Military Life

[Scratch One Bandit]

Hi Guys,

I have been considering joining the military as a pilot for some time now. My commercial flight training school went bust recently, and I've lost a lot of money, so now seems as good a time as ever to look deeper into it.

I was hoping to get an idea from you guys as to what military life is like. This is my only real concern about joining. What is the quality of life like? How much freedom is there? And what are your social and family lives like?

I was also told that you need to be up to scratch on current events, even beyond what is reported on the news. Is that true? What sort of depth are they expecting?

Many thanks for any input,

Scratch.

[Ex F111]

Scratch,

There is no better job.

Flying Jets,

Done it for 21 years...

. .Definately not for everyone though. We all winge and whine, and conditions are far from perfect, BUT...

You might want to consider your retirement plans to ascertain length in service, pensions, etc..

I'm sure you will get mixed responses, but I give military flying the tick., but then again, I'm not everyone.

[mutleyfour]

You shouldn't need to ask those questions, it's simple really....most folk in the military are there because they've always wanted to be!

Not really recommended as a means to fly following your sorry tale!

The military requires personnel that will find the military flying environment a challenge and not just a means of clocking up hours in order to jump ship!!

You either want it or not!!! <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

[talkingsuit]

Don't know whether the life would suit you, only you could answer that one. Ultimately I suppose it all boils down to whether or not you want to surround yourself with like minded shallow fools who complain about all the ills of the world which have been foisted upon them and seem unable to stare their good fortune in the face.

embittered...moi?

[bootscooter]

yes, but we do love it, don't we? (Rhetorical!) :)

[BEagle]

Do it. .Do it!. .DO IT!!

You could always fly lager louts from Lootnairpawt to Oy-Oy-Oybeetha later in life if that's your ultimate bag, baby - but go that route now and you may never know what it's like to see transonic jump at 250' (honest, m'lud) chasing mud movers whilst trying to get a decent 'winder growl....

Yes - we whinge about this and that, but those are minor bleats; at the end of the day most of us can't get enough of mil-spec flying!!

SO DO IT!!!!!!!!!

[Al Titude]

BEagle you truly are a legend! How about banding some banana jet war stories like that around the BZN happy hour to liven it up a little?!!

[Bervie]

BEagle you are a true legend!

The RAF needs more stories of experiences just like that to keep us young lads mad for!

[BEagle]

No, my public, not in a banana jet! I admit quite openly that I was a cr@p F4 driver, but one fine day we were on an exercise somewhere near Carlisle. As usual, the radar had died, so we were CAPing at 250 ft with eyes peeled looking out for the mud movers we knew were inbound to Spadeadam from the south. After going round and round for ages we were just thinking about RTB-ing when chum 'Wiggy' in the back spotted a couple of Jags - we then saw some more slightly further away and realised that they were all heading for their pre-attack RV. So I'm afraid that 'the horns came out' - to hell with the folks on the ground, full AB and we'll catch the bug.gers! We charged at the back pair, eventually got a decent growl off each and despatched them with a 'winder kill (simulated!) each, passed them as though they were standing still - then as we caught and 'killed' the first pair I saw an ominous twitch from the altimeter as 'transonic jump' occurred...OOPS!!! Boomed the peasants below as we pulled up and went back to WTM, but - as someone once said - that's what they get for living on the ground!

Even more fun was chasing an F104 across Stowmarket at 500KIAS....scattering Harriers over the aerodrome during a mineval by flying straight at their formation, etc, etc - but most UK FJ mates will have had similar fun over the years - I'm not BSing! Honest!!

If you never have a go at FJ flying, you'll always regret it. Even if you end up - as I did - getting chopped after being declared operational on FJs, at least you'll have had a crack at the very best type of exciting flying there can possibly be...........!!

DON'T THINK TWICE - DO IT!!!!!

[ 25 January 2002: Message edited by: BEagle ]</p>

[Al Titude]

BEagle, I doubt the Jags let you get a shot on them. Probably the other two (that you hadn't seen) had already Fox 2'd you in the stern. Good effort with the speed control though!

(Such cheek from one so young...)

