Erskine,
Trust me, if flying is in your blood then you do not (I repeat DO NOT) want to go anywhere near the Army Air Corps. I am more than willing to get 'shot down in flames' by my colleagues, but consider the following:
1. Aged 27-30'ish you will be whisked off to a desk job because the people that manage your career actually believe that being Flight Commander is the same as being a Tank Sgt (fact).
2. Unless you are selected for Squadron Command the chances of you flying again after said desk jobs are becoming scarce and if you do get to command a squadron you haven't flown for so long it takes you at least half the posting to catch up with things in the cockpit and secondly you have so much niff naff and triv to sort out you never have the time to be able to focus on actually commanding your squadron.
3. The Army Air Corps does not have the facilities or infrastructure of the other two Services. It is the poor cousin in Aviation and as there is so much resistence by the Blackadder style leadership to forge a cohesive Joint way forward, then that will always be the future of the Army Air Corps.
4. If you want to spend your life in a trench or being a part of the 'Maroon Airborne 'Machine' then the Army Air Corps is for you. If you want to neglect everything else that is going on the MoD and focus on one Brigade, then join the Army Air Corps. The other 2 Services will offer variation of work with different formations before the Odiham, Belize and Brunei boys all jump to defend - how much of the Army Air Corps effort is expended in 16 Air Assault Brigade (90% ish).
5. If you want to be properly resourced for your flying, then the Army Air Corps is not for you. Both of the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Air Force have one focus, to get the airmen airborne. The Army Air Corps still have this weird idea that they are soldiers first. Might have worked with Skeeters and Scouts but the equivalent capability of a Harrier does not see Harrier pilots flying from a ploughed up quagmire with no weather forecast. I look in envy everytime I fly into an RN/RAF Air Station.
6. If you still want to be married then look to the other 2 Services. The Army Air Corps is notorius for writing superb policy papers (written by the very people that are pulled out of flying aged 28 but dont see the field army for 5-10 years). The flaw in their policy papers that look superb to the generals but the reality is that the policy papers cannot be manned! Everyone thinks the problem has gone away, but it has just been passed onto a Squadron that is already undermanned. Wives can only take so much of one husband doing 2 or 3 'gapped posts' work and husbands can only take so much of not enough ambulance drivers, flight planning staff or bowsers that just making getting airborn so hard to do.
Apologies if I sound negative Erskine, but you should really do as the others suggest. Have a good look around and think where you want to be in ten years time. I can look you straight in the eye and say that the flying is fantastic and the majority of the people you work with are on exactly the same wavelength.
Sadly though, the Army Air Corps is not allowed to be proffesional aviators and therefore my application to transfer to the RAF is currently being processed at Innsworth (along with a few others I hear, and additionally the word on the street is that very few AAC exchange officers are returning from their RN exchanges).
But don't take my word - ask the Careers Office/HQ DAAvn for a visit to a 'working' AAC Regiment.....that will prove them with a challenge in todays climate (i.e. I bet that you are not left alone in a crewroom to 'chew the fat'!)
Best of luck, whatever your choice.
Last edited by Front Seater; 19th Dec 2004 at 19:45.