What is a competitive score for the RAF CBAT for pilot?

The minimum mark is 112, however i was wondering what the average score of a pilot would be?

I was told by those in the know that the recruitable mark currently is 121.

What I will say is that it's directly age correlated. If you are 18, then your chances of getting 121+ are drastically lower than if you are 21.

The majority of intake is in the form of 21/22 year old graduates as they are most likely to make it through flying training.

Do you have any sources for these gems of gen?

Current boarding officers, ex-IOT cadets (Now Jr officers), Current IOT cadets and another which I cannot divulge publicly for security reasons.

But, as mentioned, just because that is a mark being talked about, it doesn't mean that getting above or below it is a guarantee of anything. It's important to put it in context.

Worth noting that there are 19 year olds in pilot training, along with non commissioned Army types who are quite long in the tooth so the demographic of 21/22 year old graduates at IOT being the most likely to pass pilot training is probably more related to the fact more young graduates apply for pilot as opposed to they are more likely to pass it than another candidate.

Is there really such a thing as a training risk when it comes to a competitive trade such as pilot? Is it worth taking a punt on a 19 year old when there are plenty of graduates around?

I don't have sight of the statistics so it's interesting to hear. But then I'm still rather intrigued as to why the RAF doesn't have some form of grading as per the Army and RN given the weighting these two services give a grading report when it comes to boarding.

By grading I mean flying aptitude is assessed over several hours of live flying with a QFI to assess the candidates ability to monkey see, monkey do, multi task etc in an unfamiliar and stressful environment.

Yes, as the Army and RN do (albeit they do it post Dartmouth and unsuccessful candidates are restreamed Warfare).

I'd not heard that the AAC and FAA use flight hours for selection, though admittedly I'd never looked! I'm fairly certain the reason the RAF don't do the same is down to the fact that CBAT is a *very* reliable indicator of Flying training performance

Prospective pilots in the RN (and I think also the Army) do the aptitude tests as well as the grading, so it's not quite as simple as you explain.

And they do the same tests, at Cranwell, on the same machines.

Aye, they do. I met a couple while I was doing CBAT. Their flight time is an extra on top of CBAT selection. I probably could have been clearer about that. If the chop rate for this flying grading is indeed 25% then there are some questions to be asked! Namely, why is the chop rate for the RAF during Flying training not 25% if all else is equal? Either the rate of retention for FAA pilots is drastically higher than RAF pilots during flying training because the bottom 25% are not present, or it's the same and there are some changes to be made.

If your primary goal is to eliminate the bottom 25% of all pilot candidates to ensure a higher rate of retention through FT, then logically you would look at where this can be identified during the CBAT process, and then adjust the difficulty of the tests to suit, or create tests that measure what is assessed in the cockpit and add that to the battery of tests during CBAT.

The forces are being made to make massive efficiency changes, and I would certainly look at where these savings could be made during selection if required. The Fast Jet course faces questions about low level training now, as it's not a type of flying that is of any operational use anymore. The only people flying low level operationally are the ME guys, who do so at night - which FJ's don't!