Has anyone ever failed an RYA VHF/SRC course?

[petery]

I took an VHF course at an RYA 'approved' school 2 years ago. I was shown 2 long videos; had 20 minutes on a simulator; a coffee and got my 'ticket'.

The RYA contacted me on a random quality control check and I found out that I should have been given a written exam. A friend recently took the same course at the same school and - again - no written exam.

It seems to me that I get more information on DSC and GMDSS on the self-adhesive stickers that boating magazines give away than from this trivial course.

If you pay your fee and are breathing at the end of the course - you appear to pass and the 'lecturer' - who appears not to be quality controlled by the RYA - pockets the fat fee. Ok so they have to provide a simulator - but its often not the set you use and two cans with a length of string would do just as well.

I recently took the 4 day Long Range Certificate course - administered by the MCA - and that involved nearly 1/2 day of exams with an independent visiting examiner.

Isn't it time to stop the farce of the VHF course - I believe they manage without it in the US.

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[sealine]

I took mine about two years ago and it was over 2 days to cover both VHF & DSC. I had a written and verbal exam?. It looks like it depends on where you go. I took mine at the school of navigation on the hamble.
John

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[Mike2822425]

See my post on R to R. Re Gmdss.

It aint easey . But if you get it right and conclude that DCS is little but a Text Message before the "xhit" goes down you will live to sail another day.
#
Mike.







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[Mike2822425]

Sorry to all the to the "plebs" that though it was a forgon conclusion that to turn up "you got your ticket" Not in my part of Scotland you dont its 2 nights of hard going!!! Maybe its because we work to D.O T. Spec.

Mike

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[tcm]

Re: Excelent handle there, sealine!

i wonder why nobody thought of that name?

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[Twister_Ken]

Has anyone ever TAKEN an RYA VHF/SRC course?

Whenever I have ch16 on, I wonder if I'm the only person ever to have taken the course.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[Mike_Martin]

You should write to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's Chief Executive Maurice Storey. They control the contract that RYA operates under for the SRC course and exam.

As to the US it has been covered many times but if you think radio use is bad here ???

Mike


<hr width=100% size=1>Manager,
Aeronautical & Maritime Services Section,
Radiocommunications Agency

 

[FlyingSpud]

Yep, a woman on the course I was on (and that was a few years ago now) actually failed. Nobody at the school could believe it, but they had no choice. Basically she was ultra nervous over any sort of exam or test and seemed unable to talk to anyone face to face - let alone on the radio - or able to remember anything

Her husband later told me she had taken the driving test a load of times and frozen every time then to the point she could not even get into the car on one occasion.

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[Neal]

I knew someone who failed the navigation section

of the old vhf course.

Like you, I didn't know there was a navigation section, and was intrigued.

It turned out that he was incapable of giving a reciprocal bearing, even if he had a protractor or compass rose in front of him.

He certainly did not exhibit obvious signs of high intellect, but I still found it hard to believe.

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[Little_Russel]

I did the course recently and you definitely would have had to have died halfway through the course to have failed it. And even then they probably would have allowed you to re-sit it. It really was rather a waste of time and more information could be gleaned from a sheet, that was compulsory equipment, stuck up by the radio. It was a nice little earner for the guy doing the course though!

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[vyv_cox]

About 10 years ago I compared the allocation of marks for questions with the pass marks. This showed that anybody who can recite the Mayday procedure according to the book will pass. Since the Pan-Pan procedure is virtually the same with a few word changes, the implication is that almost anyone can pass with honours.

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[Peppermint]

Re: Could it be that...

..those that take the course don't use the VHF for trivial matters leaving the airwaves to the untrained masses?

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