General Requirements

Age Requirement

Applicants must be aged between 17 and 49 years of age inclusive on entry.

Applicants will not normally be allowed to enter the ADF until they achieve a minimum of 17 years of age, however they may be able to initiate the application process from 16 years and six months of age, depending upon the capacity of their local recruiting centre.

Citizenship Requirement

Only Australian citizens are permitted to serve in the ADF.

If you are a Permanent Resident of Australia, the ADF may consider a temporary waiver of the citizenship requirement if the position for which you are applying cannot be filled by an applicant who meets all the citizenship requirements, and then only in exceptional circumstances. You will be required to obtain Australian citizenship as early as possible following enlistment or appointment.

More information on citizenship requirements and the citizenship waiver process is available from the Recruitment Centre and your local Defence Force Recruiting Centre.

Security Requirement

The Department of Defence requires ADF entrants to obtain a security clearance appropriate to their avenue of entry.

A process of background checks, collection of relevant information and, as required, interviews enables the Regional Security Office to make an informed assessment of an applicant's suitability for a security clearance.

Current policy requires applicants for this particular avenue of entry to have lived in Australia for the preceding 10 years, or have a checkable background for this period.

Aptitude Requirement

Royal Military College Duntroon

To make sure you can cope with the training and intellectual demands of the Defence Force career you have chosen, you will undergo several aptitude tests. These tests also assess your academic achievements to date. The standards are sound and realistic in expectation. The psychology support staff will explain what is involved in each on the day of your testing.

You will also undergo a series of aptitude tests designed to predict suitability for flying training. Historically it has been proven that applicants who do not perform well in these tests are less likely to succeed in flying training. Standards have therefore been set, below which an applicant is not considered for further processing. Failure to achieve these standards should not be considered as a personal shortcoming. They are solely aimed at predicting success in the air; an environment to which many are unfamiliar.

All applicants will be interviewed by both a psychologist and an ADF Careers Counsellor. They will be looking for your overall motivation to be a pilot, and your potential for training as an Army officer. If successful at all of the above you will undergo flight screening to further assess your ability to cope with military flying training and then appear before the Pilot Selection Board.

Abilities and Aptitudes

You must be assessed as:

• suitable on tests for commissioning into the Pilot specialisation;
• suitable on tests for pilot training;
• showing common sense and good judgement;
• able to process new information quickly and accurately and apply learned procedures under pressure;
• able to allocate priorities amongst competing sources of incoming information;
• able to think and act quickly and relevantly in stressful situations (eg in unusual or emergency situations);
• able to perform complex cognitive tasks while carrying out precise manual activities; and
• able to visualise the relationship of moving objects to each other in space, time and direction.

Personal Qualities

You must be assessed as having:

• the personal attributes to accept the status and fulfil the responsibilities of commissioned rank; and
• the personal attributes appropriate to training and subsequent employment as an Army Pilot.

Interests

It is essential that you be assessed as having:

• a satisfactory level of interest in the Service; and
• a satisfactory level of interest in flying and in the roles of the Pilot specialisation.

Upon successful selection for pilot training, SSO pilots undergo training as detailed below.