Firstly i would like to say to all those on here who are looking at a career in this field of the RAF........DONT BOTHER!! The whole outfit are a JOKE!! I've had the displeasure of being flown around the world by them for the past 22 years and can honestly say i've only ever flown on time twice without delays!!
I'll echo most other people here and point out this is for the RAAF. That said, military transport doesn't have the same mentality as the airlines do. ALG isn't constrained by departure times (ideal world all times would be met) but safety and maintenance issues come first. Minimum equipment lists in the military are very stringent and the attitude is generally one of "If its broke, we might as well fix it and have a perfectly working aircraft." Where as the civil environment CFU's it and will pick it up later. Thats one example as to why military aircraft might depart late. There are a whole multitude of other reasons that I won't bother to list as I personally think that its obvious as to what the priorities are in the military.
Sure the RAAF can be painful at times, with organisational constraints putting sometimes unnecessary pressures on its people, but I, and nearly all I talk to (Maintenance, Aircrew, Support staff etc etc) wouldn't give this job up for anything. So what if you're a few hours late into Butterworth, Diego Garcia or a myriad of other countries/places... We'll all still get to have victory drinks at the end of the flight
So to the people going through the DFR process to become a pilot... Please ignore what was said (apart from it being about the RAF). Nothing beats going into another country, going out for drinks and then flying back. Having a blast whilst doing it. Pilot in the RAAF is probably the best job you can imagine... (at least if you're a boggie (even better a boggie copilot if you go multicrew)).