New pilot evaluation test debuts August 14

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By Bruce Rolfsen
Times staff writer

If you want to become an Air Force pilot, be prepared to take a new test debuting in August.

As of Aug. 14, the Air Force will use a computerized test to measure pilot candidates’ hand-eye coordination and other motor skills.

The Test of Basic Aviation Skills, or TBAS for short, replaces the Basic Attributes Test in use since 1993. About 2,900 people took BAT each year.

Candidates who want to be considered by a pilot evaluation board by the end of September will need to take BAT. After Sept. 30, only TBAS scores will be accepted.

The TBAS evaluation takes the candidate through nine sections. As in a video game, the candidate moves through progressively more difficult challenges.

The test better replicates the demands of a cockpit. You’ll use a joystick, a keyboard, headphones for audio commands and foot pedal/rudder controls connected to a computer and 17-inch screen.

In contrast, the BAT had five sections, and three of those used a stripped-down flight simulator. The candidate sat at a computer screen and used a joystick and mock throttle. The electronics were based on early 1990s technology, said Lt. Col. Scott Long, director of operations for the Studies and Analysis Squadron at Air Education and Training Command headquarters.

That gear couldn’t be upgraded or handle the tests AETC wanted introduced, he said. So work began on the new test in 2000, Long said.

The results from TBAS will become part of a would-be aviator’s Pilot Candidate Selection Method Score. The higher a candidate’s score, the better chance that person has of earning a flight training slot.

Other factors in a pilot’s score include results of the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test and record of flight hours. The Air Force won’t say how heavily weighted TBAS is in a pilot’s total score.

The test isn’t meant to be harder or weed out more candidates.

“While it is much different, it is essentially the same. ... We’re trying to measure a person’s psychomotor skills,” Long said.

To ensure the two tests were comparable, the Air Force asked students who did well on BAT and were accepted into pilot training to take the TBAS test, Long said.

The comparison found that people who did well on the old test also scored well on TBAS.

While each section is timed, a candidate can take as long as needed to read the instructions for each section, Long said.

In the first section, the candidate sees two images on a screen — a tracker map that shows the location and heading of an unmanned aerial vehicle and a point-of-view picture from the UAV of a building surrounded by four parking lots. A computer-generated voice asks the candidate to move a cursor to specific locations on the ground.

By the end of TBAS, the candidate must simultaneously use his feet to keep a box over a moving airplane and his hands to keep a gun sight on a moving airplane while responding to emergency scenarios.

TBAS omits BAT’s risk-taking category. That section of the test didn’t predict a candidate’s success as a pilot, Long said.

Candidates will take TBAS at the same sites BAT has been available, such as ROTC offices and base education centers, Long said.

Candidates who take BAT before it ends in August, and who want a second chance, can take TBAS after at least a 120-day wait.