Commonwealth Air Forces
 

Surprised no-one's asked this with the current goings-on at Linton etc...

Have been wondering about jumping ship for a while; and with the fast jet front line getting smaller and smaller it looks like there are going to be less jobs for a not-terribly experienced chap in my shoes.

However I'm lead to believe that some Commonwealth air forces are short of blokes happy to strap a G-suit on to serve the same Queen.

Does anyone have any contacts for our Commonwealth mates in either the western or southern hemisphere? I appreciate that residency and citizenship requirements normally affect applications like this, but extreme things happen when forces are either overborne or short, as we're finding out.

Always fancied emigrating at some point in my life; anyone got a decent name, phone number or email address that could start me off on the right road?

Thanks in advance,

PMA's Toy

For the Canuckistanian Air Force http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/index_e.htm

Try contacting Australia House and ask for the Defence Attache's office.

Might find this of some help?




Your documentation should be directed to:

Appointments
Directorate of Personnel Officers (Air Force)
R8-7-041
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Tel: 02 62665 2483

If you require any further information on the Australian Defence Force,
please visit our website at www.defencejobs.gov.au.

Hate to put a damper on youse guys wanting to join the Royal Orstryain Air Force, but the word from the head shed is that there will be be no lateral recruiting (ie recruiting from other air forces, or ex-RAAF pilots wanting to get back in) until at least the middle of this year.
Nothing to stop you starting the paperwork trail though.

......and I wouldn't pin too much hope on the Cans - they are cutting down to a phenomenally small number of Hornets and they already have a large backlog in the trg system.

MT

PMAs Toy,

I made the jump last year from UK Brown Jobs to Down-Under Brown Jobs. I know its not strictly Air Force, but the process is very similar. If you are interested in the RAAF I would contact the Mil Attache in Australia House first. They are well practised in the area of lateral recruiting for all three services and will be able to answer 90% of your questions. Bearing in mind what Captain Sand Dune said, if you were to put in an application now, you could expect it to take not less than a year before you actually touched down in the worlds largest Sgt's Mess:p (the paperwork is extraordinarily lengthy), so by then the RAAF may be accepting laterals again. Maybe a RAAF pilot will have more to add to this.

A word of warning though:ooh: However crap things are at home remember that if you transfer you are only transferring to another Air Force that is undermanned, overstretched, underfunded and has equipment procured by self-serving, ill-informed and generally witless politicians ensuring that you will never achieve the mission quite as well as you could have done without the aforementioned handicaps. That said, Australia is a fine country, the lifestyle is awesome and you will not come across a society that has such a large proportion of f**king good blokes/ladies outside of dear old Blighty:ok:

If things are not doing it for you at home and the RAAF is recruiting and you're not doing it just because you think the grass is greener, then go for it. I doubt you will regret it.

EO

[Edited for bid granma]

EO,

Thanks for the advice. I'll see if I can get an address for the Aus mil attache and get a nice letter sorted to start the process off.

I'm not easily pulled into the "grass is greener" thing; as you say, things just aren't really floating my boat at home, and while the Australians' grass might not be greener, at least it's different grass!

If you have any more hints or tips, please do drop me a PM.

Thanks,

PMA's Toy

Any gen on what the prospects are for non master race types? I would love to join the RAAF but don't think they have an equivalent trade to Flight Ops Manager, but clearly hoping they do. Anyone care to shed some light for a poor blind beggar?

DH98,

Not sure what you mean by non master race (being the pompous ar*e that I am, I consider being British and an Army Aviator has always qualified me for master race status :p ), but if you mean not British or Australian, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. Unless of course you are a citizen comrade of North Korea. :ooh:

That aside, I know that AAAvn has laterally recruited pilots from UK, Canada, Zimbabwe, South Africa, USA and Malaysia. I don't see why the RAAF would necessarily exclude you if you were not from the AUS/CAN/UK/US and NZ circle. Its probably more a question of whether they need or want Flying Ops Managers. Again, I would recommend you contact the Military Desk at your nearest 'fair dinkum' Australian High Commission.

PMAs Toy,

Glad to help. PM on the way if I can work out how to do it. 4 Years on PPrune and never tried it.:rolleyes:

EO

i would provide the contact details for the royal new zealand airforce, but i dont think we have one anymore

Empire One,

Sorry mate it seems my cryptic reference may not have the same meaning in the colonies. Back here in blighty, and certainly the RAF, the term master race is a tongue in cheek term for aircrew and particularly pilots, hence the term 'two winged master race'!

