Franks (and others),
An interesting thread, albeit with a huge amount of speculation and misinformation. I'll try and clear up a couple of those, and throw in my 20 cents worth about RAAF life in general.
First, the eyesight. In an attempt to confirm some of the rumour floating around on this thread, I went straight to the horse's mouth, and phoned the senior doctor at AVMED in Adelaide. Quite simply, Franks is exactly right in his last post, ie vision as bad as 6/12 is acceptable, provided it can be corrected to 6/6. Laser eye surgery is now acceptable, provided that it has been successful. However, the big caveat is that there is still significant latitude available to the examining ophthalmologist, ie the corneal scan must show that the surgery has produced the required correction without any excess damage. The AVMED doctor's opinion on how sensible it was to have laser surgery (a procedure still in it's relative infancy, and one that is certainly not without risk) was another matter entirely. The rest of the techo numbers were as FnB outlined above.. .AOTW is right when he says that recruiting is manned by all types of people. There are no longer pilots available to do that kind of job, so it has been partially outsourced. The uniformed people are largely NCO's from categories where there is a surplus of personnel (eg admin clerks). Through no fault of their own, they are not always fully informed about all the medical and related issues. In this case, anyone still having problems should quote ADFP 701 (Aust Defence Force Publication). This has been very recently updated to contain the latest medical requirements for both recruiting and serving personnel. Recruiting will be able to source this publication, and if not, should be able to get in touch with someone who can.
Luca - on your issue of rations / quarters etc, you are correct in saying that if you were to live in the mess, your cost of living would be lower than an equivalent member choosing to live in the city.. .However, you need to consider lifestyle. Once people have completed training courses etc, they move off base. No-one (and I mean NO-ONE) lives on base anymore, unless they are completely devoid of social skills! It is generally very isolated, and the camaraderie which used to exist in messes years ago is a thing of the past these days. Just like they say in the ads, in terms of lifestyle,it's a normal job (most of the time at least!)
As far as the job itself goes, I posted this a while ago to a thread on Military Pilots. Perhaps it's a bit whimsical, but for me at least, it sums up how I feel about my career so far...
As the old saying goes, "some days you're the hound, and some days you're the hydrant".. .We all have days when we look out the window, and can't imagine any other aviation job in the world. You know what I mean - you're tally 1 and flaring into the merge, upside down at 50000' and Mach 2, landing your Herc on NVG's (or in Hawaii!) , slamming on a 40 STOL approach in the New Guinea highlands or getting sonobuoy hits off that sub you've been chasing for hours. Where else on earth can you do stuff like that and then go and talk about it for hours over cheap beers with some of the best mates you'll ever make?. .Then there are other days when the bull@#%, the paperwork or the poodling just seems to go on forever. No one in the "support" elements seems to have the first clue about what we do, or why we're there, and if you want anything done properly, you have to do it yourself. On those days, you often ask yourself why you didn't leave years ago.. .Someone said to me many years back that when you first start out, all the crap just washes over you. When you start noticing it, and more to the point, getting worked up over it, it's time to leave.. .Me? Well, I'll never be the chief, but I reckon I've got a couple of years left in me yet. Like most of us, I've wanted to do this since I was a little kid, and I'd hate to look back in twenty years and realise that I left before I got it right out of my system. After all, you're a long time retired.. .So, I go to work, I go flying in one of the world's great aircraft, I get paid pretty well for the privilege ('cause that's what it is), I ignore the bull@#$% and if I'm not flying, I'm out the door at 4.30.. .Yeah......it's still the best flying job money can buy!
So anyway, I think that sums it up. No matter what type you fly, you'll have a fantastic time. I don't know anyone (and I mean that) who has ever regretted being a military pilot.. .Yes, there is a downside (but what job is there that doesn't have one?). .In the main, though, it's been everything I ever imagined it could be. . .So go on - pick up the phone and dial 13-whatever it is and give it a go!
Cheers,
SW