ExRigger,
Sorry mate but I fail to see how you could have been offered service to 55 and then told to leave at 47 because you failed to make Flt Sgt. Many years ago certain Chiefs were able to sign on to 55 because they had reserve rights. To my knowledge none were told to leave.
The rules then changed and when you made the rank of SNCO you were offered 22 years with the later ability to sign to 47. If you made Fly Sgt you could then go to 55.
Then they introduced LOS 30 which meant most of us could extend to age 48, but unless you made Flt Sgt by that age you could still not sign on to 55.
It has always been a bone of contention because (and this is only a hypothetical example) an admin or PTI Sgt could become a Fly Sgt after approx 6 years and get signed on to 55 but a techie had to get promoted to Chief Tech first after approx 6 years, then do another approx 6 years to get Flt Sgt – 12 years in total before being able to sign on to 55.
How fair was that???
It did not help that between the different aircraft trades promotion times could be so radically different. i.e. average promotion time for a fairy Sgt to Chief - 4 years. Sooty/Rigger Sgt to Chief, 5-6 years. Fairy Chief to Flt Sgt, 4-5 years. Sooty/Rigger Chief – not even a look in unless you were a God.
Very annoying since Flt Sgts in general did the same job (whatever the trade ) on Sqns or Sections.
And yes I am a little bit bitter.
I gave up on promotion and elected to apply for Tranche 3 redundancy. 2 weeks later I was offered promotion to Flt Sgt and was told to withdraw redundancy if I had applied, to be able to get the promotion.
Turned down promotion; got redundancy and now work for a company on the other side of the fence. Well happy.
Oh and by the way I never knew the Royal Air Force Apprentice scheme included “stackers”. I might have missed something so please enlighten me if I have.
Mind you I do miss detachments.