I really did enjoy my time at the ATC was brillian loved it all but i had to leave due to me moving abroad!! (im back now)

The question as in worth it was mainly about how much flying time, living on the base? that stuff and if there is much or will be much recruitment going on. Not just to see if everything else fails il join the RAF. It has been a dream since 13 ie ATC.

Just incase your wondering why i havent rejoined, i have to work afta skool to fund my PPL. otherwise i would have been straight back to the ATC!!

littlepom

What does "condone" mean?

Apply by all means but I would strongly suggest that you use the time between now and then in learning how to write (and probably speak) correct English - not textspeak.

You're young and will eventually learn that us nasty grown ups (particularly those at RAF Recruiting offices, OASC and IOT) are rather partial to those who can use their own language correctly. Might be good enough for the playground/pub in Crawley but not for the Sergeants' or Officers' Messes.

i would apply whatever your feelings, i was never made oasc in the end for a few reasons and regret it every day.

Dont worry and be put off by people who say becuase you are questioning joining that its not for, its a way of life etc etc. You need to very carefully consider what you are about to do, it requires more commitment than anything else in life because it is a way of life and you must really want to become part of the RAF.

Attend the filter interview study hard attend OASC and lets see what happens.

Remember, you dont have to join if you dont want to. Although if i could do back two years i would.

No. Id advise against it. Talk to any young guy who is in IOT, or has completed IOT, or anyone in flying training.

Defence cuts and management errors have made the RAF a tough going career.

I know one guy from my UAS, indeed our senior student. Who went fast jet. So he did eft, bfjt and then got chopped pilot altogether nearing the end of valley.

Thats a right slap in the face. :ouch:

Ozzieb88,

Not the most inspirational of responses to your thread so far and I shall endeavour to be a little more positive.

At your age, having any idea of a future career is better than 99.9% of your peers and it is a good age to reach a well reasoned conclusion of the matter. It doesn't appear to me that you are making a 'spur of the moment' decision to apply to the armed forces as you say you have been thinking about an RAF career since 13 and have made progress towards that goal by joining the ATC and by working for a PPL. I do not believe that to consider a career in the armed forces means that you must run at it regardless of the drawbacks, and I do believe that it is a large step that must be considered. Weighing up the pros and cons of big decisions is a skill that all armed forces officers must posess. However, that said (and this is where I must support the comments already made) once you have decided on an armed forces career, you must give it everything you have from the day you apply to the day you leave the service. One day your life, and the lives of your friends around you may depend on you doing your job correctly, which means you have had to work damn hard through every minute of training.

Whether you should apply or not I cannot say. Even if we knew all of your personal circumstances, we do not know you personally. There is a certain personality that suits the armed forces (face fits etc). You must be committed and respectable as well as having enough personality and enough of a sense of humour to get along with the people around you. As 'arm out of the window' has said before, only you can decide if a life in the armed forces is for you (and it is a life!).

Would I recommend it? Well I am only in the beginning of the training system and as BoraBora says there are drawbacks and people less than satisfied, but for every dissatisfied customer I know in IOT, after IOT and in the training system, I could point you to at least ten more who have never looked back. What I will say is that you will never find the opportunity to work with such a great group of people in another career (assuming of course you are that type of person).

I would recommend finding out more about life in the RAF. In my experience, cadets was a terrible indicator of what life in the service is like and at times only made me less enthusiastic (drill twice a week was about all my squadron staff managed for my five years and when I tried to organise stuff myself my CO was the proverbial brick wall). Write to your AFCO (In the queen's english of course :E) and ask for a chance to see the service working. Try and visit a UAS or something but this is a decision you have to work out for yourself.

All the best

Caps:}

The idea of seeing service life up front is a good one. Places such as Marham do good work experience placements, and if you write a nice letter to your local base it could maybe (and i stress the maybe), be arranged.

http://www.rafmarham.co.uk/relations...rk_ex-list.htm

:ok:

Interesting that people refer to 'Flashbacks'.

The evidence suggests that any 'flashback' is a memory response triggered by audio/visual illusions to which we are all subject. It is because the user has had heightened awareness to these phenomena during their drug-experience/fix, that when they see them once 'sober', they associate this with their drug experience.

There was no evidence (at least by 1994) that any drug remains in the brain long enough to cause symptoms long after the event. Lots of false information on that subject propelled by poorly educated 'authorities'.

Longer-term effect of Psychadelic/stimulant drugs is unknown. Lots of talk of altering brain structure. Not good news for those who've taken NAPS, or inhaled pesticides,or eaten unwashed vegetable/fruit produce. All these contain chemicals that act on the brain synapses in similar ways to the above drugs. Gulf War Syndrome? BSE/CJD anyone??

