Human Capacity
A story from Chris Kidd. Reflections of RAF flying training on 208 Squadron.
How committed and dedicated people can achieve extraordinary things!
208 were operating the Hawk T1, a very successful but dated and simple aircraft. It wouldn’t help the students to get to grips with a glass cockpit, software, or radar required by the Typhoon and F35 that they would go on to fly.
With no ability to replicate more advanced fighters or employ advanced tactics, we had one option to prepare the students so they could absorb the training and face the next more advanced aircraft.
We needed to increase their mental capacity by exposing them to increasingly complex airborne situations.
Flying a Jet for the First Time
When I took command of 208, I had completely forgotten how hard the course was.
The students were expected to fly a jet for the first time, and everything would happen twice as fast as it did on the last aeroplane they flew.
Plus, with minimal hours, they’d have to use the aircraft as a stable weapons platform, learn and execute safe air combat (both 1v1 and 2v1), and fly low-level simulated attack and evasion profiles.
All this was carried out using a stopwatch, paper maps and a basic monochrome bolt-on GPS – which, whilst useful, seemed to be mainly used when the maps ended up in unexpected parts of the cockpit during the 60 minutes of blind panic.
This is a student solo wingman trip.
Oh, and of course, the usual stuff all went without saying. Such as:
don’t run out of fuel,
lead the formation,
punch through cloud on instruments,
don’t hit the ground or another aircraft,
adhere to the rules of combat,
don’t bong airspace,
avoid bad weather,
talk to ATC and
make sure you land the jet safely.
The Pilot Experience in the Final Sortie
The final sortie was truly impressive.
Studes had to lead a pair to hit a target while defending against simulated surface-to-air threats and an airborne third ‘bounce’ aircraft trying to shoot them down.
Once that was survived, they would conduct 2v1 air combat against the ‘bounce’, not get ‘shot down’, and bring the whole formation home; this was probably, at that point, the most intensive hour of their lives.
Every single stude got out of the jet at the end of that sortie drenched in sweat, physically drained from 7g combat and exhausted from an hour of 7 miles a minute mental agility.
Nurturing Human Capacity
Through supporting and nurturing, guiding, and building their human capacity, the flying instructors helped them grow from not being able to fly a Hawk at all to being one step closer to their dream of being fighter pilots, and I am extremely proud of them all.
Helping people to deal with challenging situations gives them room to grow and achieve more, increasing their capacity.
Here at Astral Aviation Consulting Ltd, our team of specialists can help you develop training programmes and assurance processes and support your GA, Corporate, or Commercial aviation business in growing, increasing your capacity, and achieving great things.