RAF Weapons Technician

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It might be that the job title changes above the rank of Corporal. For instance, in my chosen trade of Aerospace Systems Operator, once you are promoted to Cpl, you stop being an 'Aerospace Systems Operator' and become an 'Aerospace Systems MANAGER'. Therefore, on that payscales table, the ASOp job ends after SAC. It may well be the same for Weapons Techs (maybe you become a Weapons Engineer or something slightly fancier like that) but I can't see any mention of it in that table.... All I can see is 'Engineering Technician Weapon' but it looks as if you can be one of those right from the start of your career. Odd!

I'm sure all trades offer the same promotion prospects.

Reply 81

CKinnerley

Just a little bit of an update, I'm off for my P3 Presentation early tomorrow morning. Not looking forward to the traveling bit (never fun going in to central London in the rush hour) but I am looking forward to actually getting given some information I didn't already have (unike my P2 I have to say).

I plan to arrange an AST while I'm down there for a date as near to now as possible, after buying and reading through the practice test book CINC recommended I can most definitely say I'm ready for those.

Just glad to be taking one more step in the process.

Best of luck!

Cheers CINC. But man what a day! I think this has been the closest one I've ever had to a what a full day of training at Halton might be like (it's proabbly still not that close, but for me it's been the longest so far).

Get all my things ready and various bits of electrical equipment charged and topped up etc at midnight yesterday, wake up at 6:30 this morning, get ready, train from Harrow & Wealdstone in to Euston, Euston to Tottenham Court Road, up to the Office, people arrive late as usual so I'm cramped up on those strange purple sofa type things for about half an hour. Presentation went well though, I definitely had more anwsers to put forward than last time and a lot more than most people in general really.

You can see a real difference in the level of applicants compared to a P2 though, I think other than me there was 1 other man wearing a shirt and tie, hell a few of them turned up in baggy adidas type things and 'NY' hats, and without a bloody pen! I mean how on earth can you not even think to bring a pen?!? Astounds me it really does.

Anyway, I was pleased with how it all went, spoke to one of the Corporals at the end about the forms I'd already filled in, and just as I was sitting down on the fast train out of Euston she called my mobile to say she'd found my original AFCO Form 4 (i.e. the generic tri-service application) and they'd be checking over it and phoning me at the start of next week to arrange the AST, as long as the form's ok, which I'm sure it is, it's already been to Cranwell and back.

But that's only the RAF part of the day, there's plenty to go yet! Next it was all the way back to Harrow & Wealdstone, wait around for about an hour while my mates turn up and 20 of us try to arrange the cash (£4 each) for a group ticket up to Hemel Hempstead, walk a mile or so to a place in town there (all in my ridiculously uncomfortable smart shoes which I've for some unknown reason neglected to change out of and in to the trainers I brought along, and actually have worn holes in both socks of a brand new pair) where we're going for a round of Quasar.

Did that for a heated half hour of running around in the dark shooting lasers (thank you to Full Spectrum Warrior, you taught me how to use cover effectively) at my mates, walk/jog back to the station in Hemel after having to ask for directions because I took the path along wrong side of a canal, get stuck for 15 minutes in the queue for a ticket because some woman can't figure out how to put her card in to the damn chip and pin console, miss a train because of it, hang around, finally get back to Harrow in some ridiculous state, then power walk down the next few streets to get to my Tae Kwon-Do class in time for 6:30.

By the time I got there I was still in my shirt, trousers and big coat, but changed in to my bright red Nikes, tie's gone long ago in to my bag, smart shoes and RAF literature also in there (rather messily arranged I have to confess), all water and food supplies toally diminished, large amounts of money gone, sweating, feet still absolutely killing, constantly worrying I've left something imporant on a station platform... and then good old mum came to the rescue. Drove up, clean T-shirt at the ready, took all my heavy stuff home, carton of juice and brought along the money I'd taken out for the next months training fees.
I then immediately had to chang in to my Dobok (white training suit) and do my hour of the aforementioned martial art, which is painful at the best of times... but whoo...

But at the end of it all, I have to say it was a highly productive day; and now I'm sitting here memorising how to tie my white belt correctly. Apologies for any typos, or rambling etc, but I'm not really used to having to be up, around and concentrating constantly for 15-16 hours straight and there's still a good 1-2 more to go. But I think overall it's been a very good experience, I've learnt a lot, got a lot done and made solid progress.

