Navigators Anyone?

I made some good friends during the bootcamp phase and not all of us were going to become pilots, some of them wanted to be navigators. I will write a little about this training phase as it's closely related to flying.

During the air crew selection process in Trenton they test you for both, a pilot and a navigator. At the end you make the final decision on which one you want. Most people choose pilot but those that fail at least have another option.

The training phase for nav is a little faster than for a pilot. First of all there is only one course and the wait is not very long. The course itself takes about 11 months on average and is given in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is called Basic Air Combat Systems and the Navs are now referred to as Air Combat Systems Specialists. During this course you will do some training on the Dash-8 aircraft (a.k.a Gonzo). As one of my Nav buddies described it: "The best way to describe our job is we are mission specialists. Our job is to come up with the tactics to effectively accomplish any type of mission, for example, anti-surface warfare, coastal surveillance, search and rescue, anti-submarine warfare. This is accomplished by using all the sensors on board to acquire information. The pilot is responsible for the safety of the aircraft, I am responsible for mission completion."

"The cool part of the job is that you are in charge and all the decisions and tactics rely on you and everyone will listen."

And just like at the end of pilot training, there is a selection process for the navs as well. You could be selected for Sea Kings, Search and Rescue and long range transport (Hercs), Dash-8 (instructing), Airbus air to air refueling, Auroras (coastal arctic surveillance and anti submarine warfare), Alpha Jets electronics warfare or UAVs (mission commander role). The Alpha Jets posting is very interesting and it also includes few months of training in Texas. These are private jets contracted out by the Canadian Air Force and used for training of our CF-18 pilots (used as enemy aircraft). So for your posting you might be working at an office, say Ottawa, but the flying will be done mostly in Cold Lake, Alberta.




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