Becoming a RAF Pilot – Flt Lt Chris Edmondson

Updated 5 May 12

I joined the RAF 28 May 1991 and finally won my Wings 11 Nov 2011...over 20 years since joining.

This article started as a living document to essentially blog my progress through flying training, however, I am pleased to announce that I have been awarded my Wings Brevet having graduated, without failure, through the Advanced Flying Training (AFT) course with 45 (R) Sqn on the B200 King Air. This is my journey so far…

First Trial Lesson

On the 31 March 2001, I introduced myself to James Barker, a civilian Flying Instructor with the RAF Coltishall Flying Club. Having received a full briefing on Exercise 4a - Effects of Control 1, we jumped into a PA38 Tomahawk single engine piston 2 seat training aircraft for my very first flying lesson. I had no idea what to expect having had no previous flying experience. Having recently been promoted to Corporal, I found that I could finally the spare the income to have a go at learning to fly. James was very good at reassuring me about the bumpy conditions, and with the ATC chatter also playing its part in distracting me from the learning process, I found my senses overwhelmed. On top of this....I felt airsick.

Well I lasted the 45 mins and we made it back to Coltishall. I was hooked.

JAR PPL, IMC & Night Qualification

Having been in training for just over a year, I finally passed my skills test in May 2002. I was the first serving member of the club to gain his PPL. At this stage, the next step was to gain some experience with my new license so I set off to complete the IMC course and Night Qualification. For these, we had to borrow a PA28 from a local flying school at Norwich. The IMC rating was basically an introduction to operating a light aircraft in low visibility and/or in cloud and how to use the available approach aids to safely arrive at a suitable airfield. Flying an ILS or NDB apporach at Norwich International Airport was a little daunting at the time, but great fun. James was my principle instructor for these two valuable ratings. Flying a night is a wonderful experience which, if you are reading this with a PPL, is a great rating to have.

ATPL Groundschool

Before I set off to spend 5 figures on training for a professional licence, I undertook the initial Class 1 medical tests at CAA House, Gatwick; I passed. If you are considering going for a professional licence then I urge you to take this test before you commit to the financial pressures.

So during 2002 and 2003 I decided I was going to take this as far as I could and hopefully achieve a successful application to the RAF to fly. After all I was encouraged by Sqn Ldr Bob McCloud, one of my instructors, to give it a go. Failing this, I had the option of commercial aviation if I had to leave the service. In order to complete my Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL(A)), I had to complete a series of Airline Transport groundschool exams with the CAA. There were 14 in total broken down into 2 modules. It takes around 650 hours of self-study, 4 weeks of residential brush up courses and the final exams at Gatwick. I joined Bristol Groundschool and over the next 12 months, 4 of which were detached to the Falklands, I crammed enough information in to pass all the exams on the first attempt.

First OASC Application

Having achieved my PPL, IMC and Night qualification, I approached the Careers Officer to apply for a Commission in the Pilot branch. I was unsuccessful on this attempt but was told that I could re-apply in one year. My son was born the following year and with family health problems it was another 3 years before I re-applied.

Hours Building

To be issued a CPL(A), a PPL holder is required to meet certain minimum criteria and experience, one of which was to hold a minimum of 100 hours as Pilot In Command (PIC). To achieve this, I used the Cessna 182Q, G-OHAC, at the RAF Halton Aero Club. I used the aircraft to take my line management to various meetings around the UK. I also visited to other airfields around the UK to gain experience and further enjoy the flying. I took this opportunity to self-critique my flying ability and to strive for the accuracy the CPL(A) skills test demands. Have met the minimum requirements for the CPL(A) course, I approached Wycombe Air Centre Ltd at Booker airfield, Buckinghamshire, with a rather large cheque in hand.