My question therefore was aimed at a non flying trade within the RAAF. I have approached Aussie House and scanned the RAAF website and neither could enlighten me as to the existence of a Flight Operations Manager trade in the RAAF. I shall have to contact Canberra direct instead.

I was rather hoping someone out there may be able to help me so that I appeared less of an @rse when my letter hit some poor sods desk.:} :}

DH98

Ah-ha, apologies old chap. Delete Pompous Ar*e; Insert Stupid Ar*e.

Still, I'm surprised Australia House couldn't give you any answers. Anyway, to make ammends, if you PM me I could dig up some contact names in the RAAF.

EO

DH89,
The closest I would suggest that the RAAF has to a Flight Ops Manager would be that most unusual and rare of creatures, the Squadron OPSO.
As I never had a ground job (proud boast) I don't have much of a clue about the manning of these positions, but at certain times at some squadrons, we would have an ops officer who would run the ops board, take the beeper home, whinge and moan and so on.
Most of these people tended to have an admin or equipment background, but the problem as I understand it was that there wasn't money allocated in the system to have one for each squadron full-time, so reservists (or nobody) often got the job.
Worth looking into, perhaps - send a letter to the 'DPO-AF' address given above.
Good luck!

I tried to join the Canucks only 9 months ago but they turned me down because they had enough canadians wanting to join. The fact that they are a commonwealth air force gave me no extra entitlement to be considered to to join; they suggested becoming a Canadian citizen and then re-applying. By the time I could achieve that they would probably have 2 gbases: Moose Jaw and Bagotville.

Its a great country to live in - with 2 exceptions: Moose Jaw and Bagotville!!

Arm out the window,

Mate that's exactly what I do in the RAF except as a Sgt. I am the Ops Shag on a FJ Sqn with a small team of airmen who do the donkey work like plot notams, file flight plans, book airspace etc etc. Sounds like the RAAF could do with a group of bods who are pro's. :E

rej,

What's wrong with Bagtown? Provided you can speak the lingo it is (IMHO) really quite a pleasant place to be - skiing in the winter, lovely scenery (in more ways than one), Quebec City down the road (in Canadian terms). Yes, it does get 'a light covering' of snow from time to time, but that's what the snow blowers are for!

But as for the Jaw....ugh!

Boing,

MT

Bolleaux ZK!

The RAF/RAAF may well have gained most of the Knucks, and the RAAF a squadron of groundies, but the rest are trucking on.

www.airforce.mil.nz

Anyone interested in buying some Skyhawks/Maachis?

They haven't flown for two years, but Helen is frantic to remove the evidence before the next election.:mad:

Most of the SQN's here in Her Majesty's Strayian Air Force seem to have the odd Pomgolian, Kiwi or Canuckistani floating around wearing Aus uniform, so transfer IS possible however, we seem to be chock full of pilots at the moment. This being a rumour network, here are some of the rumours doing the rounds:
1. Knuckworld is, for the first time anyone can remember, full. This is due to the big intake of pilots in the late nineties, Kiwi fifth columnists infiltrating in a bid to take over more than Bondi and Qantas not hiring.
2. Truckworld is full to bursting due to people being diverted from Knuckworld (see 1) and Qantas not hiring. One of the Trucking SQN's is trying to reduce its manning to the tune of 15 pilots.
3. Maritime is full (I think) for the same reasons as 2 above.
4. Trainingworld is a big holding pattern whilst the FEG's are full. Blokes are coming off course and going to IFS to fly PC9's at low level over WA for a year or so waiting for their real career to start. Same with the BabyKnucks, who are spending time at Ops Flt at the BabyKnuck SQN's. In fact, some guys have been posted to Ops Flt.
So, transfer might not be an option at the moment, but Qantas have just started hiring again, so the top heaviness at the SQN's is about to become a vacuum with a whole bunch of boggies being swept up the progression ladder, so I'd be getting my paperwork in now in anticipation.

DH
Transferred a while back, and whilst not master race I was recruited for skills and experience. If you have what they desire they will recruit you. We do have a large ops staff in my world made up of full-time and reserves. Contact DPA direct via e-mail on defence jobs site as Oz house will just pass you on to them.
Have to agree with the pongo as grass is brown most of the year, but good bunch and quality of life, you even get asked if it is ok to work at w/end:ok:
Charlie sends