4 weeks until Im off to sunny honz to see if i've got the qualities to be a Rock officer, anybody offer any advice on this?
Bigcheese - Havent herd from you for a while matey where you run off to? Also any joy on your filter?
Finally - What the heck is required on the swim test?Apart from not sinking to the bottom of the pool
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PROAC - 4 weeks and counting!
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rockapemk1
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Big Cheese
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Sorry for not getting back to you until now, but here's an idea as to what to expect.
It was a three day affair starting on the tuesday afternoon and ending about midday thursday.
In regards to your turn out, go in a suit, after all you're being assessed on your 'officer' potential.
The coach should pick you up from Bury st Edmonds train station, and it'll take you straight to Honnington, about 25 minutes I think. From there you'llbe dropped off at the officers mess, and there you'll be met most probably by one of the guys on JROC.
From there I was taken to a lecture theatre and was met by the Flight commander on JROC(flt lt), however it may well be OC JROC himself (sqn ldr)
He'll give you the gen as to whats happening over the next couple of days, and just generally put yourself at ease. From there on we went to the Barnham training area, which is basically a sattelite station for Honnington.
If you don't have your own gear you'll be kitted out with DPM trousers, Jacket etc, but you'll take the bergans that are issued as they're conveniently already packed for you with all that you'll need for the night.
From here on you'll head straight into the training area and will be shown how to put up a poncho. For some this'll simply be teaching you to suck eggs, but act keen regardless. After thats done you'll be suprises at how time flies and you'll be shown whats involved in your rat packs. This is generally a good time to chat to the officers and SNCO's as its pretty much a bit of down time.
After dinner we followed a four man patrol, tried out different night vision goggles and was shown the effects of flares etc. This all culminated to a 'brick' attack.
After that its heads down for the night, though you'll already have stag organised and at some point you and your buddy will do about one hour, depending on how many are on your course.
Throughout the night war will be ravaging all around to an extent given that its a training area, however its suprising how easy it is to ignore it all after a while!!
In the morning we were shown various weapons that are used ranging from a simple pistol to GPMG and more! After that we were taught about section attacks, which is pretty straight forward.
After breakfast its back to Honnington to change into sports kit and time for the gym tests.
Unfortunately you don't get a room in the officers mess, and instead we were put into the unused Air Warfare Centre. In the event of an NBC attack, rest assured you'll be fine! Though to be honest although it feels like you're on a submarine by the layout of the bunks, its really rather spacious and at least a lot warmer than the night prior!
First was the bleep test, which stopped at 9.10 however I have heard of other PROACS having a best effort limit being the case. Don't be too worried about it, the one thing they stress is that they can sort your fitness out, though lets face it, if you eat pies all day long you're gonna struggle!!!
There were also pressups and situps, though this was a joke, only 10 pressups and 25 situps, so you should be fine!!!
Then came the assault course!
This is situated outside the lecture thatre and this is best effort. You don't go round as a team, its simply assessing the individual, however you do go in twos. They do thrash you on this, and when I did it people came from their offices to hurl abuse....I mean encouragement!!!!!!
From here you'll do the RAF swimming test, which in essence is 2 lengths front crawl, 2 lengths back stroke, and 2 lengths breaststroke.
At the end of this you should be knackered, and its off to the showers to wash and get back into your suits.
Its back to the lecture theatre for some more briefings. These will include a presentation on OASC from an AFCO officer who comes down for the three days with you, followed by a JROC instructor (for me it was the flight commander) who gives you a detailed brief on the JROC course and what it entails, and also whats on offer once you're on a sqn as a flight commander.
Again, time flies and before you know it you'll be taken to the mess for dinner and a bit of a piss up. here is a golden opportunity to speak to the guys on JROC!! i stress this because you'd be suprised by the amount of guys on your course who'll just stick to themselves. Don't fall into that trap, the whole point you're there is to see what the Regt is like!!!! The guys do take notice of what you're like and are watching as I found out later in the evening when chatting to a couple of them.
After many drinks later its back to the AWC to kip, and in the morning we received a brief on Rapier (unlikely you'll get that now!) and then debriefs as to whether you've been reccommended or not, and what extra advice they can give.
As for me, I was strongly reccommended though unfortunately when I went through OASC we were informed that certain branches (ie. Regt etc) would be very tough due to cuts at the time. I personally found out that the RAF wouldn't know their manning requirements until october and therefore it would be very tough to get a place on IOT as ops spt (regt)
branch considering the loss of Rapier aswell.
So for me its back to the drawing board and back on the case with filter interview, OASC etc and basically trying to sort out any faults that were brought up on the debrief.
