BA Initial Course

[JazzyB123]

I'm booked onto a 10 day BA course and was just wondering if anyone could give me a bit of insight of what to expect. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks, 

Jeff

[Carefree]

Expect to be bombarded with lots of information and prepare to revise.  B.A. involves lots of learning numbers, from turn around times to minimum pressure at entry control etc etc.  This may not mean much to you at the moment but it will.

During your 10 day course you will be doing lots and lots of A and B tests ( if you don’t know what these are you will soon enough).  You will be working hard, very hard.  I’m assuming that during the course you will be doing ‘hot wears’, so hydrate hydrate and hydrate.  

If you are number 1 in a BA crew you never ever come off the wall, remember that.  I won’t go into too much technical details because you will learn it at the pace set by the course.

I’m sure others will be along to add anything I’ve missed.

Good luck and enjoy.

[JazzyB123]

Thanks for the help Carefree! Looking forward to it although slightly nervous of all the numbers to remember.

Thanks again,

[TandA]

I see you are Essex.  Our BA instructors are a great bunch.  Put the effort in and you will be fine.  There is a lot of theory and procedure to learn and plenty of tests to ensure you are taking it in but there are also loads of practical wears too.  Expect two drills a day, some with multiple wears possibly.

As Carefree says, if you are number one in the team then NEVER lose contact with the wall.  Make sure you always do your personal protection.  Practice your door procedures, stair procedures, branch checks, search procedures,  casualty procedures and stuff like that over and over again in lunches, at night etc.  Get them to be second nature.  That leaves you to concentrate on route finding, searching efficiently, decision making etc.

Talk to your team mate - tell them what you are doing if you need them to stop a second or you need them to help etc.  When it comes to decisions around what you can achieve in a wear - you will find you always seem to come across casualties just after your air runs low and you start making your way out - voice your decision making out loud so the instructor can hear it.  That way, they will be able to understand your thinking and see that you hopefully made sensible decisions even when you perhaps cut things a little too fine.

Most importantly, you will make mistakes and have bad days, just dust yourself off and go again.  You might get a dressing down but in reality the instructors expect a few mistakes.  Just make sure you don’t make the same mistakes over and over again.  It is definitely a tough course but one you will look back on with some pride.

[JazzyB123]

Thanks for the detailed reply TandA! I'm really looking forward to it just a little nervous. I'll keep all the tips you and Carefree have stated in mind and I'll let you know how I get on. 

thanks again! 

[HoldFast]

Take off any name stickers you might have on your helmet! You’ll thank me when you see the bright yellow squares on everyone else’s helmet after the course...

[RedAlix]

On 04/11/2018 at 13:03, JazzyB123 said:

Thanks for the help Carefree! Looking forward to it although slightly nervous of all the numbers to remember.

Thanks again,

Don't be too worried about the numbers and everything you have to remember.  That really isn't my strong point but I managed to get 98% in my theory test at the end!  Remember they don't want you to fail so the will bombard you with knowledge till they know you know what you need to know.

[Luminoki]

As a wise older hand once said to me “be switched on all the time, its the only course that could kill you if you take your eye off the ball”

[JazzyB123]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it! RedAlix, that's calmed my nerves a little bit, just looking forward to starting now! 

[Highlander]

Just finished mine(for the 2nd time, different service). Hands down the best course out of the usual suspects. Fresh out of one of the “old hands, old hand” instructors mouth. There are only 3 rules to BA

• Composure 
• Composure
• Composure 

If something isn’t going quite right, take 10-20 sec’s or so to get your composure back and reevaluate what you were doing.

But on top of that, communication. Keep it flowing between all team members.

The most helpful thing I found was that if you think your team mate(s) hasn’t done something right, talk to them. Make it clear to them you want the same, as in the early exercises you won’t remember everything at all times and your partner can very much help keep you right.