Aviation Systems Technician ( AVN Tech )

[aesop081]

What was 043?

I'm somewhat (with my postion) happy right now but I can't be a ground ponder forever.   You airforce guys actually work for a living.

Combat engineer....it used to 041 field engineer when i got in but.......well, let's not go there !!

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

I hear they just redid the whole course from something like 6 months to 18.  Sounds tough and my math is the shits.

 

[avn514]

Hows it going ........ just to clearify  YES the grass is greener on the other side...... finished my TQ3 at cfsate 3 years ago i am a remuster from the army... if you are 5's qualified  in a trade you will recieve Spec pay as soon as your are in borden...... as for married people..... you will be posted to borden and are intitled to a full move and a PMQ  downside is that you will not be able to live down town......

If you have any questions email me at work  hobbins.bj@forces.gc.ca

cheers

 

[avn514]

I probably should have added that i am posted out at 407 Sqn in Comox BC  working on the CP-140

the grass is always green out here

;D

 

[childs56]

the spec pay isuue is null and void. You will not receive your spec pay unitll you are 5's qual in the spec trade itself... new ruleing as of june or july of 04.  the course did go from 6 months to no less then 16 at this time and in the future shouldl be as high as 18 months in duration. If you qualifie for the trade i woudltnt worry about the math part to much. the way they have it set up is teach you the required skills. I hadnt even seen some of the math they gave us, but did fine on the tests. The most important thing for people to remember is that you will be in school for a large amount of time, and will have very few brakes, inbetween. Make sure you and your family are ready for the commitment it will take. Is the grass any greener on the other side? i wont say yes. It has a different shade of green though. Remember it is still the CF and it still has poor leaders and budget restraints. Your Sgt and WO's may have received their pos'n by default rather then merit. 

 

[aesop081]

the spec pay isuue is null and void. You will not receive your spec pay unitll you are 5's qual in the spec trade itself... new ruleing as of june or july of 04.  

01 oct 04 is when the new policy came into effect.  I know this for a fact as i have the CANFORGEN right in front of me as i type.  I came into a spec trade prior to the new policy so i got to keep spec1 even though i am not qualified yet ( after they took it away and had to give it back). Check your facts before posting

 

[childs56]

I will have to correct myself here, anyone comming into the trade after the date as per the canforgen are no longer intitiled to spec pay untill such tiem as the are 5's qual in their spec trade. for avn that will be about 3 years. excuse me for having the dates alittle out of wack. The last Canforgen i seen on it stated june or july 04. If you been to CFSATE you will know they rarley show you any info as info is power. I do not have access to the din so finding all the info is hard to come by. Some ammendments have been made to the canforgen. I think people have the point on the spec trade, thanks for clarifying that for me. like i said last time i seen it had said June or July.
if we can put alll that BS aside.
If you could do me a favor and email me the Canforgen as i am having a problem with this point with the school I would appreciate it.
Did you have to redress the matter, or did a memo clear up the matter. Just curious and would like any help you can provide on this matter. Like i said above the school has mixed feelings about allowing us info. If you can help great.

 

[aesop081]

I will have to correct myself here, anyone comming into the trade after the date as per the canforgen are no longer intitiled to spec pay untill such tiem as the are 5's qual in their spec trade. for avn that will be about 3 years. excuse me for having the dates alittle out of wack. The last Canforgen i seen on it stated june or july 04. If you been to CFSATE you will know they rarley show you any info as info is power. I do not have access to the din so finding all the info is hard to come by. Some ammendments have been made to the canforgen. I think people have the point on the spec trade, thanks for clarifying that for me. like i said last time i seen it had said June or July.
if we can put alll that BS aside.
If you could do me a favor and email me the Canforgen as i am having a problem with this point with the school I would appreciate it.
Did you have to redress the matter, or did a memo clear up the matter. Just curious and would like any help you can provide on this matter. Like i said above the school has mixed feelings about allowing us info. If you can help great.

All i di when i noticed that my pay had been cut and that they were clawing back all the spect pay they gave me since aygust is bitch to my course director, it then  wwent to the pay office, they got policy clarification from Ottawa.  Once this was done , we got our money back. We did not have to do a redress or memo to solve the situation.  I will scan the coanforgen and e-mail it to you ASAP.

Cheers

 

[Swin435]

FX;

Let me start off by saying the "Grass IS greener on the other side, kind of a Kentucky Blue Grass".   I say this after spending 11 1/2 years in the army before I made my jump.   I left CFSATE in Dec03.   I was posted to 435 Sqn Wpg.   I like the trade, I come home happy.

