Scroggs,
Thanks mate, couldn't have put it better myself.
Excel Monkey,
Please don't take this the wrong way but what have you done to find out a bit more about how you're going to spend a large and important chunk of your life, other than fire off a few e-mails?
Go and visit a base, have a look round some of the hardware and most importantly spend a bit of time with some of the guys that do the job, have a couple of beers with them in the Mess/Wardroom and ask them all the questions you like. You're more likely to find find out whether it's the life for you or not there rather than in front of a computer screen.
If that all sounds a bit to difficult and too much effort/hard work then the job itself probably will be too.
Remember, life is not a dress rehearsal and don't end up still sat in front of your PC in twenty years time playing Eurofighter games wishing you'd had a go at the real thing.