I miss the familiar environment and the relatively carefree position of having a secure job, but not at the cost of being owned like a slave. Since the turn of the century the Service has become more and more demanding as rubber bands stretch, but the increased tempo has been matched by a similar rise in presumptiousness/lack of regard for people.
I'm quite sure the majority of people understand why we have to be away from home more often since 9/11, and most have the integrity to meet their commitments, but when the way we are managed is dumbed down, and people start to become little more than assets, it's time to go.
To compound issues, the tools we are provided with to do the job are ancient, inadequate or both, and I personally became tired of having to work harder for no other reason than to fix the plan because the kit had let us down, while working in spite of the new showpiece computer system.
As for why I continue to look at Pprune, it both reassures me that I've made the right decision despite the economy, while confirming that the RAF still lacks the fundamental desire to learn from the sort of mistakes that convinced me it was time to go.
More seriously, there are many behind me biding their time, still wearing uniform for now, and it astonishes me that this doesn't seem to have sunk in at the top. We need a dramatic, and dare I say revolutionary, reassessment of how the RAF does business. Right now there seems to be a lot of fiddling going on, with Rome as a backdrop.