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Air Traffic Controller VS Aerospace Battle Manager

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newboyintown

Should that be Aerospace then or change it to something else as well? xxxx Battle Commander (I already have thought about what i would like in the xxx section but I ain't telling ya :no:

)

Come on what do you want it to be :biggrin:

I like aerospace battle commander, or AEROSPACE WARFARE OVERLORD

Reply 21

Tomm_UK

newboyintown

some get excited watching Top Gun lol

I used to be like that, then I learned about cardboard cockpits.

Reply 22

newboyintown

Tomm_UK

I learned about cardboard cockpits.

Whats that :rolleyes:

Reply 23

BlackHawk

This is a forum for careers advice. If you want to debate the reasoning for having an armed forces then take it to debate and discussion. I'm sick of having to remove posts from this forum.

Reply 24

BlackHawk

BUMP as I've just re-opened this thread.

Reply 25

newboyintown

BlackHawk

BUMP as I've just re-opened this thread.

Thanks

Reply 26

GR29KHS

newboyintown

I think that FCO's are the second eye on an aircraft, helping pilots all the way.

You sound like a fighter controller already; you've got the "third man in the cockpit" mentality.

Seeing the 2 jobs in action will help. They are very different. Look at the pros and cons of each, talk to some people who do the two jobs if you can. Also think about where you'd want to live and the type of posting's you would want - as has already been said, some of the FC postings are pretty out of the way. There's a lot more location options for ATC. If you fancy yourself as aircrew, you might prefer FC so that you can try to get on the Sentry (although not guaranteed of course).

Reply 27

Wzz

GR29KHS

as has already been said, some of the FC postings are pretty out of the way.

Are they now, though? It's certainly true there's a lot more geographical variety in the jobs available to ATC officers, but since we shut Neatishead and Buchan, I would have thought Fighter Controllers are stuck with Boulmer, Scampton and Waddington.

Reply 28

GR29KHS

Ok, not some, one; Boulmer's pretty out of the way compared to most of England. Although it probably wouldn't seem so bad if you were Scottish and couldn't get a posting in Scotland.

I guess Scampton and Waddo aren't that bad.

Reply 29

GR29KHS

But then to me anything North of the A40 is alien territory! Someone had to point out to me that Cranwell isn't anywhere near the North of the country.

Reply 30

Wzz

40 miles north of Newcastle is out of the way?

You'd be shocked if you ever went to Valley... :wink:

Reply 31

newboyintown

I am not really worried about where I live. I have lived in various places around the country and used to travel a lot for work as well. Still do but not to that extent.

As I said I was looking at the FC video and thought it may be more challanging than ATC. Unfotunately, they didn't make any videos of ATC's so I'm off to Shawbury soon to check out how life is. Heard they do Flight Operations there as well but not FC :frown:

Reply 32

GR29KHS

Wzz

You'd be shocked if you ever went to Valley... :wink:

I did once, it was put at the top of my list of 5 stations never to ask to be posted to.

newboyintown

Heard they do Flight Operations there as well but not FC :frown:

Ahhh, flight ops at Shawbury, best job I ever had :smile:

but yes, the flight ops guys do their training there.

Reply 33

wd40

The choice between ATC/FC (can’t bring myself to use ABM just yet!) is a common one, due to the similar skill sets and aptitudes needed for both branches. I ended up as a Fighter Controller and wouldn’t change a thing, although I’m sure if I had gone down the ATC route I’d be saying the same sort of thing.

There is quite a good level of banter between the two branches now, especially at the Junior Officer level, mainly because we come into contact more on ‘out of branch’ OOA tours. There has always been talk of the two branches amalgamating, or at least sharing some elements of training. There have been so many studies, even since I’ve been in, that you do wonder if they’re going to keep going until they find one makes the correct recommendations! A lot of people think that’s why we’ve gone for the name change, as Air Battle Management is a very popular term right now, and understood by both the RN and Army.

The high FC chop rate of the late nineties is thankfully a thing of the past, and we now maintain similar figures to other aptitude branches. In terms of postings, previous posters are quite correct, with your first two, maybe even three tours having a high percentage chance of being shared between Boulmer (CRC and SFC), Scampton (CRC and No 1 ACC), Fylingdales and High Wycombe. After that though, the world does open up quite a lot.

Personally, I think that the FC world carries with it more of an operational mindset, although I would say that wouldn’t I! And if you think Boulmer is out of the way be thankful that Buchan is no more!

Reply 34

ProStacker

wd40

The high FC chop rate of the late nineties is thankfully a thing of the past, and we now maintain similar figures to other aptitude branches.

I would counter that - I speak to a lot of re-Branching JOs as part of their research and I've spoken to increasing numbers of chopped FC's in the last year. Either the selection into the Branch has gone a bit astray or the choppers are back at Boulmer.

Reply 35

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

ProStacker

I'd hazard a guess that that doesn't signify a greater chop rate in FC training as much as a greater willingness to re-branch people already in the system, especially relatively high aptitude FC JOs?

Reply 36

ProStacker

We've always re-branched those in the system - I don't think there has ever been a time when we've canned people for failing Phase 2 training in a single Branch.
High aptitude for a Branch doesn't always signify ability in other Branches. Just because us Stackers don't have to be able to do mental sums, pat our heads, rub our tummies and talk at the same time doesn't mean all chopped FC's are godlike in our Branch.
I stand by my statement that I've spoken to more chopped FC's re-branching in the last 12 months than in a very long time.

Reply 37

newboyintown

ProStacker

So why is that the FCO's are in the Most Wanted Category on raf recruitment site then? Any ideas?

Reply 38

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

newboyintown

So why is that the FCO's are in the Most Wanted Category on raf recruitment site then? Any ideas?

That means very little I'm afraid. It may just mean that recruitment/selection has been low for the last 6 months and they want to get more people to look at the branch. Sometimes it signifies a very small increase in numbers required, perhaps because of a temporarily increased chop rate (maybe there has been a training delay which has caught an extra few out - remember we are often talking only a very few people in these numbers). Occasionaly it means that branch numbers have gone up by a few, but mostly it just means recruiting has been quiet recently.

Reply 39

newboyintown

threeportdrift

I know this may not happen. But here is a scenario:

Lets say I get selected to join the RAF and go through my IOT, graduate and then they don't need anymore FCO's. What happens then? Or does it ever happen?