It was a three day affair starting on the tuesday afternoon and ending about midday thursday.
In regards to your turn out, go in a suit, after all you're being assessed on your 'officer' potential.
The coach should pick you up from Bury st Edmonds train station, and it'll take you straight to Honnington, about 25 minutes I think. From there you'llbe dropped off at the officers mess, and there you'll be met most probably by one of the guys on JROC.
From there I was taken to a lecture theatre and was met by the Flight commander on JROC(flt lt), however it may well be OC JROC himself (sqn ldr)
He'll give you the gen as to whats happening over the next couple of days, and just generally put yourself at ease. From there on we went to the Barnham training area, which is basically a sattelite station for Honnington.
If you don't have your own gear you'll be kitted out with DPM trousers, Jacket etc, but you'll take the bergans that are issued as they're conveniently already packed for you with all that you'll need for the night.
From here on you'll head straight into the training area and will be shown how to put up a poncho. For some this'll simply be teaching you to suck eggs, but act keen regardless. After thats done you'll be suprises at how time flies and you'll be shown whats involved in your rat packs. This is generally a good time to chat to the officers and SNCO's as its pretty much a bit of down time.
After dinner we followed a four man patrol, tried out different night vision goggles and was shown the effects of flares etc. This all culminated to a 'brick' attack.
After that its heads down for the night, though you'll already have stag organised and at some point you and your buddy will do about one hour, depending on how many are on your course.
Throughout the night war will be ravaging all around to an extent given that its a training area, however its suprising how easy it is to ignore it all after a while!!
In the morning we were shown various weapons that are used ranging from a simple pistol to GPMG and more! After that we were taught about section attacks, which is pretty straight forward.
After breakfast its back to Honnington to change into sports kit and time for the gym tests.
Unfortunately you don't get a room in the officers mess, and instead we were put into the unused Air Warfare Centre. In the event of an NBC attack, rest assured you'll be fine! Though to be honest although it feels like you're on a submarine by the layout of the bunks, its really rather spacious and at least a lot warmer than the night prior!
First was the bleep test, which stopped at 9.10 however I have heard of other PROACS having a best effort limit being the case. Don't be too worried about it, the one thing they stress is that they can sort your fitness out, though lets face it, if you eat pies all day long you're gonna struggle!!!
There were also pressups and situps, though this was a joke, only 10 pressups and 25 situps, so you should be fine!!!
Then came the assault course!
This is situated outside the lecture thatre and this is best effort. You don't go round as a team, its simply assessing the individual, however you do go in twos. They do thrash you on this, and when I did it people came from their offices to hurl abuse....I mean encouragement!!!!!!
From here you'll do the RAF swimming test, which in essence is 2 lengths front crawl, 2 lengths back stroke, and 2 lengths breaststroke.
At the end of this you should be knackered, and its off to the showers to wash and get back into your suits.
Its back to the lecture theatre for some more briefings. These will include a presentation on OASC from an AFCO officer who comes down for the three days with you, followed by a JROC instructor (for me it was the flight commander) who gives you a detailed brief on the JROC course and what it entails, and also whats on offer once you're on a sqn as a flight commander.
Again, time flies and before you know it you'll be taken to the mess for dinner and a bit of a piss up. here is a golden opportunity to speak to the guys on JROC!! i stress this because you'd be suprised by the amount of guys on your course who'll just stick to themselves. Don't fall into that trap, the whole point you're there is to see what the Regt is like!!!! The guys do take notice of what you're like and are watching as I found out later in the evening when chatting to a couple of them.
After many drinks later its back to the AWC to kip, and in the morning we received a brief on Rapier (unlikely you'll get that now!) and then debriefs as to whether you've been reccommended or not, and what extra advice they can give.
As for me, I was strongly reccommended though unfortunately when I went through OASC we were informed that certain branches (ie. Regt etc) would be very tough due to cuts at the time. I personally found out that the RAF wouldn't know their manning requirements until october and therefore it would be very tough to get a place on IOT as ops spt (regt)
branch considering the loss of Rapier aswell.
So for me its back to the drawing board and back on the case with filter interview, OASC etc and basically trying to sort out any faults that were brought up on the debrief.
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rockapemk1
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rockapemk1
- Member
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- Joined: Thu 11 Nov, 2004 9:42 am
- Location: London
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Best get that upper body strength sorted just incase-
rockapemk1
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RobF8512909
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the wall
you saying that reminds me of my rofa practice on basics last year the whole juno flt training team came out to piss themselves laughing at the short lads trying to get over the wall, did the same when we were doing nbc chamber tests while looking in through the window come to think of it
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RobF8512909
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