Are you staying?
 

All

just a quick plea for anyone serving that actually wants to remain within the Service to take a moment and tell us why. I don't know about anyone else, but I am ticking off the days I have left and think it is a bit sad and could use a bit of motivation or a reminder of what it is I am missing. Having been away for a while recently, I seem to be in a majority with very few people looking beyond option/exit points.

Go on, motivate me with your tales of excitement and enthusiasm.

SB

Ummm, ........ lets see,
No.:E


110 'working' days:ok:

I've got one...........................


!
!
!
!
!

Nope............it's gone :sad:

What about the ....erm..... ah there's the extra ..... nope that's gone too ... although we did just get .... but quarter charges ate that up ... dammit ... there must be something ...
Feel depressed now :(
Ah ha! (Fine band btw!)
I still get to fly most weeks and I've seen a few nice places amongst the dross -there! :p

I am staying and are in the process of extending my service to age 55. Am I mad? Well possibly, but lets be honest, my trade has little use in civvy street and I currently get paid a bucket full of money to do very little. The Service gives me the security that I require and saves me having to buy a house in this country (own one overseas).

The RAF is certainly not the one which I joined nearly 20 years ago. It is ridiculously top-heavy (68 Group Captains at Wycombe alone), and the new expeditionary blah is not not what I joined up for, but overall the good points are still outweighing the bad points in my opinion. Had I any viable option in civvy street then I may have left, but having just calculated my pension at my exit point I know that extending my service is the correct decision for my circumstances :ok:

PAS Pension. Thats it... I'll turn off the lights.

Ratty

No I am not on the the PAS, wish I was though. That really would be the icing on the cake. Money makes the world go round after all!! :)

L1A2,

I raise you 65 days ... only 45 for me!

And good riddance to me too - I'm far too cynical these days.



Avtur,

Are you saying you're not kept in the dark like the rest of us?

Job interview for me on 5th march then if all goes well its Cheerio from me!

Reasons for staying in:

1. It suits me from a purely selfish point of view - good pay (PAS), good pension (PAS again), boarding school allowance.

2. I live in my own house with a reasonable commute & a number of stations around to potentially serve at for future postings.

3. I enjoy my job, & I hate route flying which would become my bread & butter if I left & joined an airline.

4. If anything changed any of the above, I'm off!

6 months and 3 weeks.

Not that I'm counting.

Been a lot of fun, but now ready to go.

Been out over 3 years now (and was reluctant to leave). I now earn over twice as much as I did when I was in and don't have to answer to complete t#2ts (very few good bosses around when I left) and I don't have to be part of Tony Blair's drive for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Had a great time, it was fun - do I miss Service life? No way (sad though that is).

Stupid Boy - "....my trade has little use in civvy street and I currently get paid a bucket full of money to do very little...."

Given that you are apparently from Lincolnshire that gives several options, E-3D, Typhoon (but you are obviously not a pilot) or the world of training perhaps?

It seems to me to be very much a two tier RAF at the moment. I would guess that the SH and AT world, amongst others, would quiet like to be doing .... "very little". The strain of continued Ops/deployments is undoubtably one of the reasons why people are leaving in increasing numbers.

I can think of only one group of people that could have a reason to stay:

Divorced blokes with kids, claiming Boarding School Allowance and not interested in ever getting married again.

16 Months to go...

Biggus has summed my position up. As one of the lucky(?) ones in the 2-tier system who is not deployed and dicked around on a nearly permanent basis and being well paid in a cushy environment I have no reason to leave. I am not on PAS, couldnt get this salary outside (no transferable skills) and have a youngster with many years of school ahead of him. Now if I was in a branch/trade that was on ops more than I was at home, putting up with all the push factors that are aired on here I would have left already or be about to. There are people who are content - maybe they just dont air their views on pprune as much as the guys who are p*ssed off.

Number 2
Always interests me that you would be out three years, don't miss it, yet still hang around on a Military Aircrew bulletin board!
Increasingly, this board is populated by people who have already left, gobbing off about bad life in the military is, yet still feeling they have a 100% valid input to the debate.
I've no issue with the guys who are leaving, that's your choice but don't try and take everyone else with you!
Serve your time or leave early if you want, just leave it alone once you're gone!

Diffident

What about people who just like it?

And yes, I don't have much imagination, so I'm staying. Airline flying doesn't appeal to everyone and I am still having a great time with some top blokes who feel the same way. There are still a load of things that appeal to me about life in the military that I would never get close to replicating in the commercial world, either in or out of an airline cockpit.
For those of you who are leaving very shortly, good luck in civvy street and I look forward to reading your input on here over the next few years!;)

I would stay if:
We actually had an air force.
We had enough people to operate that air force.
We could look beyond those hairy bits in the middle of our noses regarding career management (across the board here - not just talking about occifers)
We stopped pontificating and made some decisions.
We managed to convince various others that we weren't "utterly, utterly...."
Our country looked upon us in the same light that the Americans look upon their armed forces.
We didn't issue mad directives about getting one star officers to approve a £90 EasyJet flight whilst sqn cdrs could still authorise a £300+ Eurostar trip to the same location.
... I had any loyalty left.

Anyone whom has been to either Operational Air bridge these past 12 months or so would see the enormous strain that is affecting morale!

wild horses couldn't prevent me from leaving at my option point in a few years.
Am not worried about leaving, am looking forward to finding a job that gives me satisfaction, and rewards me mentally even if not fiscally.
There is more to life than money, not that the mob pays that well, not for what we do and where we do it!

I am currently OOA in one of those places operating in support of Op Telic that SHOULD be one of the best and cushiest numbers going.

However because of the total and utter inepititude and incompetence of management from Line Supervisor upwards I have taken the decision whilst out here to bang out on my return to the UK.

I am absolutely flabbergasted at the total and utter disregard for people and welfare - I wouldn't treat a dog/ rapist/ murderer the way we are treating people.

I shouldn't be surprised after 16 years in the Mob but I can no longer handle it personally. It seriously makes me want to weep for how inept leadership from the very top down has broken this once great and proud organisation.

The sooner I wipe my hands of the whole sorry mess the better.

Feels a bit better getting that off my chest anyhow.

CC