Originally Posted by
NutLoose
I cannot argue against that, the bullet proof service that was once promised dissapeared with the emergency of forced redundancies and the targeting of some individuals approaching pension age, at that point it simply became another job without the "protection" it previously had....
...Back to would you rejoin..... They couldn't afford me, nor give me any incentive to do so, finacial or otherwise, as far as I am concerned my skill set is far greater now than an RAF engineering officer and I should imagine the same goes for any ex RAF engineers now licenced.
....RAF engineering training as good as it is, constantly gets dumbed down, to the point it is today, it is fine for a narrow targeted product, but out in the real world, the wider skills are no longer there, and you don't know how much it pains me to say that...
Totally agreed - and that is probably why my trend comment is true too. Of the ex-RAF LAEs I know none would go back and be a lackey again. The freedom of maintaining aircraft is so much easier than the military way of doing things, and safety and job security is better assured too.
However, due to the low standard and low numbers of maintenance staff even now leaving the armed forces, lots of civil aviation academies and colleges are now taking up the slack and potentially excluding future RAF maintainers from touching aircraft when they leave!
If that happens, aircraft trades in the armed forces would potentially be 'dead' trades, killed off by ignorance and indifference by MOD.