Whilst you will find a number of moans and whinges on these pages, the basic military flying lifestyle is what you make of it. You will succeed only through your own effort and energy, no matter which genre of aircraft you end up flying.
Many of our aircraft are, shall we say, somewhat elderly. However, that means that you'll be flying and working in an atmosphere of 'can do - will do' rather than with a bunch of 'what's in it for me' types.
For sure you won't make silly money, but if you're prepared to take the rough with the smooth the satisfaction you will get is unique. I used to remind those who moaned about a night stop in the transit accommodation at Goose (which is actually pretty darned good fun - beer, pizza and banter in the bar with some very good mates) that they could be spending a few days in Hawaii next! Beats the hell out of Lootnairpawt to Oybeetha with a cargo of shell suited lager louts - even if their ac is rather more Gucci!
Incidentally, whilst you may see the odd piece of frustration on here manifesting itself (and which may, on occasion, have gone rather too far, mea culpa!), the overwhelming majority of our youngsters relish the freedom and lifestyle which they have on their squadrons - as do many of the 'oldsters', of course. 'Management' does, in fact, do its very best to improve matters whenever it feasibly can - honest!; frequently such efforts are unseen and unheard and in a world where people are rather swift to chide and slow to bless, you will often read somewhat unbalanced views on this site as you will be more likely to hear about complaints raised than read about solutions achieved. Take a pinch of salt with what you read and don't think twice about it; join to fly and enjoy the challenge of real flying rather than the humdrum existence of airline flying - although I suppose that you can always do that later in life if you really must....
Go on....
Go on, go on....
Go on, go on, go on....
You'll always kick yourself if you didn't give it your best try!! And it's still fun, we've got some very interesting aircraft coming in over the next decade - get an attachment to a sqn arranged through your UAS and see what you could be doing soon!!
[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: BEagle ]</p>