Vr guy,
I wouldn't be so quick to dimiss the usefulness of the Air Cadets, especially as you have evinced an interest in the Forces as a pilot.
The air cadets will give you time around aircraft. Possibly, if you work at it, your private pilot licence, and or glider pilot licence. They can and do provide work experience and contacts in the business. For life.
As a fer instance, the guy in charge of the new service joint flying school is an ex air cadet. I was in the cadets with him. So is the editor of the Air Force Flight Safety magazine Flight Comment, as well as the accident investigators at the Directorate of Flight Safety.
A great many serving members of the forces are ex-cadets. The cadets will give you a no-risk sample of some aspects of the military life. For a heads-up, a substantial number of drop-outs from the service flying program occur at the basic officer level. Having a basic knowledge of how to:
- March
- Shine your boots
- Make a Bed
- Iron your clothes
will make your time on the BOC much simpler.
The Air Force Indoc and the survival training will also be much easier.
Having earned a scholarship to learn how to fly will not necessarily help you directly, to become a service pilot. There is a difference between flying as a service pilot and being a private pilot. But at least you will be over the portion of the course wasted by new officer cadets looking at themselves in a flight suit in the mirror.
Aside from anything else, given that you like flying... it's fun!