Just composed a full reply, pressed send and got that increasingly familiar 'server too busy' page. Reply lost in cyberspace....
So, to summarise:
Chipmunk/JP/Gnat/Hunter. Posted to 58 Sqn, sqn disbanded a few weeks later. Posted to Buccs, top of student bombing ladder and weapons theory (100%), then chopped for lack of progress. JP ref, then Vulcan on 35 Sqn. Did Bombing comp in USA, selected for captaincy but asked to go back to fast jets. JP ref, then Hawk at Chiv (won best weapons trophy), then Phantoms. 500 hours and Operational, but not up to their requirements. Yet another ref course, this time on the worthless Jetstream. Then VC10 course, then VC10K on 101 Sqn. Co-pilot, then captain, then IRE before being sent to CFS. Won Bulldog aeros trophy, then off to UAS for 3 years with 6 months off as VC10K captain in GW1. Back to UAS, did A2, then posted back to VC10. Right place, right time - asked to join OCU staff. Then did everything one could possibly do on VC10, ended up as full A cat - was also going for A cat in AT after first 18 months as a B cat in the role, but the scheme was scrapped before I got the chance. Recommended to do A1 QFI upgrade, but had become increasingly disillusioned with meddling interference, wheel re-invention, constant cut-backs and people who never said thank you, so didn't get round to doing it. Decided to PVR, then sent to Binnsworth for final 7 weeks by grateful air force....20 years at Brize, 5000+hours on the '10 and not even a stn dining-out. Pretty well summed up the way things had changed over 20 years.... Feel valued..??
Best times were V-force, closely followed by first 18 years on the '10....until we began to work harder and harder for no reward; all stick and no carrot, assets clearly didn't match tasks... Enough was enough - so that's when I pulled the handle.
Best decision I ever made as I now get paid for doing things which the RAF used to take for granted - and the MD writes personally to say thank you! I work with a well-respected team, no-one is worried about promotion or helping some self-important
pr@tt to crawl up a multi-starred rectum; instead we just concentrate on the task in hand.
Bitter? No, not really. Except that over 40 places in the UK alone where the RAF used to fly when I joined have now closed, most of the ac are well past their sell-by date....and yet the cuts just keep on coming! Good luck to those staying in - I think you're going to need it!