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I just saw the program combat pilot on BBC, and I was wondering how its possible for student pilots to be Flight Lieutenants during pilot training. In this country pilots start of as a 2nd Lieutenant (pilot officer) then become flying officers and only become flight lieutenants when they are qualified as section leaders (2 ship formation leader). This is normally after 1 or 2 years on a squadron (depending on personal skill). I was just wondering what kind of promotion system you actually have for pilots?

In that programme, the 'student' pilots are all already serving in the RAF, it's not the same as direct entry.

Right, so how does this work then? These guys are pilots already but they simply let them do flight training again? Seems a bit much for a tv show!

As far as I can tell, and I've not been watching it all the way through, they've been serving in other posts, and are now training as pilots. You have to be under 23 to join the RAF as a pilot through direct entry. My Dad was in the Navy, he trained as a helicopter pilot after about 7 years, perhaps it's possible to do the same in the RAF... Someone help me out here?

Hyper, check your PM.

Aye - Andy.

Even direct entrants can be flt lts in training. You don't go straight from iot to eft to bft to aft. Sometimes it can take 5 or 6 years to finish AFT if there are a shortage of places because you may get put into holding for a year before the next training course. Many trainee pilots command the mountain rescue flight or something to gain manegerial experience whilst they are in holding. DGEs become flt lts after 3 years automatically and DEs become flt lts after 5 years automatically.

And by the way it is very rare once you have been trained for one branch that you be allowed to transfer and retrain on another.

Some of these guys on the TV programme appear to be in their late 30s - early 40s. Anyone else been watching it?

as far as i was aware all the students were Pilot officers or flying officers with one exeption who was a Flt Lt who was a serving navigator but training to be a pilot. The squadron leaders and the older blokes were the instructors !

the squadron leader was definitly a pupil, he had flt lt instructors.

The RAF do scholarships. This entails them sending you to University for a few years. My friend done one for navigator. He got up to Flt even before he started basic training.

The reason there are guys with different ranks during flying training is purely a matter of seniority.

Excepting the Sqn. Ldr. in Combat Pilot who was a reatread navigator, the other guys were a mixture of non-university graduates and graduates. The university graduates automatically get higher pay and seniority on joining by virtue of their experience of life whilst behaving like twatts at university, whilst those on direct entry without degrees get lower pay and seniority.

To give an example - take three 23 year olds leaving IOT and going into pilot training, one is a guy with A-levels and four years experience in the real world, one has an ordinary degree in embroidery and knows little of the world, whilst No.3 has a first class honours degree in sausage making and knows feck all about anything. Assuming all three are succesful at IOT, on passing out from Cranwell, the ordinary dogsbody will become an acting Pilot Officer, the graduate will be commissioned as a Flying Officer whilst the Honours graduate wil be commissioned as a fairly senior Flying Officer and will become a Flight Lieutentant very quickly - some are even commissioned as Flight Lieutenants. I assume the Army and RN have similar systems. Also aircrew gain seniority faster than ground branches - the newly commissioned Pilot Officer would normally take four years to reach F/Lt., whilst a ground branch officer might take six.

HighlandSniper58 wrote:The university graduates automatically get higher pay and seniority on joining by virtue of their experience of life whilst behaving like twatts at university
To give an example - take three 23 year olds leaving IOT and going into pilot training, one is a guy with A-levels and four years experience in the real world, one has an ordinary degree in embroidery and knows little of the world, whilst No.3 has a first class honours degree in sausage making and knows feck all about anything. Assuming all three are succesful at IOT, on passing out from Cranwell, the ordinary dogsbody will become an acting Pilot Officer, the graduate will be commissioned as a Flying Officer whilst the Honours graduate wil be commissioned as a fairly senior Flying Officer and will become a Flight Lieutentant very quickly - some are even commissioned as Flight Lieutenants.

Obviously you don't have a degree, that's the only reason you would make such sweeping and inaccurate statements.
I have an honours degree in International Hospitality Management, does that mean I know feck all about the world?
Or does it actually mean that I have spent 5 years working damned hard to research and write essays about world economic policy and political issues while working a full-time job, supporting my friends, maintaining a social life and broadening my horizons and experience of the world? I worked overseas for one year of my degree, travelling 6000 miles by myself to a country I'd only ever passed through before, to live and work with complete strangers. I overcame a number of huge personal hurdles to get my place in the RAF, ok, so my degree is not in a relevant subject to my chosen career, but I'm still darned proud of the fact I got it.

Nobody gets into the military just because they have a degree, whatever it's in, and whatever the classification. If you can't demonstrate examples of responsiblity, initiative, drive and courage in your life to date, they will pass an honours student by as fast as someone who left full-time education after their GCSEs.
Of course there are students who've wasted their time at uni, concentrating too much on either their studies or their social lives, but those are not the ones who will pass selection. And you shouldn't put down those of us who have degrees, because we put a heck of a lot of effort into getting them.


(18 shifts to go...)