Interestingly, cannabis abuse (and I'm talking habitual heavy use here) can have devastating effects on the individual. I know of an individual who has been left with Psychosis (Diagnosed as Schizophrenia; however it's drug induced psychosis really), and his motor/social skills are shot to pieces.

I somehow expect that this chap is to cannabis what an alcoholic is to booze: both extreme cases.

The bottom line, however, is that NO 'recreational' drug is compatible with flying. That includes cannabis, alcohol (how many accidents in the past?) and caffeine and all the other nasties.

Incase you're wondering about caffeine, it's truly dreadful. Appalling for concentration-heavy tasks, like flying, is likely to cause heart arrythmia (Sp?), migraines, poor sleep levels and may contribute to an individual's high stress levels. Most surprisingly, in one study, it had a greater mental debilitating effect than ALL other 'recreational' drugs, including LSD! Anectodal evidence backs this up.
Not surprisingly, the only documented positive effect of caffeine is to reduce the effects of caffeine withdrawal! The true concentration wonder-drug would be nicotine, so we should all patch up before flight!!

I'll stop now before I start boring myself too!!!:bored:

Don't accept anything that you don't want to do, it is very hard to change once they've got you. And definitely don't get sent down the bunker as Fighter Control unless you've thought 'Wow, I'd really like to do that job'.

As for leadership, learn to read and assimilate the given task, then delegate tasks to your team whilst retaining an overall control. This may involve you standing back to observe, and not even getting involved.
Make your instructions loud, clear and concise. Make sure your team know the plan, try not to leave them in any doubt what each of them have to do. Make your initial brief to the point, making sure that you don't leave yourself in a situation where your credibility as a leader is called into doubt (ie make sure you think of different ways around the same problem, so if your 1st plan goes wrong, you can adapt and overcome, without even batting an eyelid!)
Keep on top of your team throughout, without becoming annoyingly involved. There may be stronger characters than youin the team, so get them involved in the thick of it. It might prevent them trying to taking over, and help your credibility. It's managing who you've got to get the job done with minimum fuss Enjoy yourself, you never know, it might be catching!

Lecture over! Hope something of use there??!!:uhoh:

If only,
What If'
Maybe If I had only tried;
You've really answered you're own question.
And this applies to all Mil wannabes-
You've got 35 yrs, spend it all with the airlines?
Fly a fast jet?
Do it for real in a helo?
Land a C-130 on a beach?
Never have regrets.....

Not sure if it is worth it if you're not sure, BUT if you are, then definately. Do it, you'll love it, as so many of the threads on Pprune are testament to. You will meet your best friends, have the best time, in whatever aircraft you end up on, and drink more than you ever thought possible:) Yes, it's difficult at the moment, and doubtless becoming more so, but if you want it enough you should go for it; otherwise you'll only think "what if". Work hard, play hard:p

Thanks for all the advice guys, I just have to a) be positive b) keep calm and c) convince the boarding officers! (Easier said than done going on last year!).

I think knowing where I fell down last year is making it even more nerve-wrackng on the build-up to this year as I know I'll be so conscious of it. :ugh:

With the current reduction in commissions to be handed out these days, accepting an offer in a branch that does not 'float my boat' is somewhat tempting. However, spending 16 years in a trade I know I wouldn't enjoy would be taking a gamble I don't think I would have the balls to accept! It's a difficult one!:hmm:

6foottanker - I think I will be taking your lecture with me to read over and over the night before the hangar exercises for some focus! Am on a visit to 'an airfield in the Cotswolds' this Monday...who knows we may cross paths and we wouldn't even know it!

Thanks again for the advice everyone.

Littleme

OASC
 

Littleme

Having myself fallen into the OASC (Biggin Hill) trap of being convinced by the DS that I had a higher aptitude for FC than ATC (my first choice) and being too tall for the diminutive Jet Provost, despite passing for GD(P) and (N), I tried to change branch once I had graduated from Cranwell and on my holding post - it seldom happens and you wouldn't want to have to go back to OASC for reselection if you were unsuccessful in training and if it had been evident that you hadn't been heart and soul in trg.

I was 18 when I went to BH and still look back and think how did I get through compared to many of the candidates that I know failed selection. The main thing is to be confident, this is mirrored throughout all of the above posts, and while being assessed as a leader, be a part of the team.

