IM Irish, am i screwed.
 

Help would be appreciated. Seems as though i can get any career in the uk raf, navy, but the one i want, A pilot. if anybody can fill me in properly that would be great.

Career advice
 

I think the Education Branch may be out the question as well!

Aye, you are, to be sure. ;)

Short answer: yes. (Anyone who hails from the Emerald toilet is screwed for life):ok:

Long answer: The RAF is heavily overmanned in the GD(Pilot) branch. The people who are already in are facing some tough decisions from the ivory towers. The into-productive service requirements have been slashed - I would assume that recruiting has suffered (or will soon suffer) the knock-on effect of a recruitment freeze.

If you are Irish why don't you try the Irish Air Corps and fly Dauphins or C-172s?

what a bunch of self centred bigoted tossers.

Sullyd dont join as a pilot it turns you into the sort of person who makes comments such as those above

No. Stay in NI where the use of capital letters and punctuation remains optional. :E

(Sometimes it's just too easy.)

Sullyd,

First off, don`t listen to the people that feel that their uneducated and idiotic comments are wanted here.

Secondly,officially you can join the RAF as a pilot so long as you have lived in the UK for 5 years although exceptions can and are made for this. You can`t however join the Navy as a pilot because you need to have been born in Britain.

Sense of humour?
 

How do you expect to survive in HM Armed Forces without a thick skin and and heavy duty sense of humour?

This is especially useful if you come from one of the colonies.

Choppers in the IAC

That'd be the one for me:p

EJ Thribb said
"This is especially useful if you come from one of the colonies."


What colony would you be talking about there??

I am from Ireland, and I am not screwed nearly as much as I would like to be!!

However, if you want to join Mrs. Windsor’s armed forces as a pilot your kind of F***ed!
You are allowed to be a grease monkey or cannon fodder infantryman, but not a pilot, that’s reserved for the public school boy, Gin and Tonic drinking chaps!

I tried to get in, even being an instrument rated commercial Helicopter pilot, but no joy.

I may have had a slight chance if I had lived in the U.K for at least 5 years, but that was only a slight chance, nowhere near a guarantee, and sure why would I want to leave the mainland to go across the water over to that island, with no guarantee?

You may have a slightly better chance in getting in to the U.S armed forces, if you can get a visa, and are willing to go through a mountain of paper work. Then move from there to ROTC, (Officer training) and slowly into a flying role, it’s a long journey but I know people who have done it.

The IAC is a bad joke at the taxpayers expense; think seriously about it if you decide to go down that route!

futurepilot2004

Surely Namibia was formerly called German South West Africa. Therefore you were part of the sausage eaters fledgling empire that they were forced to relinquish when Kaiser Bill received his P45. Why don't we bury the assegai and agree with the term 'former colony?'

good to see i still have the ability to start an argument.

Anyways, cheers for the info, especially that states bit, do you have a website address or something for that.

its just im working as a "poof" for an airline in lgw and was talking to one of the pilots overnighting in alicante last week, he was the operational pilot in the choppers for the army and he said he knew some south irish guys, hes from the north.

anyways cheers, later!:ok:

Watchoutbelow,

"You are allowed to be a grease monkey or cannon fodder infantryman, but not a pilot, that’s reserved for the public school boy, Gin and Tonic drinking chaps!
I tried to get in, even being an instrument rated commercial Helicopter pilot, but no joy".

Wotcher, mate. Shame about you not getting in but I would 'ave to disagree with you on t'entry requirements fur't RAFF. I came from t'poorest family in't street and went t'ert local comprehensive. I gorr'in! First time in me life I'd 'ad a suit. Stayed 'till I'd 'ad enough flyin' for Auntie Betty and now I'm back, shovellin dung, offert'road.

An' wot's more, I only drink Guinness and me Granny's from Waterford. ;)

For the British forces, I can't help.

For the Irish forces, try asking around ---->here<----

If you've got an honours LC or a 3rd level degree, then pass the medical, you've a good chance.

IAC isn't so bad. This month they'll be getting PC-9s and there's talk of getting Blackhawk helis. No FJs of course, but you can't get everything.

Nothing is impossible mate. I know loads of southern Irish Sailors
in the fleet and the air arm
Give the careers office in Belfast a shout and Fly Navy
Royal Navy Careers
AFCO
Palace Barracks
Holywood
Northern Ireland.
I can't remember the post code or phone number. It's been a while!

Har har,

Very good Sh'To,
But you never mentioned which street, I am assuming somewhere in London, Knightsbridge perhaps?

As for the U.S military, decide which branch you want to go into, find out as much as you can about that branch,
Then try and organize a meeting with a Military Attaché in the U.S embassy, they can point you in the right direction.
If it is choppers you want to fly, you don't necessarily need to be a commissioned officer, A Chief Warrant Officer is all that is required for the Army.
There will be a visa lottery sometime in the autumn, (Or as they say "Fall”, annoying but get used to it!) there are other ways to get in without winning the lottery, but a world of pain and paperwork lies ahead, you have to really really want it.

And as for the IAC, more then half of Irish airspace is designated Military Operational Airspace; quite a fair bit on the east coast is Strictly Restricted! All that for a couple of little Cessna's!
I am scared to think what they will do with their lean mean PC-9's,
No doubt they are patrolling the streets around town with them already, Practicing for strafing runs down O' Connel Street

When I was in the Irish military, we would sit around the mess hall, making up Rumors, telling the newbies that we were getting new M1A1 Tanks and Destroyers for the Navy, and we would see how long it would take to come back to us from someone else,
(Yes it is that sad when you have been reduced to that!!)

As for BlackHawks, there is no need or use for them in a small Neutral country, maybe 1 or 2 EC135's will be the order of the day, however the mind baffles as to the logic of some of the decisions made in that organisation!

Watchoutbelow,

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
came from t'poorest family in't street
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But you never mentioned which street, I am assuming somewhere in London, Knightsbridge perhaps?

Assuming very wrongly, but I'm quite flattered, thanks :O

I should have been so lucky. :rolleyes: You must be mistaking me for a Cavalry officer called Rupert, or Tarquin (or summat)!

In fact "our street" was an industrial town in the heart of the coal mining region. Most of my relatives were miners or farmers. My father was born on a farm, as was his father; the latter was later tragically killed while working as a railwayman. My brother was a dairy farm manager for many years. My maternal grandfather was a coal miner. Maternal grandmother came from Southern Ireland. My uncle died of miner's lung disease a few years back. My first full time job was as a builder.

Sorry, but believe it or not, the only spoon I had in my mouth at birth was more rusty iron than shiny silver. It's true though. Many of my intake were similar to me.

Did you give up after one attempt? It took me three goes to get accepted for pilot training.

I now feel a sketch coming on about us living in a cardboard box , in t'middle o' t'road :ok: But you try tellin' em that today! They won't believe yer!

Phew!

Judging by your first post on this thread, I thought the standard of education had really gone downhill in Public Schools, all that money and they had forgoten to teach you how to spell!!

I love the old "When I was a lad" Stories, they seem to be dying out these days, but keep em comming folks!!
(Genuinely not being Sarcastic!!!)

I got in contact with the MOD to get that info, so straight from the horses mouth, didn't even get a lookin!.

I would have liked to have flown Mil, but didn't want to spend years trying to change the bureaucratic system, have enough of that crap to deal with in the CAA! :ugh:

When I was lad I left the rain and forty shades of green behind and joined the RAF. I was not good enough to be a pilot I accepted it and had a great time in the RAF as aircrew. But then I did not have a chip or two to weigh me down, or thought I was better because I had a qual or two:ok:

Charlie sends