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RAF My Officer Selection Diaries

All Royal Air Force related articles, frequently asked questions and other useful information in here.
Rizzarazzu
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Post by Rizzarazzu »

So good, he posted it twice ! :)

No, seriously - another spot on diary of OASC - i'd seriously urge anyone partaking in it to have a good read thru' this thread and those that have been, contribute your bit too.

So, GR4Pilot, were you there last week on the 1st OASC (Monday-Thursday) ?

I only ask as i was there last week, doing the P2. Medical on Monday & Tuesday - our paths may have crossed.

It was nice for me, being able to relax and see all the candidates waiting in the reception area after interviews, waiting for the dreaded phonecall and knowing exactly how they felt !

Anyway, good luck with your result.

All the best to the rest.
GemmaLS
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Post by GemmaLS »

I wrote this the day I got back from OASC (May 27th) as an email to some friends who were also applying – this thread seems like the place to put it.

I drove to Cranwell so I arrived early, try and get the earlier train/bus because you’ll then get a chance to put all your stuff in your room before the brief in the evening.

You need to collect your key from the Candidates mess preferably before the briefing.

The briefing is on the other side of the main road at Adastral Hall at about 4:45 ish – you’ll have to get there a few minutes earlier though. Nothing spectacular but take a pen and paper as they give you times. Then you go for dinner – the food is amazing. Then you’ve got the whole evening in the mess. Drinks are cheap (30p for a ½ pint of coke, can’t remember alcohol pricings but they are cheap too). Get an early night though!

The beds are awful as you sink into them – and tall people will bash their feet on the towel rail! I took my mattress off the bed and put it on the floor – I’d recommend it! Also if you don’t like feather pillows bring your own as the ones there lose all the padding where you put your head down on them as it’s all pushed to the sides of the pillow!

Breakfast is v.early and if you’re like me you’ll feel nervous and your stomach will be churning and you might not be able to eat that early. If that’s the case try and take something in your pocket to munch on later as lunch isn’t until 12:40 and they don’t let you leave during the day to go and get food. This is especially important on the day of the fitness test as you’ll need the energy.

Anyway, we had to be at the OASC centre on Wednesday for 07:10 and we had the aptitude tests. They gave us lots of 5 minute breaks – and I think we only took about 4 hours to get through them all – including the pilot ones. You NEED to practise time/distance calculations and try and do calculations with miles per hour and minutes (instead of hours for the time unit) as they’re trickier and did come up. Also there were questions about fuel consumption – amount of fuel used per hour at a certain speed. Lastly try and practise the type of questions where two planes/cars are say 80 miles apart and they fly towards each other at different speeds and you have to say what time they meet.

Also there are a couple where learning your times tables can be VERY helpful (the multitasking ‘CLAN’ exercise for one).

In the afternoon we had a hearing test, sight test and height and weight measurements (including the pilot ones if needed). After that we got the results for our aptitude tests. Finished at about 3:30 and the rest of the day was free.

Thursday morning we had interviews and medicals – one half did one thing and then swapped. Be warned, you could get your interview at 7:30 in the morning – or you could get it at 10. You also get a medical briefing. Be warned that if you’re going for intelligence you may be found unfit for it if your eyesight is not good – my eyes are -1.75 and I was found unfit for it. Contact your AFCO to check up on this if you’re worried.

In the afternoon part 2 started and we did the hanger familiarisation exercise (unassessed), leaderless exercise, group discussion and group problem and finished at 17:00. Make sure you get a plastic surgeon to put a permanent smile put on your face before part 2 as this is all they seem to tell you to do!

This is the good night in the mess as no-one is stressing over their interview and revising in the pool room – as a few people were! If you do want to have a drink, save it for this evening – but don’t over do it as there’s still more the next day.

On Friday we had the Command situation and the individual problem. The individual and group problems are not as hard as the one in the book they gave you before OASC.

After that we all had a chance to verify our branch choices, then we did the fitness test (you all do the bleep test at the same time) then we went home!

A word of advice for the interview – don’t just assume you can talk about your own achievements – it’s surprisingly difficult. Practise it first and remember months and years you did things.

Make sure you know what’s involved at IOTC and your branch training. Current affairs is short amount of time but they ask a lot of questions within that time, make sure you are aware of at LEAST 6 home events (I even mentioned Jamie Oliver’s crusade and he wanted me to expand on it!) and 6 world ones (they asked me for 4 of each). They like NATO – LEARN A BRIEF HISTORY OF NATO! Learn the reasons that RAF’s Bruggen, Laarbruch and Guttersloh are no longer RAF – it has to do with NATO. And also why NATO still exists when the Warsaw pact doesn’t (NATO’s role has changed). Also learn which countries are new to NATO and remember that they are (I think) ex Warsaw – (don’t quote me on that, check it first). Other people on your OASC may tell you don't need much current affairs but I personally feel that you can't over prepare for it. Same goes for the Planes and equipment as they could ask you anything. Learn where the permanent overseas bases are and also where the RAF are deployed and why.

Also make sure you have opinions on things!!!! For example they asked me if I thought it was good that George Bush got back in.

Lastly – get friendly with every one – very easy to do though – as you’ll need that friendship in Part 2 when you’re put into syndicates. Also, if someone tells you their name and you forget it, ask them again or by the second day you’ll have bonded with them but won’t know their name! It’s easy to forget and people don’t ask again cause it’s a little embarrassing – it’s better to just ask and get it over with!

