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Aviation Systems Technician ( AVN Tech )

CTD,

hey man, just wanted to know how things are going in borden? Hows course comming along?
 
Sorry about not responding, i have been taking care of room mate problems.  Well it is has been 13 months on course and we have about another 3 months left. the training aids still arnt here in full so all we have done is the same as the old course has for practicle training. The staff are all questionnig if this course has been benifical to us. originally we were suppose to have been having our log books written off here ( as much as possible) now that point seems mute as they are arguing as to if they are allowed to do that. So all and all we have been on a course that should have been max 12 months long, and that is even stretching it. it is taking 16. so the higher ups have taken what was a good idea and turned it into a farse. It only looks good on paper, as in real life it is a waste of 16 months of valuable training that could have been done at the unit.
If you are remustering think hard about it, as this course is so uncertain now that if you can hold off for a year or two and see what actually happens here at CFSATE, they need to actually get all their training aids and tools and incorperate them before it will be benificial to the students. The study manuals have gotten worse as in written poorly, i never would have thought that was possible. but it has happened. I hope i havent painted to bleak of a picture for you or any one else. but right now the teething pains are tremendous and untill such time as the chain of command opens their eyes to the real situation it will continue to happen and degrade the training of new students.

Think of this, would you want to fly in a helicopter that a person who is substandard worked on. And they passed him on because the numbers game is in full effect.

good luck
 
CTD,

Just curious about the failure rate on the course. Have there been a lot students lost so far? I remember you saying that some of the recruits to AVN Tech were less than impressive. Doesn't sound like it's been a very good experience to date.

cheers, mdh
 
we have had a couple of guys fail three or more tests but they have said that every one will pass. they have gone out of their way to keep these guys on course. One was AWOL for 7 hours, no charge, cause he volunteered for some extra work,the other one has not had a good track record either, and in the army would have been kicked out for some serious reasons that i wont discuss here, this is  two  examples of the crap going on. The school CO wants max grads and i am sure that MR 1 CAD  and his buddys are also looking for this, everytime we have had a General or Colonel visit who is directly responsible for this course they have all told us what they wanted to hear and closed their ears to the truth.  I only wish General Hillier would visit and ask the staff and student how the 54 million dollar course is going (the amount of money that is being invested to lead the AVN tech's into the next century). I think he would be shocked as would alot of politicians to see the waste and lack of over all thought put into it.
The qaulity of recruits is to be desired and the whole system needs to rethink if we want quantity or quality. right now we are getting quantity. Alot of this has to do with the actual higher echelon of the CF as a whole. to many people in charge who have forgotten what it is like to actually lead and have an efficient well trained memebers. This is unfortunate because their are alot of hard working peopel who get screwed because of it.This course and school is another example of what the old airforce was and needs to get away from.
 
CTD, do you have any idea when the next course start date will be for AVN tech?
 
Their is suppoose to be the first French course starting in April, as for the next English course, they seem to be saying after spring break sometime. I will try to find out the exact dates on monday.
 
we have had a couple of guys fail three or more tests but they have said that every one will pass. they have gone out of their way to keep these guys on course. One was AWOL for 7 hours, no charge, cause he volunteered for some extra work,the other one has not had a good track record either, and in the army would have been kicked out for some serious reasons that i wont discuss here, this is  two  examples of the crap going on
.

CTD,

Thanks for the insight, sounds kind of frightening though - I'm surprised that the air force would tolerate this considering how strict and demanding they are when it comes to pilot training - the ground crew element is just as critical,

hope it gets better,

cheers, mdh
 
CTD,

So the course is 16 months eh? Did they say they were going to extend that to 18 months? Also what happends when you're done course? Do you have to do some OJT with your new unit?  As far as I understand what they did is malgomated QL3 and QL5 and made a 16 month course , am I correct? As for the spec pay I know rules changed lately and you have to have you QL5 before you get that, so is there still a QL5 and also how long is it?

thanks for the info man and keep us posted on the course, and any changes
 
dan476 said:
CTD,

So the course is 16 months eh? Did they say they were going to extend that to 18 months? Also what happends when you're done course? Do you have to do some OJT with your new unit?   As far as I understand what they did is malgomated QL3 and QL5 and made a 16 month course , am I correct? As for the spec pay I know rules changed lately and you have to have you QL5 before you get that, so is there still a QL5 and also how long is it?

thanks for the info man and keep us posted on the course, and any changes

I can answer a few of those questions.