Drinks all round! :suitc:

Reply 84

CKinnerley

Well, as they said they would I just got a call from the AFCO and my AST is next thursday the 13th (lucky me), I have to say this is getting along a lot faster than I first expected.

Unfortunately however I picked up the phone and, out of habit because that and the evenings are mostly the times of day when I'm greeting people, said "good morning"... at 03:30 in the afternoon. I'm going to hate myself for weeks.

Reply 85

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Yup, I'd feel lousy after that, even worse if some smart-arse then pointed out that there is no such thing as 0330 in the afternoon! 0330 occurs in the morning, 1530 occurs in the afternoon :p:

Reply 86

CKinnerley

Where'd I put the vodka and pills....

Reply 87

CINCSTRIKE

Lol. Sorry CK, you've failed the first part already!

Best of luck on Thursday mate! :smile:

Reply 88

CKinnerley

Interview board - "So Mr Kinnerley, what's your views on drug taking within the armed forces?"

CK- "Whoa man.. is this room.. like... floating around or something... whoo... yeah.. man that's good stuff"

Sad thing is, it's probably happened to someone somewhere.

But I digress. Many thanks CINC, much appreciated, I 'm feeling pretty confident after looking through the practice booklet they gave us actually, so even if the real test is harder than the samples I reckon I'm still going to be ok on that front. Although I do have to say if I hadn't known a lot of the stuff I've picked up from around here the things they said about the AST would've really put the shivers up me (neglecting to mention you're not actually required to complete every question in the time limit was one of the main ones).

Reply 89

CINCSTRIKE

Well, they still want you to do as many as you can! Make sure you get an answer for every single question, even if it means picking a column and ticking like mad! You might fluke a couple so it's better than having nothing at all (plus, if they see that you've done this, it further proves that you've got your head screwed on).

When I knew I was getting into the last minute/45 secs of a section I ticked random boxes so every question had an answer, then went back and changed the ones I had time for (they ought to give you a pencil AND a rubber). Probably best check they're ok with changing answers first though.

Best of luck again mate! Let us know how it goes. They told me my results there and then but that could be because there were only two of us doing it.

Reply 90

KSpin

When I did mine, there were about 6 or 7 of us there, and they gave us our results after we had an hour or so off for lunch.

Reply 91

CKinnerley

CINCSTRIKE

) as they read out the number that had to be done and the time given in each section.

Fortunately I've done quite a lot of multiple choice exams before in High School, I did the Triple Science GCSE and this included a good number of module tests throughout the year. I'm presuming they use some kind of optical mark recognition so that it's scanned in and marked by computer?

Reply 92

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Oh dear, a woefully over optimistic idea about the RAF's use of technology! They'll have a magic piece of paper with the holes cut out in the right place for the correct box, then count up the number of little X's that appear through the holes. It's done that way so that Regt Officers can mark tests.

TPD
*on a mission to insult as many people as possible today* :eek:

lol.

threeportdrift

It's done that way so that Regt Officers can mark tests.

You mean they're given a calculator too?

Reply 95

CKinnerley

threeportdrift

It was probably the statements of "utilising the latest in cutting edge technology" that you see printed everywhere in huge bold text, highlighted in red with 5 exclamation marks at the end that threw me off.

Reply 96

KSpin

CKinnerley

We only get to use that, when the Americans let us.

Reply 97

CKinnerley

KSpin

We only get to use that, when the Americans let us.

Am I detecting a reference to the JCA?

What precisely was the deal with that thing anyway, they wouldn't let us have a certain model of the STVOL engine so now we're only getting the CTOL F-35A?

Reply 98

KSpin

I thought it was that they wouldn't let us have access to the software that was going to run on it, because the Americans believed we might be forced to trade the secret with the rest of the EU, and consequently, China.
Also, I believe the B variant is too heavy for it's intended role, like it cannot hover whilst carrying any weight, or something to that effect.

Reply 99

CKinnerley

Now that you mention it I do recall something about software, interesting.

Up to date and accurate information is proving a tad tricky to locate at the moment, but the Harrier can't last forever and the F-35 is definitely very far along the line to deployment in the USAF, Navy and USMC in some form or another, so I'm betting it's only a matter of time before we get it to.