Commercial Pilot Licence

It was July 2004 when I started the course with Wycombe Air Centre. They used a Cessna 182RG (Variable pitch prop and retractable undercarriage) as their CPL(A) training aircraft. Although unforgiving when landing due to the rigid undercarriage, it worked out perfectly for me as I used a 182 for my hours building. After only 4 weeks of full-time training, I passed the CPL skills test only to find out that I did not meet the minimum requirements for its issue; all I was missing was the 300NM cross-country trip. It was then off to Exeter and Welshpool before returning to Halton to send off my licence application. The level of instruction I received with Wycombe was of a very high quality and my instructor gave me the opportunity to fly in some really challenging conditions.

Flight Instructor Rating

My Flight Instructor (FI) Rating was done with The Pilot Centre at Denham Aerodrome. This course, followed by a skills test, was costly however has paid itself back with over 490 instructional hours so far in single engine piston aircraft. I have a passion for teaching flying and get a great sense of satisfaction when students get their first solo, complete their qualifying cross-country and then get their PPL. This was my chance to give something back to RAF Flying Clubs as one of their instructors. You may find that you can be ‘buddied’ up with another trainee instructor to practice your patter skills and board briefings.

Instructing

Shortly after getting my FI rating, I was employed on a part-time basis with Wycombe Air Centre. For a short period of time I flew for the RAF Benson Flying Club. Giving up my Saturdays and some evenings to instruct flying gave me a source to build my skills set and experience. It took just over a year to get my full FI rating having built the required hours and supervised enough solo students. I still very much enjoy instructing and will hopefully become a service QFI once I have gained some operational flying experience.

Multi-Engine & Single Pilot Multi-Engine Instrument Rating

The idea of spending up to £14,000 on one licence rating was not an easy decision. Before spending the money on the Instrument Rating (IR), I decided to have a go at flying the Multi Engine Piston Beechcraft Duchess. This course was only 5 hours with a skills test, a course that I seemed to have no problems with. The ATPL groundschool exams have a validity of only 3 years. Within these 3 years, to enable the validity to become 7 years, I needed to get both my CPL(A) and my IR. Having already won my CPL(A), I just needed to do the IR course. There were only a few months to do this before my ATPL exams expired. Facing the prospect of having to do my exams again, it became an easy decision to crack on with the IR course. The course consisted of 25 hours flying and a further 25 hours in the simulator followed by a skills test with a CAA examiner. My skills test was with an Ex RAF Jaguar pilot and with only 9 days before my exams expired. Having told my examiner this, he just threw his head back in laughter and said ‘no pressure!’. I passed.

Second OASC Application for Pilot

I was convinced that I would be too old for a successful application so I submitted the paperwork anyway. With the moral support I received from RAFFCA, the Flying Club members and those within my normal place of work, I put all efforts into convincing the selection board that I was a minimal training risk and that they would be getting the full return of service. Due to my age, I must have put the odds at around millions-to-one. After I was turned away from the careers office due to my age, I applied directly to OASC for an age waiver based on my service career and the flying experience I had. In Nov 2007, I went to OASC for the selection process. It was not long before I had received notification of a successful application and in May 2008 I was on Initial Officer Training at RAF Cranwell.

Funding

This was by far the trickiest hurdle. It was made easier by the cheaper cost of fuel when compared to today’s prices. I had a small amount of savings but had to rely on finances from banks and credit card companies. There is now assistance for those self-funding their flying whilst serving in the HM Forces. Firstly, RAF Flying Clubs offer very low rates of flying when compared to commercial flying schools. There will be considerable savings when flying with an RAF Flying Club.

Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC) and Standard Learning Credits (SLC) are also a source that can reduce your personal costs. If you are a serving member then please go to your training and development section for further information.

16(R) Sqn Flying Training

Elementary Flying Training (EFT) was delivered by 3 RAF Sqns. I carried out my EFT with 16(R) Sqn course 134 at RAF Cranwell on the Grob 115E Tutor. Even with over 700 hours flying experience, I found this style of flying a challenge. I had no experience with low flying, formation flying, aerobatics or the military style of navigation using purely mentally deduced reckoning. This course consisted of 55 sorties that started right back at the roots of flying with an air experience flight, followed by Effects of Control 1 and so on. The professional quality of instruction and experience gave me a solid grounding for my next stage of training. I was recommended as fit for all streams of flying for which selected Multi-Engine flying as my choice of stream, although Fast Jet was tempting. It was then off to the King Air.