As for married guys, when the course was 6 months long they encouraged you to leave the family at home.   However they did post mine and many others.   Unless the regulations have changed ( I haven't had to look them up in a while) any course over six months "can" be considered a posting.   With the length of the new course, this shouldn't be an issue.  

With regards to inspections and marching.   Every other Thursday I would be at the shacks for our DEU inspection. Every day you meet at the shacks and march as a group to class.

To who ever was complaining about the books being wrong.   In some cases this is true, and you will find that most of your instructors will point this out.   So you know, the books that are wrong now are probably the same books that were wrong when I went through, and these were probably the same books that were wrong when previous courses went through before me.

All I can say FX is hopefully you enjoy it.   Study hard and you'll do fine.   Also when you get a chance start researching where you would like to go.   Think about what you want to work and see if there is a base that uses these aircraft where you want to live.   You may have to compromise but that is life.

Good Luck

 

[platinumfx]

Thanks for all of the information guys, I really appreciate it. Again thanks, I can't wait to see if I'm accepted. I don't see any reason as to why not, but ya never know. LOL Well I hope things goes well for everybody, and thanks again.


Cheers,

FX

 

[Scoobs]

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. 
Every new course will have teething pains, but I do find that CFSATE tends to take forever to modify a course (same thing happened on my course).  You will find that even when you go to your unit after trg that there are alot of mistakes in the CFTOs, pubs, etc.  There will be constant messages coming out to correct the mistakes.  The difference in the Airforce is that you will be able to suggest and the changes will happen most of the time, but not all of the time.  I've done both sides of the coin, Army (only two years Reserve time) and Airforce.  You'll enjoy being an AVN tech, but will be frustrated at times.
With the Forced reduction in the mid-nineties, there is a large experience gap for techs with 10 to 15 years in.  It is a very good time to get into one of the 500 series trades as there will be a great need for higher ranks in 5 to 10 years.  Expect to see alot of promotions.

Later....

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

1.  What is the sign. of Scoobs?

2.  Did I read that right that if selected for this course you can take your wife with you?

 

[Swin435]

CFL;

It's in the CFAO's/QR&O's or whatever the new admin orders are called now.  When in doubt go to your clerk and confirm.  That's how I found out, I bugged the hell out of the clerks at the Strat's and the base orderly room. 

Hope this helps.

 

[Scoobs]

1.   What is the sign. of Scoobs?

2.   Did I read that right that if selected for this course you can take your wife with you?

CFL,

1.  I'm not sure what you are asking me.  My sign or signature? 

2.  For this question, I agree, you should ask your OR.  Some course will let you take your wife.  I believe that this course is now consdiered a posting.  That would allow you to bring her, but some postings have limitations on F and E, i.e. wife.

 

[Magnumcharger]

So, you want to be an AVN. Ask me about it, I won't blow any sunshine up your ass.

 

[mbhabfan]

I have been looking into it.  Do you know how long the current course is in length?  How hard is it to switch to civvy street later?  Would my wife and daughter be able to come to Borden for the length of course?

Thanks, hope this isn't too many questions magnumcharger

 

[childs56]

course is about 18 months in length, yes you can bring your wife but must ask before you do and dont take no for an answer. as for civie street you still have to do work hours and some schooling. it wont be that hard to do. good luck

 

[mbhabfan]

as it stands now I have no plans to switch to civvy life, I was just checking to see about it in case....  Does anyone know how competitive avn tech is?  In that 18 months of courses what would the time off or holidays be?  As far as terms of service would my three years of obligatory service start after BMQ or not until fully trained(if so how many years)?

 

[childs56]

right now we got 2 weeks off at Christmas and about 1 week off every six months or so to burn off leave. the three years is total service. The are discussing about going to a five year engagement instead of 3 because of the lenght of time to get trained. That hasnt happended yet. as for being competitive not to sure, they say do, but then agian from some of the people who are here seems as if they choose them by throwing a dart at a board. Like any other trade in the CF if they need bodys they will get people in, if things are full then it will be slow to get in. make sure you empress on the recruitor that you want to go AVn tech and  are real excited to do that job. read up on it and show a genuine interset for the trade. that goes along way to getting in.

 

[mdh]

Does anyone know how competitive avn tech is?  In that 18 months of courses what would the time off or holidays be? 

If you look under some of Kincanuk's posts under the recruiting forum I believe he had some information on this. IIRC most of the AVN techs had community college backgrounds in aviation as aeroengine mechanics. They had more openings for avionics technicians, cheers, mdh