[Bervie]

I propose a thread purely for legendary stories from the old school, and any recent ones too of course! . .Great story BEagle - Booming the peasants just reminds them we are having more fun than them.

Keep the stories going before they leave for Ryanair and are never heard in Happy hour again.

[BEagle]

No - the Jags were very surprised to see us go belting past, I can still see the surprised look on the face of the No 4 as he looked up from his 'ackle, ackle, insert..' switchology!

Trouble was, it was late '82 and we'd already been 9-Lima'd by a hardarsed Harrier mate just back from the Malvinas.....

[RW-1]

Mil life is a life all it's own, with its own set of rules, etc.

But you have the freedom off duty to basically do what you wish. In that respect, you have a day job, and could be called at any time to go do something. You will typically pull duty sometime on a weekend during a month also.

The social and family lives are no differant than outside the mil, except that you may be away from them for stretches at a time. Unless they go overseas with you, etc.

As for the being on top of current events, not really. But it helps.

[Scratch One Bandit]

Guys, thanks a lot for sharing your opinions. I'm off to the careers office tomorrow for a chat and some info.

[Blacksheep]

Good Lord BEagle, you really snagged that one! You'll be a legend at the Careers Office on your next ground tour for sure <img src="eek.gif" border="0">

**********************************. .Through difficulties to the cinema

[WorkingHard]

Easy life, good pay, no responsibility for the airplane, some one else to do all the donkey work, not required to fly in any way to conserve precious company funds, retirement with superb pay off and pension after ONLY 16 YEARS SERVICE, ignore many of the rules of flying (class A airspace, MSD etc etc. Go for it boyo you will not get any of that outside the protected military environment.

[BEagle]

What's a 'ground tour'? Left Cranwell in 1974 and have flown ever since - apart from 6 weeks in the Islas Malvinas! Does that count?

[Blacksheep]

Ah yes, I forgot that you chaps are working for a living these days. Time was that flying/ground tours alternated every couple of years and aircrew were so starved of hours they would fight to the death for the privilege of taking ATC cadets up in a Chippie :)

**********************************. .Through difficulties to the cinema

[DP Harvey]

Scratch, your opening message gives me the impression that you think it is your choice, whether to join or not. Its not. Your only choice is to apply or not to apply.

I agree with everything that has been said about flying in the RAF, and if you are the right type of person you are most welcome to apply and I wish you well.

You will be in a very stiff competition and even if you are the best of any given selection process you might not make the grade anyway.

Finally, to be a pilot you must be an officer. I leave you to work out what that means.

[Scratch One Bandit]

Sorry DP Harvey, bad wording on my behalf. 'Thinking of applying to join' would have been a lot better. Thanks for your input.

[ScopeDope]

A quick question, not an implied criticism, but does the fact that someone is 'thinking' of applying go against them in the motivation game.

When I applied for Biggin Hill (showing my age) I was told in no uncertain terms that 'if your thinking of applying do not bother. If you ache to get there give it a go'

But that was a long time ago and I was a serving lad at the time.

BTW I failed at the eysight stage. To quote the doc 'Son you would be lucky to find the aircraft let alone fly it'

Ah well. Good luck to you.

[Scratch One Bandit]

ScopeDope, I can see what you mean. Maybe those who claim to be 'thinking' about it aren't the sort of people who end up as military pilots.

The thing is, in my case, I was training to be a commercial pilot. My private flight training college went bust after Sept 11th, and I lost a lot of money (several thousand). I also owe the bank a few thousand. I'm now in a dead-end job and have very little money. I had to stop and think about what I now really wanted to do with my life. Do I get some other job for a year and try to return to commercial training or do something else. I spent the next few months thinking about the military along with other less interesting careers. I had never really considered myself good enough to be a military pilot (part of the reason I chose commercial), until one day I realized that the decision is not mine to make, as long as I try my damn best at it. Now I really feel this is what I want to do (or at least give it my very best shot).

Anyway, I don't want to waffle on and bore you all. Thank you for your input ScopeDope, and everyone else's opinions. It's all been very useful, and has given me things to think about.

[ 28 January 2002: Message edited by: Scratch One Bandit ]</p>