However, I wouldn't encourage anyone to make any form of career decision on selecting any branch based upon brochures and AFCO-speak - no matter how good and honest the staff, you are making a life choice. Ask the CIO for a visit to a working unit (they used to be called realistic job preview visits) - in your case I suggest to a main flying base where you can meet officers from all branches in the workplace. This normally involves staying overnight in the mess and visiting any areas of interest to you as well as getting more info on training. If nothing else, you will catch up on many OASC stories on selection boards and give you a chance to discuss issues with the RAF outside of the AFCO/OASC.

Good luck

You've really go to want to do it, so did I; be prepared , however, for your tastes to change...15 yrs ago I was single with no children, now I need to spend more time at home with the snappers and don't want to mix it away so often...but these days you really have to REALLY WANT TO DO IT. Best of luck.
HM

just wondered what the attitude to female pilots was,
i'm in the same situation as ozzieb88, but as i'm a girl i thought they wouldn't let you fly jets so i never gave it a thought. now i'm beginning to reconsider, i've just got my PPL and really like to fly but i don't know if the RAF is for me, personally i'm a bit scared of signing my life away for 12 years. i'm 17 now and i really want to fly as a career, but cannot decide between civilian or military.

i will be joining my local UAS when i go to university, and give it more thought then

Lucy,
The RAF does allow you to fly fast jets as does a number of other air force's around the world. 12 years might seem like a long time to you right now but it only applies if you complete your training. Those 12 years seem to go by very quickly when you love what you are doing.
As for Military vs Civilian, I guess it would depend if you like flying at 250ft/450+kts dropping bombs or at 35'000ft/450+kts eating an inflight meal:p . There are good pilots and challanges to both. ie evading SAM's or not spilling sauce on your shirt:E

Loads of female aircrew in the RAF, and ssshhh, there are quite a few who show us blokes the way it should be done! I'd go as far as saying the vast majority of front line squadrons have female aircrew as a valuable part of their team, whether FJ, Rotary or Multis. Even the Harrier boys have had to accept theirs is not a unisex bastion any more! So go for it, the male/female thing will not hold you back in any way.
Oh, there is the fact that during training, there will be loads of fine young gentlemen around......but don't tell your boyfriend!:ok:

As a 21 year old gent in the midst of flying training (though only a WSO if any 'master race' would like to take the mick ;) ), I would thoroughly recommend joining the RAF any day of the week!

Theres no getting away from it being hard work, but the rewards far outweigh the bad times - IOT, anything to do with the blunties etc. ...

There was some comment about the current 'chop' culture earlier in this forum - how about the guy who went FJ, did the Canada thing then went onto the GR4, only to lose his wings when he was chopped? Thats a hell of a slap.

So in summary, if its what you really want to do (think carefully about this), then go for it and you'll never look back!

Frodo_Monkey

"Air defence - hoorah" :D

frodo-monkey

Just a thought, not trying to be negative here. If you are half way through WSO training, and are pro Air Defence, bear in mind that, if you go F3, by the time you finish WSO training and your OCU then you will have only one tour on F3s before they are totally replaced by Typhoon! It is coming, albeit late.


Everyone

For all readers, with regard to the general theme of this thread. I started a poll on pprune months ago, which I am sure you could search for, with a title along the lines of 'Would you encourage your child to join the military'. Many of the replies, which ran to several pages, were discussions as to whether or not it was worth joining. I would recommend it as a read if this subject is of interest to you.

No doubt someone more computer literate than I can type in the thread name here to give more easy access than resorting to a search.

Just click here. Glad to be of service. :)

adr

Biggus,

I most certainly will only be getting one tour on the F3 - after that its (fingers-crossed) go over to the GR4 or go hat in hand to the Job Centre...

Though with the recent cuts in airframes and crews for the muddies, and 1100 nav backsides to fit only 200 seats by circa 2010 (I'm led to believe), does anybody have the McDonalds phone number?

"D'ya want fries with that?"

Frodo Monkey

"Air defence - hoorah"

Ooh, forgot to say on my last - I\'m mid-OCU at the moment, and enjoying the beautifully-written work of the fiction that is the F3s FRCs...

Frodo Monkey

Oasc
 

Anybody going up to Cranwell for OASC in the next couple of months? specifically 24th October.

Not on topic... no im not basically, im a few stages behind you, but is possible i'd like to hear what is like and how you got on etc? If you wouldnt mind that is.

Best of luck for the 24th :ok:

I'm due down at Cranwell, but not until Oct 31st.

OASC For Pilots
 

Hi All,

Just looking for some genuine insider knowledge. Having graduated Uni and spent two successful years on the UAS, I have an OASC interview (for pilot) in the middle of November.