45(R) Sqn Advanced Flying Training - B200 King Air

Advanced Flying Training (AFT) is carried out at RAF Cranwell with 45(R) Sqn on the Beechcraft 200 King Air. This is a 12,500lb twin turbo-prob that has a max speed of 259kts and a RAF service ceiling of 28,000ft operated in a multi-crew environment of 2 pilots. The ‘student’ is acting as captain and makes all the decisions to ensure a safe a successfully flight under the guidance of a QFI in the right hand seat. This course is broken down into 2 phases, the basic and advanced phase. Each phase of training contains a number of flight tests designed to measure the progress of the student and are milestones to continue training. Although each flight is assessed, you can fail if the aims and skills are not quite there.

This stage of training unfortunately coincided with the reduction in trainee pilots post-SDSR. Convinced that I was going to be that cull, I renewed all the ratings in my civilian licence, including the Mulit-Engine IR, and resigned myself to shortly becoming a civilian. This lack of confidence was unfounded as I was fortunately one of the very lucky few selected to remain in the flying training system. Not only that, I was to start flying training immediately. My first trip with 45(R) Sqn was in Mar 2011.

The pressure to pass this course, although totally self-induced, was enormous. I felt that what was at stake was my RAF career, the £100,000+ investment in my civilian licence and my pension. I was very lucky to have some amazing instructors on 45(R) who understood the pressures from when they went through training.

My Motivation

I have always been interested in flying and becoming a pilot has been a lifelong dream. In 2001, I saw this opportunity and an opportunity to make good a promise…

When I was about 8 years old, my father sat me down in a Burnham-On-Sea café in Somerset, fed me ice cream and told me all about the RAF and how proud he would be to see me as a pilot. I gratefully polished off the ice cream and carried on with the rest of my day. Years later I joined the RAF, sadly not as a pilot as I did not have the necessary academic qualifications, but as an airman in the ‘Aerospace Systems Operator’ trade; my first career in the RAF I still very much enjoyed. When I finally did gain the qualifications in-service, and made a successful application to fly for the RAF, I returned to Fortés Café in Burnham-On-Sea, acceptance letter in hand, to the very same table where my father had talked about my future career and enjoyed another ice cream.

My father passed away 2 years into my career in 1993 and is laid to rest in Stockport where he was born. I visited him a week after being awarded my coveted Wings, finally delivering this promise 20 years and 5 months after joining the RAF. A QFI took one of my Wings Brevets flying as part of an aircrew tradition; a brevet that now rests with my father in Stockport to symbolise a the delivery of my promise to him.

I recently read an apt quote…’If opportunity closes all the doors, climb through the windows’.

My Flying Training:

• JAR-FCL PPL(A) – RAF Coltishall 2001-2002
• Night Qualification and IMC rating – RAF Coltishall 2002
• ATPL Groundschool – Bristol Groundschool 2003
• JAR-FCL CPL(A) – Wycombe Air Centre 2004
• Flight Instructor Rating and Night Qualification Instructor – The Pilot Centre Denham 2005
• Multi-Engine Rating and Multi Engine Instrument Rating - Wycombe Air Centre 2006
• Instrument Flying Instructor – Wycombe Air Centre 2007
• Multi-Crew Cooperation Certificate – Jetlinx Flight Training 2007
• Elementary Flying Training – 16 (R) Sqn RAF Cranwell 2009
• Multi-Engine Lead-In – 45 (R) Sqn RAF Cranwell 2009-2010
• Multi-Engine Advanced Flying Training – 45 (R) Sqn RAF Cranwell 2011
• Operational Conversion……2012