Simple Solution-
If you want time off for sport- get your own sports insurance and put leave in!
We are embracing all these 'best practices' i.e LEAN from civvy street- Do any civvy companies give their workforce time off for sport? If my wife asked her boss for two weeks off (paid) to play sport and keep her full holiday entitlement he'd fall off his chair laughing just before giving her the sack.
Do you really think we gain any recruits through the
PR generated by our sportsmen? I wonder if anyone replied to the question 'Why do you want to join the RAF?' with the reply 'Because Rory Underwood's in the RAF'
One person in 40,000 doesn't sound much but its not one it's hundreds of man hours every week lost in this way. Time to get into the 21st century.
Noticed in one of the RAF Mags a while back a report on the RAF Police Golf Society's Tour of the USA, granted these guys probably paid for some of it from their own money- but in the service interest? Sailing expeditions to the Caribbean? etc...
I can't even get time off work to do my Pre-Gulf Heat Acclimatisation Training.
Helmet and ECBA on......