chrisf]

To the original poster, a lot of the "fun" things you mentioned are very trade specific... you will never be taught to drive a tank, fire big guns (Though small arms you should learn, if nothing else, the C7), or dive... though for the first two, if you find yourself in the right situation with the right friends, it's entirely possible you'll get the chance, but don't count on it. As far as diving goes, I believe you can be reimbursed for it under the education reimbursement plan... or somthing to that effect.

First Aid is mandatory as part of basic training.

Driving isn't mandatory, unless it's required for your trade (404s, the military drivers lisence, list each of the individual classes of vehicles you're qualified to drive, and often, you'll only be trained on the vehicles your trade requires, as well as general use vehicles, for example, for myself, LSVW as most important for the purposes of driving a rad van, but I also seem to have snowmobile on them as well), but as somone else mentioned, if you can get your 404s, do it... though you may occasionally find yourself tasked to drive even if you'd rather not...

 

[Inch]

No, you are not trained to do anything in the interim. You'll be at a Sqn waiting for course and you'll probably be making photocopies and doing other odd jobs, maybe working the Ops desk or doing flight scheduling. You can go up on flights in the back seat but don't expect to be doing much flying.

As for courses, BAOC may be an option though I know they like you to be MOC qualified prior to doing that course. It's the same for a lot of other courses too, MOC qualified as a minimum.

I know all you nuggets are keen to get moving ahead, but have patience. Pilot training is a very long road, I've been in for almost 6 years and I'm still not operational.

 

[BernDawg]

Hey Inferno it sounds like you picked the wrong trade.  If you want to blow things up and fire the big guns you should re-muster to the combat arms.  The infantry has the most fun and does most of what you want to do.  I even know guys that have taken a divers course in the trade.  If you really want to drive a tank you may be too late as we seem to be retiring them but if you hurry you might be able to if you go to the armoured corps.

Keep your chin up!