It's interesting hearing both sides of the debate. I left the mob 18 months ago and into a broadly similar civilian flying role. Some of the 'money' reasons for leaving at option point and not waiting for full term:
- A real terms 12% pay cut since 2008
- Reduction and removal of allowances (IA, reductions in mileage allowance, 20% reduction in most subsistence allowance)
- Enforced pension change from AFPS75 to AFPS15. Although the pension is still good, this change in itself costs upward of £100k. Not to mention the RPI to CPI change!
- Housing issues. Housing works if you're married, or you're single. If you want to live with your partner and not be married, it's of little consequence to the package, especially when you are South East based. 'FAM' is unknown and not likely to be better.
The people above adding an arbitrary 51% to the RAF salary to compensate for the pension are living a fallacy. There are very few of us outside that would salary sacrifice 51% to their pension pot; most of the young 'uns are still striving to buy ever-inflating property, which the invisible RAF pension does not help.
Outside of money, stability is a huge issue with the RAF, with no roster or schedule you're effectively on standby 24/7. You can't plan dinner with friends. You can't really go away for the weekend. You're regularly pinged last minute for detachments or last minute trips. Things change...a lot, and often not due to the user, but due to inefficiencies in planning and tasking stages. Posting stability has improved, but there is no guarantee you won't get posted to the other side of the country for 3 years.
After leaving I'm on a comfortable 6 figures (not adding pension or allowances or bonuses), work up to 14 days a month, live in the same area, don't go into work if I'm not flying and don't have to deal with the day-to-day Service annoyances (JPA, Imprests, CCS, SDO, JOD, GPCs, IRT, RSOI).
Sure, I miss seeing my RAF buddies daily, but most realise that the grass IS greener, unless you are one of the few where the RAF really fits (children in private school, married quarter, PA etc, or you've escaped the frontline and work mon-fri). I had an awesome time, met awesome people, but glad I didn't listen to those who have never actually experienced life 'outside', and seem determined to convince people that ever-reducing Ts & Cs and ever-increasing workload is normal (although I'm sure that may be the case for some airlines as well!).