As far as the course length, its up to 18 months, I started on March 2ndish, can't really remember, and I finish in September of 2006. After you are done your course, you get sent to a unit where you get on-type training on the specific aircraft you will be working on. Once you've completed that, you will be QL5 qualified, as far as I know. At first, you'll get qualified doing mostly servicing jobs on aircraft, cleaning, taxiing, and the sorts. Not really sure how long your QL5's are, but only after completion of the course, you'll get spec pay, which will only be an extra $300-400 per month.

As far as the course goes, its not really that demanding, well not yet it isn't. You usually get an idea of what the test questions are when you get your "homework" given to you. The instructors go through the material so much that you get the idea of the topic pretty quickly.


8)
 
Hey,
Can you tell me when next course is going to start?
 
dan476 said:
Hey,
Can you tell me when next course is going to start?

The next AVN course to start is in the beginning of April, not sure if there is one in May, but there is one in June.
 
Hey,
How many candidates are usually on AVN Course and also on average how long does it take to be fully QL5 qualified
 
dan476 said:
Hey,
How many candidates are usually on AVN Course and also on average how long does it take to be fully QL5 qualified

We have 14 on our course and I think that is the maximum. My guesstimation on how long it would take to be QL5 qualified is anywhere between 2.5 -3 years, mabye more.
 
starting in april, (not sure the exact date) then every three weeks after that another  AVN course is to begin. In theory any ways. The fact that the Airforce does not have the ability to handle that many students in a proper military fashion is going to make for some interesting times, for the next year or so. Growing pains then the realiziation that they cannot carry on unless a major over haul of the schools way of day to day operations is done. Intersting way to run a school. good luck and maybe see. i still have another 3 months or so till i am suppose to be done, that is to be seen though.
 
Scoobs said:
There used to be many more trades for airforce techs.   There are in fact only 4 MOC 500 trades now.   Three of them you can enter from right off the street, those being AVN, AVS, and ACS.   The 4th is NDT (non-destructive testing).   You have to be one of the previous three trades, but I can't remember which one(s) it is.   The reason the AVN course went from 6 months to 18 months was because the Airforce realized that an AVN tech could not be properly trained in only 6 months (lots of feedback from the units told them so).   It just wasn't possible to teach a tech what he needed to know in only 6 months what used to take the combined old trades much longer.   In fact, the 18 months is "still" shorter than the time it would take if someone would do all of the training for the other old trades.

Hey Scoobs:

About the reason for the 18 month AVN course, you're pretty accurate.  Let me just add a little more clarity for other readers.  I was a reservist Airframe Tech from 92 to 03, so I was there when the AVN trades were still separate.  After the FRP, I had to retrain as an AVN Tech, thereby learning about aeroengine, electrical, air weapons and safety systems.  What we found at my former units (12 AMS, 434 Sqn) between, say 96 to 02, was that the apprentice (QL3 qual'd) AVN techs coming off the 6 month course had a good general knowledge base but did not have sufficicent training in any one area (i.e. jacks of all trades, masters of none).  This, coupled by the loss of corporate knowledge caused by the FRP, created all sorts of operational and training problems that have yet to be overcome.  Nowadays, those doing the training have barely more experience than those they are training.  Obvious problem, eh!  The restructuring of the QL3 course is designed to address that.  However, it'll be some time before we can gauge the success of this initiative.

By the way, NDT Techs traditionally had Airframe backgrounds, but I'm unsure what the present requirements are.

Cheers,

X-Rigger
 
after Borden how much of a choice is there on postings?  Are they short of techs everywhere or are certain places shorter than others?  Do higher marks give you an advantage?  Before someone comes on here and beaks off about the CF priorities will come first, save it.  I am talking about after that.
 
CFB Cold lake is what it seems for our first postings. for our entire course, I will write my opinion on this later on dont have time now. it has to do with the 18's dispersed around the country
 
so does anyone know what a normal length of posting that first one would be?  Just curious.
 
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