Certainly, jaguars, Harrier Gr9s, Tornado F3's awacs, spent two years on the mighty one on GR9's and about a year on the strike attack operational evaluation unit, where we had a a jag, a few harriers and a tornado F3 where we tested all the new kit that came out, and a year and a half at colt split between working in the sheds and as a bay whaller. Spent the rest of my time at Waddo as a bay whaller. I wasan avionics mech on the old mech tech system and was also on the 3rd original SAC tech course where you did the same 18 month course as the JT's but without the Rank. In my day (1996 onwards) you did 9 months technical training before you where let anywhere near anything, then 18 months or so on a squadron or in a bay then a further 18 months of technical training before you came out as a JT or in my case SAC tech. Then you averaged three years of good assessments minimum before you got a sniff of your tapes. Sadly the training and old ways of teaching to fault find right down to component leve are now long gone. Still a good career, but would i join up now?? Daft thing is everyone that has been in says that, but new joiners have never known any different so a bit of a daft thing that people say. I will say my 10 years as an aircraft techie has helped a lot out in civvy street and i am not sure how i lived in the airforce on less than half the money i am payed now. The crack and some of the stuff you do in the mob that seems normal really isn't, and its only when you leave you realise that.

Fair one, fast jets mainly then. The lack of going down to component level is happening in our trade as well; very few posts where you can get stuck in on the kit.

My advice would be to think of what you want from a job, rather than just picking the trade that you think will get you closest to the aircraft. As with any job, it doesn't take long before the novelty or "wow" factor of working with "cool stuff" wears off. My trade in the RAF has very little to do with aircraft at all, but I get a good mental stretch from my work, I'm in the higher payband and the promotion prospects in my trade are alot better than in that of many others, up to a point at least.

By the way, I met a Flight Ops Assistant on selection at Cranwell (I applied for a few jobs in the RAF, the first of which was Air Traffic Control but I binned it off when I realised it wasn't what I really wanted to do) and from what he told me (and to echo previous statements on this thread) it is boring-as-hell.

"You may undergo DV clearance which can be very useful in civilian life."

Some companies will hire you soley on the basis that you are DV cleared, even if you're sh*t at the job, just because the process of developed vetting is so expensive.

Sure, I accept that in almost all of the posts in our trade, we will never go near the aircraft. However, there are some posts that do, the Typhoon GSS being an example. I should emphasise to the OP that a posting to that side of things is never guaranteed, no matter how much you want it.

Good advice on the AFCO side of things; there are plenty of people in the RAF who aren't super keen about their primary job.

I agree with CrabDan though, choose a trade based on what you have interests in rather than because you've heard there's an interesting side to it but the chance of actually doing that is slim to none in your career.

I had an long standing interest in aircraft, the RAF and engineering and had done engineering at college and university (never finished uni) so I was heading to be a techie in the RAF. I loved the practical side of it, I actually wanted to be a Engo originally but I went upto Leuchars while on a trip with Cadets and did work experience alongside a Jengo. My god it was boring, all paperwork etc, hardly ever near the aircraft unless they are QA'ing them do I chose to go through the ranks as I wanted the practical hands on aircraft experience not a desk job.

Now though, after 11 1/2 yrs, I'm doing a HND to become hopefully an Engineering Officer as now I've got that practical aircraft side put out of the way I want to challenge myself in a different area and I respect the work Engos do now than I did before I joined up. Also to prove to myself I could do it and become a officer. I won't let it change me though, I'll still be a cool officer, lol.

My only annoyance is that with the pension system changing, I've got to baggy my 12yr point, and start a fresh with a new 18yr Officer pension. This is still 2yrs down the, so will have done 14yrs by then.


So having said all that, choose what you want to do, what interests you. Be a copper, MT driver, admin, chef, steward, FOA, GEF techie, photog, ICT, C4I geek, stacker or a/c techie. You will enjoy the experience whatever you choose.

We used to have a nightmare with the bathtubs on engine changes. Wing off, engine out, new engine in, wing back on err wing doesn't fit, errr.
On one, we had the wing not fitting from an engine change, and then one of the mechs found some fatigue cracking in the bathtub. The jet was in a 1000 parts, just shoved in tri-wall boxes and forgotten about for a year. Then the endgame date was announced and the boss then ordered that we will be flying all 3 Harriers out, so we had a huge push to put the jigsaw of pieces back together and get it serviceable. To see it fly out with the other too back to Cottesmore was very moving after sooo much blood, sweat and tears getting it back together when no one thought it would ever fly again.

Very very similar, we recieved a GR9 at Cottesmore that had been sat at Coningsby for about 3 years due to a wing mount and bath tub being butchered. The whole thing arrived as a box of bits, nothing labelled up, had been robbed to death, no 731s on anything. We all wrote it off as a dead jet. 8 months(?!) later it was a flyer just in time to be stripped down and sent to the desert in the States!

Also, as an airframe/engine bloke you will learn all kinds of mechanical systems, its a very varied job. Fuel systems, high and low pressure air, oxygen, hydraulics, metal bashing, air conditioning, all kinds of pumps and motors. I'm sure Elec/AV are similar in that sense, the experience you gain is very much sought after if/when you leave.

Yes 328 that's the one, fun and games that was!

They are also on a completely different pay scale to the rest of us non commissioned.