It’s not like they actually kill you in training.
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No. But the risk is still there.
I.e. a fighter pilot wont perform certain riskier maneuvers in a real.aircarft as it has risk.
In a sim… who cares.
As some are pointing out, the mental side is one thing, but it’s the physical side. Not many sims can prepare you for a 9g dogfight.
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i think it was when Lord Clarkson went to the Nurburgring and spoke to drivers/riders who practised and learnt the circuit on a playstation and he asked did it help? they said yes but didn’t prepare them for the bumps and knock the car experiences as it rides the surface…much would be the same in an flight sim i imagine
Stick a swing on a backhoe - badda bing badda boom cheapest G sim you can buy!
Cadets will love it too - better than a glider I reckon which is good because we can probably get our hands on more diggers than gliders.
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Hasn’t CAC already intimated that cadets will be doing sim more than actual flying. Sims are cheaper and as they are fixed to ground less risky, well the cadet ones are.
The last time I went to Lyneham on camp the cadets had massive fun on the C130 sim and the aircrew said there were fewer actual training flights, which is why for 2 weeks there had been no cadet flights. I had 4 flights in Hercs when I went camp at Rudloe Manor and Lyneham, many years previously. We also visited the Tornado sim at Conningsby and that was over 30 years ago.
Do encourage your cadets to complete the recent survey on cadet flying: one of the questions they can answer is how they rate real flying compared to simulation, drones etc.
Evidence would be helpful!
Hmmmm and considering MOST cadets in the Corps have not been flying or gliding, full stop.
On what basis are they making that judgement and comparison?
If all they done is play flight sim X on Sqn and they think that’s pretty good… they might foolishly say that’s what they prefer… there is no way this survey picks that up, or the many other biases in it.
It should really be asked to cadets who are attending an AEF or VGS after they have flown, as long as they have used a sim also.
More representative that way.
And what percentage of cadets have had 'real flying?
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I had a look at the survey, it’s about how they rate the importance of it, not whether they’ve done it.
I basically told mine “the more important you rate it, the more you want to do it”.
Everything sim- or ground- based should be a very distant bottom of that list.
I get all that.
But if you ask a teenager how they rate something. If they have not done one of things I would stake my pension that 90% of the time they would automatically rate the one they hadn’t done lower.
Its not a survey of what do you want… but how do you rate…
But I bet will be used as a what do you want result.
Pathetic.
Does anyone on here genuinely believe that 2fts havent already got a plan and they arent just looking for justification to roll with it.
What concerns me is most Cadets will answer purely from the perspective of being in an aircraft vs using a simulator (and of course this is the key point).
What they won’t be considering is all the other skills gained from a day at the VGS, and these alone might be what spurs some of our Cadets into other aviation careers that aren’t flying aeroplanes. I’m afraid no fancy flight sim in a room in any old building at any old place will do that.
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Sorry, but what other skills, watching Top Gun or playing on their phones 
That’s all I’ve from VGS and AEF operators 
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In fairness, learning how to kill time in the crew room is an extremely valuable skill to any aspiring RAF pilot, as they’ll be spending 6+ years to do 2.5 years worth of training.
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Maybe from AEF, and if your VGS experience was vigilant, that may well have been the case but since the return to conventional gliding cadets get invloved in the operation and launching the gliders.
Those that have attended AEF comment on how mouch more enjoyable a day gliding is due to being able to be more involved and not just stuck in a crew room waiting.
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The same team behind the survey have asked the Wing Flying Officers to provide some examples of the additional benefits the cadets get so they can collate evidence in that side of things too.
The survey is a nonsense as suggested to justify what 2FTS have in mind. The current cadets’ experience of any sort of flying is far too limited to get any sort of objective view. They would be banjaxed if the cadets came back and said I don’t want to sit in front of a computer screen as I can do that at home, I want to get into the air in an aircraft … the clue is in the word.
Unless you have a lot of staff on tap with other ‘skills’ and someone actually thinks about it before to make sure these staff attend, about the only thing cadets get is an extension of what they do already in their bedrooms; watching things on phones, playing games, chatting to mates. OK at a VGS they’d be chasing gliders etc, but only in shifts.
Don’t think they would be banjaxed if that’s what the cadets replied with. That’s very answers “they” want
If they wouldn’t be fazed why haven’t they been doing nationally and why aren’t they doing it now? You don’t need to go through a delaying exercise like surveys. Well unless they don’t know why they are doing it or what they are doing it for.
Huh? Doing what nationally? I genuinely don’t know what you mean here.