Perhaps I can offer a small glimmer of light. These days it is entirely possible to have a much more stable career than your predecessors enjoyed. Just look at the aircraft types and you will realise that they are mostly confined to one base nowadays. To give examples from the FJ world, I know guys who have been at Coningsby for several consecutive tours. I also know a guy who started on GR4s at Lossie in 2002/3 and is still there. He has even managed a promotion in that time. This is not always the case of course.
Deployments happen and you will usually have advance notice of them. Again though, this is not always the case.
One of the intended aims of the NEM is to keep people more stationary than previously so there is some hope.
As for overseas tours you will just have to join the queue like everyone else. You may get lucky, you may not.
My final point is just keep an open mind. When I was on IOT I had (what I believed was) a serious girlfriend. We lasted a year and then went our separate ways. I felt the pain that you are experiencing but if you really want to be a pilot then stay the course. If your lady really wants to be with you she will. Even leaving the RAF (in extremis) may not sway her.
As a further example we had a student here last year who VW'd from FJ training to be with his wife who was squinnying. He will now never be an RCAF pilot. The wife? She left him!
It is very easy for us to tell you to dump the missus but do whatever you need to do. Just remember you put in a lot of effort to follow your dream. If you do throw it away, make damn sure it is for the right reasons.
Don't let Cranditz get you down. It's not forever. It's also not much like the real RAF!
BV
