School Based TVET Course - 'Aviation - Aircraft Operations'

[Matthew Hogg]

This year at TAFE as part of the TVET program for schools im doing the 'Aviation - Aircraft Opearations' course. So far I am finding it interesting and enjoyable. Has any of the younger ones on this board done this course?

As some of you will be aware in the NSW HSC, you need 12 Units for the Year 11 Prelim course and you only need 10 units for the Year 12 HSC Course. The TVET course is 2 units, and if i were to get a UAI I would need to trop the Aviation TAFE course. Is it worthwile continuing the course in Year 12? Or drop it to give yourself a smaller workload?

[Lukas M]

So this isn't a flying course then???

[Brenden S]

No Ground ops.

[Nigel C]

Well if they don't do ground ops, then what do they do? A flying course?

[Nick W.]

Matthew,

I did the course last year, and signed up for 1 year (i.e., yr 11), so we did BAK, and if I had continued this year we would have done Met&Nav. The course is designed very well, and don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, it is a high workload during it, and at times it can be hard to lessen it's priority in light of other subjects. I assume you are doing the same course structure (BAK first year, Met&Nav second year, other way around if you opt to do full 2 years from the beginning).

I dropped the course for two reasons:

the first is that at my school, going to Ultimo Tafe each tuesday requires you to miss out on 4 periods a cycle in order to do tafe. 1 of these four periods was a english extension 1, of which I only have 4 periods a cycle anyway. and I also missed out on maths ext1, which also proved to be difficult.

The second reason is due to major works and simply the work load. yr12 has a lot more work than yr11 (obviously...), but the fact I am doing english ext2 and history extension means that i need to spend a alot of time working on major works, and for me getting home at 7pm on a tuesday night, absolutely stuffed from taking apart a navajo's engine wasn't always the best feeling.

Now, this is just my situation, and I assume yours will be different. The TAFE course is a brilliant thing to do, and it allows you to keep some scope in your schooling for and ultimate aviation-goals you may have. Term 4 of year11 (where we don't have tafe as the yr12's are doing those silly little exams) secured my thought that I would do better if I did not do tafe, and it was only in the first week back this year when I dropped TAFE (I had 14 units at that point, which is fine as TAFE isn't a super-high workload, but it just takes a chunk out of other subjects. majority of yr12's in my course last year were doing maths or physics during TAFE...).



Nigel, the course is "Aviation Operations and Theory". it works around the BAK syllabus which TAFE writes specifically for full-time students, time-altered for tvet's. It's not a flying course, however at my TAFE there were IFR Sim's and synthetic trainers.

http://www.sit.nsw.edu.au/courses/search.php?cid=21606&area=ultimo&Media_Index_ID=513

That is the TAFE course, TVET is slightly smaller, but runs on the same principles. It is Board Endorsed C Category, which means passes in it result in a credits towards your Higher School Certificate, but do not count towards a UAI. There are 2 types of passing: the first is just by having an 80% attendance record, and the other is at the TAFE's discretion, which for us was a pass of 85% of higher in all examinations.

I hope you enjoy the course, Matt. It's an enjoyable thing to do, and you get some good contacts through it and some excellent ideas and strategies for future employment in whatever field you're looking at. Always keep in mind, though, that TAFE comes second to other parts of school, and that was the first point stressed to us a year ago when I first started: If you want a UAI, study for UAI subjects, not for TAFE.

Nick

[Blake Riley]

hey matt,
i did that same course last year when i was in yr11 what tafe do you go to
i found it great but at the end i thought it was really boring due to my teacher was a idiot
though i came first in the area for it which was good and told it would help me out getting cadetship or anything with airline cause how well went so its good course
but if your doing well and enjoy it
id do it next year since you will do well in it and since it counts if it does it
would help you out

Blake

[Matthew Hogg]

G'day Nick,
The only factor that will discourage me from contintuing this course is the thought of getting 4 hours per week back for study.

At my school (area) Tafe's TVET courses are run on a Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and no student has any other classes in that time. My extension one english classes are run as early starts so I dont have the problem of loosing other classes (same thing will apply with English Extension 2 next year).

This year we are covering BAK and MET (I believe MET runs into 4th term though).

Next year the course would run though, Engline Systems, Nav and Performance.

[Nick W.]

If your school has allocated free periods for TAFE to be undertaken, then you can get away with continuing into year12. You currently have the added benefit of more free periods than your peers because you do tafe compared to a school-based subject, but next year people will drop and pick up things and that will all change again.

Have a think about what subjects you will be doing. Could I have done TAFE this year and english ext2? probably not, as ext2 takes up a considerable amount of time, regardless of the fact it is a 1unit subject.

I know before I signed up for the course back in year10 I searched the old message board, and didn't find anything, so if there are any people thinking of doing the course in the future (as yr12's can pick up the course from scratch and just do BAK for one year) here's my advice: Definately do it in year 11 as it's a very rewarding course, and for me I enjoyed it because it allowed me to immerse myself in aviation for 4 hours on a tuesday arvo (and they had a maccas on the bottom level of me tafe, but that's another story...), and for year 12 just give it some perspective and decide whether you can still maintain it.

Every situation is unique, and even if you opt to do it you can drop it at any point during the year.


were you at Ultimo, Blake? if so, then I know what teacher you're talking of and I know his policy on videos!

[Tim Bowrey]

I am doing this TVET course at Ultimo Tafe and im in my 2nd year currently doing BAK(last year did Met And Nav):D How lucky

Tim

[Adam G]

It's a lot harder to do theory when you're not flying alongside it - they are really meant to be done together.

BAk for example - most of my GFPT students self study it with a text book through their GFPT flying - while they won't own up to me, I'm quite sure some have studied it within the week of the exam and only because they can't sit their GFPT flight test until they pass it!

BAK when completed with flying is relatively simple - because the preflight briefing & practical component supports the theory.

I'm not saying the TAFE course is not worth doing, however if you have other priorities in your HSC, you can rest assured BAK won't be a huge, time consuming hurdle once you start flying.