What the test is
The formatA joystick, a first-person aircraft camera feed and a crosshair fixed at the centre of the display. Targets appear at varying distances and speeds, and each has to be photographed three times with the trigger before it disappears or is replaced, and a replacement resets the capture count to zero. Targets pass behind obstructions, so reacquiring them means keeping the camera moving in the direction and at roughly the speed the target was travelling while it’s out of sight.
Format description from the published CBAT TMI test guides
(rafcbat.wordpress.com) and the Air Defence Academy test guides
(airdefenceacademy.com/testguides).
Skill area: Hand-eye control.
What candidates say
These points come from people who have sat the test, gathered from forums, community chats and candidates who wrote to us afterwards. Nothing here is quoted or attributed. Each point is graded by how many separate accounts back it up.
✓ Well established! Single account✕ Outdated? From the published guides
This test on its own can cost you the role. One candidate finished eight points under the pilot mark and named this as the test he failed.
Worth knowing because it’s easy to write this one off as unpreparable and therefore not worth thinking about. You can’t train the hardware, but you can arrive knowing to calibrate on the opening targets rather than lunging at the first one, and that alone is worth marks.
Don’t try to snap the crosshair onto a target in one big joystick movement. Close the distance with a coarse input, then fine-adjust before you trigger.
The single most useful thing in the published guidance on this test. Big corrections overshoot, and every overshoot costs you more than the slower approach would have.
Joystick sensitivity differs from station to station, so the opening moments are effectively yours to calibrate with.
Make small deliberate inputs at the start and watch how far the camera actually moves before you commit to chasing anything. Going in assuming your practice sensitivity carries over is how the first target gets away from you.
When a target goes behind something, keep the camera moving in the direction and at the speed it was travelling rather than stopping to wait.
Stopping means reacquiring from scratch when it reappears. Tracking the gap keeps you roughly on it.
This runs on the same joystick hardware as the motor test, where the stations are a documented variable: different dead zones, sensitivities and wear.
Which means the same rule applies: if your station feels genuinely unusable, say so at the start rather than fighting it. Staff keep spares. That’s reported from the motor test rather than this one, but it’s the same room and the same kit.
The practice run ends on its own and the scored test starts straight away, with no break in between.
One candidate missed a role because of this and said several others in the room hadn’t noticed the switch either. Fly the practice as if it already counts.
The camera is mounted on an aircraft moving through a large scene rather than sitting in one place, and there are a lot of targets to photograph.
Several recent candidates described it this way. Expect the view to move on its own while you aim.
You have to keep each target inside the box the whole time, not just line up and wait for it to come out from cover.
From a candidate who scored very well. Targets sometimes turn too tightly to hold perfectly, and that is fine; pick them back up and carry on.
It is long and constant, and candidates reported arm fatigue and hand cramp towards the end.
Hold the stick loosely and rest your forearm where you can. If you practise, do full-length runs rather than short bursts.
The stick works like an aircraft’s: push forward to move the view down, pull back to move it up.
From one detailed account. If your practice is set up the other way round, switch it before the day.
Practise it on SkyWatch
Our RTT game puts you behind a camera with a crosshair, photographing targets as they move and pass behind cover.
It works with a joystick if you have one, and with a mouse or touch if you do not. There is an Easier board to learn the controls on.
800+
practice runs played
on SkyWatch
on SkyWatch
Every SkyWatch game is our own CBAT-style practice version, built from what candidates report. None of them is the real test.
Related tests
- Sensory Motor Apparatus Test (SMA)the joystick and pedals
Read more
This page is one part of the complete CBAT guide, which also covers how the day runs, the pass marks and the domain minimums. Or see every CBAT test on one page.