Now I know things are tough (only 4 of the recently graduated Linton lot went on to Valley!), so is there even a pilot place still up for grabs this year?!?!? Do I stand a chance of being considered for next year's intake?

Many thanks,

Semisonic

Recruitment is slow at the moment, and competition is stiff. Rumour has it that we've recruited for the next year or so, but OASC is still running so there must be places available Providing you've got the goods, you shouldn't have a problem.

Thanks..i feared next year's recruiting had begun already!

I should imagine that it has to a certain extent, recruitment is an ongoing process filling multiple IOTs well in advance.

raf apptitude test@ OASC
 

i'am currently going to oasc for WSOP, and i'am looking for any advice on preperation for the app test and what it contains? any help at all would be great,
thanks in advance.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...hreadid=150251

Here's one I did earlier.

Wonderful thing the search tool.

two top tips buddy:

1) Aptitude
2) Preparation

There is loads of good gen on this site, do a search and you will still be reading it at xmas

Good Luck

DS;)

Strange, I thought you would have been briefed at the careers office. I believe they have a workbook with lots of time and distance questions, basic tactics etc.

What you need to do is know what is going on in the world and where in the world it is going on. Don't ignore the UK. Make sure you know where the cities are. Head start if you know where the RAF is too.

One tip, in 6 minutes the distance you travel is one tenth of your speed in miles per hour.

OASC interview
 

Hi all.

I have seen and read all previous OASC threads on here, and you have all been really informative..so one more question!!

What are the three major roles of the RAF??

I have heard the roles spoken of in more than 10 ways (air defence, ground attack, air transport, SAR, close air support etc..), but not in three. What are they??

Many thanks,

Delivery of Equal Opportunities training, participation in the MoD Corporate Communications strategy, maintenance of budgetary procedures.

;)

On a serious note there are clearly defined roles to Air Power (a useful term to remember) along these lines:

Strategic Air Offensive - strategic bombing a la WW2.
Counter Air Campaign (Offensive/Defensive) - destroying enemy air (and ground to air) assets.
Air Interdiction - destroying enemy infrastructure to prevent enemy armed forces being deployed.
Close Air Support (sometimes alongside as Battlefield Air Interdiction) - self-explanatory!

There are more roles but I can\'t remember them! These may be out of date, as the flavour of the month seems to be "Effects Based" warfare and intergration of firepower from all 3 services and environments ie. bombing, standoff missiles (air and sea launched) and use of artillery in a co-ordinated manner. Also, jointery is very popular - the grouping of helicopters into Joint Helicopter Command.

I\'d recommending looking at at the Strike Command Group structure to define the "three" major roles: Delivery of Air Power (1 Gp), Air Transport/Air-to-Air Refuelling (2 Gp), ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance Target Acquisition and Radar (or is it reconnaisance) ...I think... (3 Gp). 1 Gp - air defenders and mud-movers, 2 Gp - tankers and transports, 3 Gp - E3 Sentry airborne radar aircraft, ASTOR airborne ground-scanning radar etc..

The good thing nowadays is that the information is very easy to glean from sources such as the RAF website.

You can get all that stuff from the RAF Air Power Doctrine (AP3000). You can get a copy from the RAF website under publications and it gives you an order address.

Mike et al

Always a tricky situation supporting other syndicate members. On the one hand it is certainly admirable and prepares well for IOT, however in essence you are in competition with other syndicate members for a slot (particularly these days)- and OASC is the place where you need to sell oneself but, on the other hand, without demonstrating an utter lack of teamwork.

Tricky, isn't it!

GM

OASC Results...
 

Attended OASC recently and got a further consideration letter.. Have to wait for the December Board to find out what the outcome will be. Anyone else in the same position?
For anyone in the know - a few questions...
When is the December board?
Whats the chances of getting the same outcome again? (ie wait for the next board - presumably February)?

Not an outright welcome letter but its better than the sod-off-and-never-come-back one!

Congrats thus far :ok:

There will be people in better positions than myself to answer that, (and please correct me if necessary), but I have been told that a further consideration letter can be roughly translated to; "You have satisfied the required criteria needed to obtain a place on the next IOT course, but we (the OASC Board) are going to hang around and see if someone better turns up - as there are a limited number of Officer Training slots available."

woody0381 has it about right; put into context, the "further consideration" letter is about the second or third best you can get out of a total of 5 or 6, ranging from "When can you start" to "Never darken our doors again".

Could be out of date info, but true when last involved about 3 or 4 years ago.....