Chillwinston,
Welcome (nearly) to SH. I don't blame you for looking long term, in todays air force this shows a prudent hedging of bets. Nearly all of the SH pilots (and some Navs & crewmen) I've known who've sought airline employment at their 38/16 point have been successful. There are some caveats to this, however. Normally, SH mates would expect a F/O position at a Charter outfit (Thompson/Easy/BMI etc) before switching to larger operators, but recently some have been successful at getting into BA/Virgin/Cathay directly. I think what I'm getting at is that your attraction to an airline is directly proportional to their needs. You could quite easily spend 25K of your gratuity getting an ATPL (A) + type rating and then be still earning less than in the military for a few years, or if terrorism/SARS/bird flu etc hit again you might not be welcome at all. I don't know what part of the country you're from, but my advice would be to buy a property now somewhere like Aberdeen / Inverness / Glasgow where you might end up either flying planks or helos post the RAF. Who knows, you might even make money on it! Good luck on the OCU!