Bit of a quiet morning in the office and i came across in ACP 20 the “COMMISSION/PROMOTION FLOW CHARTS” for new officers into the corps.
Noticed that Flt Sgts and WO’s who apply for commission are brought straight in as Flying officers.
I am just curious to know if anyone knows how that works? I had a look on our HQAC stores page (Cadet Direct) and found that they only stock Pilot officer tapes with the white background. Does this mean an ex Flt Sgt/WO immediately just wears flying officer tapes with no white background? How does that work at OIC?
The white tab is for a particular rank; Acting Pilot Officer. There is no Acting Flying Officer rank, so anybody appointed to Flying Officer simply wears Flying Officer insignia.
From the OIC JIs:
“All Officer Students must conform to the same standards. These standards include the wearing of a white headband and coloured rank slides, which will be issued for the duration of your Course.”
That’s not quite true, FS and WOs have to attend and pass OASC in the same way as other applicants, they aren’t ‘brought straight in’ to the Flying Officer rank simply on the basis of applying.
They graduate as Flying Officers and are not automatically granted the rank upon application. I’ve also noticed that quite a few of them are fast-tracked to Flt Lt to fill established posts.
Had some ex FS’s & WO’s on my OIC. They wore APO and White band and were granted Flg Off when they had returned to their relevant Wings and paperwork was sorted out.
Following this with interest, I’ve an informal interview next week with Wing command to see how I could fit in to their system, Regional command have already spoken to Cranwell and had confirmed that as I already hold a commission in the ACF and attended AOSB Westbury then no need for OASC, just paperwork and a regional command interview, then OIC within a year, interview next week will enlighten more