Wodka,
Agree with you, loans are not available to me so I have to find another route and the average pay for an insurance broker is crap and will never fund my aviation career on a more professional level.
If I was an airline recruiter, I'd perfer someone with flying experience rather than someone who has done a stint in the RAF as an 'administrator' so I can't see that just being in the RAF will help. However, if the recruitee had 6 years maintaining fighter jets + had a PPL and ATPL theory I would seriously consider that person to be someone suitable for an airline pilots position.
What about if I did the RAF technician route and after the initial study got my head down into some serious ATPL study and came out at the other end with PPL, ATPL theory, 'X' amount of hours private flying and 6 years service as technician - I then did my ATPL training with all the extra ratings etc - would that be shinny enough for a airline recruiter?
Best.