Grimweasel - yes the accom at BZN is close to the runway (but way more than 50m) but it has brick built walls, double glazing, proper beds and 1 man per room (it is also cool enough to be able to sleep in!).
Hengist - the rotary guys do not night fly all night and the camp site area is reasonably quiet at night and as such allows the crews to get some sleep. The chaps who are "whinging" here are sleeping yards from a 24hour per day active runway operating some VERY noisey aeroplanes. Try that, along with a few long sectors.
WWW - you seem to like stirring things up from the comfort of you "STOP-fly" 737. For example on a thread about the spotters in Greece you made a comment about how "hard" the Brits are and how we "don't mind the body bags coming home"! Have you any first hand experience of military ops or have you just seen too many Vietnam war movies?
Yes, the Harrier boys only fly short sorties but a 14hour crew duty day with 6 sectors is pretty rough - especially when you can't go for a walk to the bog. I have been an Ops officer on those deployments many a time and these guys work bloody hard. The sole plus point is the absence of night flying - but 2 weeks of this kind of thing is debilitating.
Now, the point is tyhat any git can be uncomfortable - but lack of sleep (and that is the real issue here) is a MAJOR flight safety hazzard and should not be tolerated. While it is fair to say that there has to be some extra "give" with ops, the loss of an aeroplane and crew due to fatigue puts a hole in your effectiveness for no good reason. Even those crews who stay airborne and alive will have their operational effectiveness compromised by fatigue - NO-ONE works at their best when knackered and those who say they do are hallucinating.
Fatigue+aircrew=potential disaster , not to mention lack of Op effectiveness. It is tempting for those not directly involved or those who think the truckies have it too easy, to forget that the mission is compromised if anyone does not perform at their best in these circumstances. Yes, life is full of sh@t but no-one should have to take it the way the British Military do.
We do this every conflict - from Paras robbing dead Argies of their boots and jackets because ours were crap to Military pilots flying tired old jets while even more tired themselves, and still being expected to perform at 120+ flying hours per 28 days.
WWW will probably never do more than an average of 60 per month because BALPA will back him - there are no unions for the RAF and these flying rates and conditions are f@cking dangerous and their airships should be ashamed of themselves.