Role
Our Royal Navy and Royal Air Force trainees have overlapping but differing training requirements so we tailor their courses to meet their needs.
Royal Navy Observers - Over the Basic Flying Training (BFT) course of 6 months they complete phases in Reversionary Navigation (no GPS or Inertial Navigation System), System Navigation (no GPS), a UK and Continental Navigation Trainer, Sensor Operations (maritime operations inc landing profiles to ships, search and rescue) and Multi Task (dynamic airborne re-tasking to new events) with an emphasis on Captaincy.
Royal Air Force WSOs - The WSO Lead-In Course (WSOLIC) takes 3 months and, whilst it has commonality with the BFT course, it has a different focus as WSOs won’t operate from ships and will operate as part of larger crews across land and maritime environments. Trainee WSOs complete phases in Navigation (full suite of navigation aids available), Maritime (maritime operations and search and rescue), ISTAR (combined land and maritime intelligence gathering and threat based scenarios) and Final Air Tests (dynamic airborne re-tasking to new events) with an emphasis on Mission Command.
Both courses are designed to develop tomorrow’s battle winning aircrew from individuals who know little about aviation into those ready to progress to their next stage of training on their Operational Conversion Units (OCUs) for their Front Line aircraft: the Merlin Mk2 or Wildcat HMA2 advanced maritime helicopters for the Observers, and the cutting-edge Poseidon or Rivet Joint ISTAR aircraft for the WSOs.