On my OASC there were 28 people, 6 didn’t turn up, 2 failed aptitude, 2 failed medical, one failed interview and 17 went through to Part 2. So out of 22 people, only 5 failed part one!

I hope I didn’t waffle too much and I hope all the information (or at least some of it) is useful.

One minor thing, if you're looking for the toilet and showers in your block, they're through the door marked "Ablutions"! It took us a while!

(I went on OASC while they were in the process of changing things - therefore the order in which we did it was a messed up and might not apply to other OASC's)
Rizzarazzu
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Post by Rizzarazzu »

Nice one Gemma.

Yes, just to clarify, the only thing that seems to have changed with Gemma's is that the Fitness now comes in Part 1, it will happen on the afternoon after the aptitude tests - some of you may also get squeezed into the medicals, most of you will get the afternoon off.

Mine went like this...

Day 1 - Arrivals followed by OASC brief at 1630.

Day 2 - Aptitudes morning.
Fitness test afternoon
Medical - urine sample / weights / measurements.

Day 3 - Meds - eye test/hearing/spiro/blood pressure/reflexes/hernia
Interviews morning - followed by 2 1/2 hour wait for result !

Lunch.

Group Planning Ex.
Group Discussion Ex.
Leaderless Ex.
Swimming Test for those going for aircrew, PEd & Regt. Officer.

Day 4 - Individual Planning Ex.
Leadership Ex.
Debrief.
Lunch
Pack kit, say goodbyes - in the car and Foxtrot Oscar about 1330.

Bear in mind that the order of Interviews and medicals may be jumbled about a bit. It's not unusual for someone to do no medicals on Day 2 or to do all of it Day 2 and just have the interview on Day 3.

Also, to clarify the important bit - beer is around £1.20 a pint in the bar !
rogue0809
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Post by rogue0809 »

hey all, does anyone know how i can remove my raf diaries and put in a new updated one. it isnt that different but has just been added to and a wee bit better. think it would benefit people a bit more. thanx alot

rogue
Rizzarazzu
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Post by Rizzarazzu »

Click 'edit' in the top RH corner, highlight your old text and delete, then copy and paste your new one into the (now) empty space !
rogue0809
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Post by rogue0809 »

cheers rizza, top bloke! oh by the way, why is this place like a ghost town these days. i like the student room, but for some reasonn i prefer the way this is set out but there is no life at all going on here! grrrrr

rogue
GemmaLS
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Post by GemmaLS »

I think most people have moved over to TSR as it's more active. You'll see the same people over there but with different used names.

I'll confess to posting a lot more on there, but only because there's a lot more frequent activity. However I still check on here too to get the best of both worlds. At least there's a few of us still posting on both.
Rizzarazzu
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Post by Rizzarazzu »

I always pop in to have a look but find that this place can go 2 weeks without any new posts.

It's a shame, 'cos like you say, the layout in here is really good.

I must say that this place has been a great source of info. for me with regards to NCA training and RTS Halton - areas that i needed info. on.

TSR was better for OASC info - there seems to be a glut of Officer applicants and no NCA or Airman applicants.
rogue0809
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Post by rogue0809 »

yea i see what you mean! oh well i'll just have to convert more to tsr then :( . only joking, dont mind really, just hold a kind of loyalty here as it helped me so much during OASC but since the split here........ its died!

ill keep trying to revive it lol!

rogue
Rizzarazzu
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Post by Rizzarazzu »

MFAT seems to be more popular with the Army / Marines boys and girls.

I still pop in every day though.
rogue0809
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Post by rogue0809 »

well ill be here with you rizze, the die hards! lol :D

so what do u think of the updated diary, a wee bit different, thats all?

rogue
rogue0809
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Post by rogue0809 »

hey all, dont know why but i really want to know all the kit list that we should possibly bring to IOT and thought it might be a good idea for it to go here as this has been stickied and wont be hard to find if you know what i mean. so would greatly appreciate EVERYONES experience or knowledge or advice on EVERY little thing (e.g pen knife, types of pens, good irons and ironing boards etc ...) that one may need to take to IOT.

thanx alot

rogue
Rizzarazzu
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Post by Rizzarazzu »

That's very good rogue, you can't argue with any of the content and i believe it would be very useful for somebody wanting to apply for RAF officer or NCA to have a read of.

If you want me to be ultra-critical though, i would say paragraph it up a bit more. Being a regular user of many different forums, i know that a lot of people will take a look at un-paragraphed pieces and get sick of reading it very soon - it's hard to follow, hurt's people's eyes (!) and paragraphing it correctly makes it easier for someone to come back to finish reading the piece should they be distracted by something - remember, a lot of people use internet forums such as this whilst they are at work, so the chances of them being disturbed is very high.

I would also recommend that when you do re-paragraph it, leave a line between each paragraph like i have in this post, it's so much more comfortable to look at.

But that's the only gripes and i will repeat that the content is superb and there is nothing wrong with that.

I'd thoroughly recommend that anyone reading this who has skipped thru' rogue's post for the reasons stated, go back and have a look as it is one of the most useful and insightful pieces i have seen on any forum of this type, anywhere. When i was researching for tips and hints about OASC, i only wish i could have found a piece of experience as thorough and helpful as this one.
rogue0809
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Post by rogue0809 »

cheers rizza, ill do that, i know exactly what you mean, its just too chunky! lol
ill crack on with it now

cheers bud

rossco
rogue0809
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Post by rogue0809 »

hey rizza and all i have edited my diary so its not such a monstous block of words and paragraphed it a bit, so that its easier to read. hope this helps and thanx rizza for the advice

rogue :D
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