Yeah, and we have to teach this stuff to 12 year olds…
There must be some quirky stuff with your structure, surely?
Uhm… some but it’s not as confusing
Other than having dozens of ranks, you mean?
I just checked the Wiki. Erm, yeah, besides all of that.
The pilot in pilot officer is pilot in the terms of a trial or test / monitored experiment rather than a controller / driver of a vehicle.
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However…
“Aviators” that don’t fly…
Anyway, the topic is meant to be the CAP!
We still have a professional aviators’ spine, meanwhile we are all ‘aviators’ and belong to ‘professions’ rather than branches and trades.
So what’s involved in getting there? From reading, it’s the 7th rung, so you must have done a fair bit in that time to get this far.
And this might sound like a stupid question but are your cadet officer ranks saluted?
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Yes they are
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That’s quite cool actually 
There has to be a CCF somewhere that still uses officer ranks, harking back to when they were part of the OTC.
I think you mean the rank of CCF Under Officer which really confuses the ATC if they are appointed in the RAF sections (as they are I think technically a contingent cadet appointment but aligned to their sections)
When I was in the ACF, we had cadet under officers too: but I was thinking more about how CCF used to be the junior branch of the UOTC and was all about training public school boys to be officers. I imagine the NCO ranks came after the merger with school-based SCC and ATC units.
Don’t forget the 2 Sqns who are ran by Service Instructors (Members of the Regular or Reserve Service NOT CF Adult Volounteers) 
Do
Not
Start me on CCFs doing they’re own stuff
That is a whole other way to confuse Chopsticks
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How have i never clocked this before!
In the Royal Flying Corps officers were designated pilot officers at the end of pilot training. As they retained their commissions in their customary ranks (usually second lieutenant or lieutenant), and many of them had been seconded from their ground units, the designation of pilot officer was a position title rather than a rank.
This is what I always remember being taught Yes Wiki again but I can’t find any sources to back either of the storys
FOI?
It’s a shame whoever added that to the wiki didn’t source it.