Hi all
How long is it taking people to get through the first class process using the new books? I’ve just come to sign off some of the books and it seems that the topics are now taking a lot longer to get through especially some of the map reading / IET tasks. To get them through in a reasonable amount of time all the group seem to have to do each night is lessons?
Does anyone have any ideas on how to get through simply without turning it into school??
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When I joined the ATC as a wide-eyed thirteen year old all I did every night was lessons.
It was an incentive to turn up, because we knew that the sooner we got through all the lessons, the sooner we could do all the stuff we had joined for. Then once we were used to turning up every night, we kept turning up.
About a third of the book seems to be bloody radios… Well that certainly will be an ‘open book test’, as radios simply aren’t something that we have any access to - not in terms of training, qualified staff or kit.
What ever happened to the idea brought in by Moulds that 1st Class should be far less academic, in order to enthuse the cadets, not to make them think of it as an extension of school?! I thought that the 'Check of Understanding method was a great leap forward in ATC thinking, but we seem to have taken one step forward, only now to take three steps back with this crap new scheme that is more tedious, admin-heavy and downright boring for the cadets that it ever was in my 25+ years of being involved with the ATC.
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It’s not even like it’s just the book. There are loads of additional tasks that have to be completed and signed off on paper too. All the nice practical stuff I brought in has gone and its back to form filling and PowerPoint. 
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I think the only way to do it is to extend the expected time to completion, what was once 3 - 4 months to complete first class is out the window.
I guess the best method is to have “Lesson” nights and “logbook” nights, so for example:
Airmanship has 3 learning objectives, so maybe that’s 3 night, or 6 sessions if you split it up.
For the logbook 8 pass sections, 4 merit sections and 2 distinctions, so maybe you split that up and do the each section in 2 nights, wait that’s 6 nights (hopefully enough time for the cadets to do the work and you to mark it)
So suddenly something that used to be maybe 3 teaching nights and a CofK night, is now 9 nights, split it up with some drill or uniform sessions and thats 2 months gone.
Indeed. We had a raft of new cadets join last September and we’ve still barely scratched the surface. We didn’t even see the books until November.
[quote=“mprentice1” post=23004]I
For the logbook 8 pass sections, 4 merit sections and 2 distinctions[/quote]
I have questioned (our Sqn first class training officer) on the real difference between the grades and they couldnt tell me.
pass is the minimum and that is what we do…there is no greater recognition for diong the extar bits.
as a radio officer I apply my previous lesson plan as best i can to match the LO…some of it over laps into merit and distinction and so be it but we dont aim for the higher levels simply because of the reason identified above…it is now a even longer process!
The point of merit and distinction was that it will, eventually, lead to the grading of the BTEC aviation studies, i.e. if they didn’t get merit in History of Flight then they can’t get it once they’ve done Advanced Radio and Radar at master level.
For the booklets, a lot of it doesn’t require anything more than a signature in the book from the person teaching/assessing. No one forces you to use the book to work from, you can teach the subject without it and then in theory they will be able to complete the sections in it at a later date.
In theory, yes. In practice it’s a royal pain in the [[color=#ff0000]BACKSIDE][/color]
I don’t see how it’s any more a pain in the backside than it was before, with 6 A4 pages to sign. At least this gives you questions to work from.
I find it to be a bigger pain, as you have to have them write in the book, then it be marked, returned for any corrections, signed off, front page ticked off, any spreadsheet updated enabling you to see who is how far through without checking the book everytime, getting the extra task worksheets completed and signed, then getting a member of staff who hasnt taught any of it to sign the book off, then getting it to WIng Hw to be marked/verified again.
My biggest complaint is the multiple signatures needed for each LO within each subject, and that, as the Cadets are not allowed to keep the book, why we need to wait for one to come through the post with a nice personally addressed front cover only for us to take them back every night and send them to Wing once completed. Why not just use marking sheets and let them keep the books?
As for timings, I think it is now realistically a minimum of six months for 1st class, which could be argued isnt a bad thing if they are joining at 12 yrs old, but does seem to be a drag for them and a big drain on resources for staff.
if the books are used as a method of notes taking, and you do check and correct as you go through the lessons itself - as a check of understanding - then get the cadets to date the work they have done…You as the instructor are able to justifiy that the cadets have the knowledge and then it is a simple sign off of the books at the end of the night.
I have not found them any more laborious than i did with the old paperwork of signing - and now at least the “questions requiring answers” are in the book rather than trying to assess a class of up to 15 people on the same question…
I must be in the minority but I have found them much easier to work with.
You do what? Why…?? Does your WHQ check that the cadet sitting the Ultilearn exam isn’t an imposter? No, then why does your wing feel the need to have a third person involved?
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Why oh why can they not remove sodding radios from First Class…?
It requires massive amounts of specialist kit, specialist knowledge and DAYS of dull, dull, tedious, dull, tedious work, while having zero relevance to modern military comms.
Please ACO, leave radios as a specialist OPTIONAL interest subject where it belongs and remove it from the 1st Class syllabus!
In 25 years of cadetting, the only time I have ever needed to use a radio was during my time at a gliding school. They taught me everything I needed to know about how to use the radio there and then. The procedures had no resemblance to those taught in the First Class syllabus. Similarly, when I joined the RAF, I was again taught to use radios and the procedures did not resemble those taught in the ACO. So WHY do we bother with it?
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[quote=“GOM” post=23021]Why oh why can they not remove sodding radios from First Class…?
[/quote]
it is a valid “military skill”
[quote=“GOM” post=23021]
It requires massive amounts of specialist kit, specialist knowledge and DAYS of dull, dull, tedious, dull, tedious work, [/quote]
then it is up to the instructor(s) to make it interesting, exciting and relevant
on our unit we use radios at one type or event or another 6 or so times a year…it is a required skill to be useful on those events
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My biggest gripe is that they don’t print the squadron name/number on the bloody thing.
My biggest gripe is that despite following the instructions to ensure that the unit postal address is correctly recorded in SMS, books for my new cadets till get sent to Wing HQ.
The old system was great. I told Taj where I wanted them to send the books and they did. Technology eh!?
[quote=“wdimagineer2b” post=23024]My biggest gripe is that despite following the instructions to ensure that the unit postal address is correctly recorded in SMS, books for my new cadets till get sent to Wing HQ.
The old system was great. I told Taj where I wanted them to send the books and they did. Technology eh!?[/quote]
Have you reported it as a fault on the bader helpdesk? If not, how will they know there’s a problem.
"it is a valid “military skill”
The ACO radio syllabus bore little resemblance to any radio training I did in the RAF.
“then it is up to the instructor(s) to make it interesting, exciting and relevant”
Indeed. So why don’t they? And where are these qualified instructors to be found? I can think of precisely one in our entire wing.
“on our unit we use radios at one type or event or another 6 or so times a year…it is a required skill to be useful on those events”
Call me old-fashioned, but I just use a phone; which is easier, more portable, more efficient, more secure, requires no specialist training, doesn’t cost a fortune to acquire and maintain and actually works when you need it. I can also use it to call the emergency services, parents, WSOs and other people who don’t have the kit, training or tedious inclination and who don’t have to worry about hills, sunspots, atmospherics, leaves on the line, intervening cows or dull, dull, tedious, pedantic procedure preventing communication.
Radios:
Agreed, but as someone who uses radios all the time at work (VHF & HF - used to be Morse proficient too!), the use of hand-sets at an event only requires simple protocols. You don’t need to know theory of frequencies, propagation, etc, to learn such protocols. However, some “specialist” has obviously decreed that full theory is needed…