Couple of questions relating to medical & family life

[jamesofdeath]

Hi guys. Bear with me here. I graduated last year and am looking to join the RAF as an officer. I'm not 100% on the specific trade I want to do but I've narrowed it down to 3. What I do trade-wise is largely based on my medical. I had a microdiscectomy (a small piece of my disc was cut away) in September last year. Now since then I have been discharged from the hopsital and told I am 100% fit. I do hillwalking, running, cycling and play football and none of this seems to be affected at all so generally speaking I'd say I'm pretty fit. I went to my local AFCO a couple of months ago and the guy I spoke to said I might need to wait until 12 months after my operation before I would be allowed to join up, I thought that was understandable and he told me to go back and see him once I had been properly discharged. So, I got discharged and went back to see him just last week and he made a quick snap decision and told me I can't apply for 2 years because of my operation. Regardless of the surgeon saying I'm fine and all the exercise I currently do, and also without me having any form of medical examination. Does this sound right to you guys? Should I not at least have been given a medical?


Second question.........ASSUMING I passed IOTC and Cranwell (which I believe is 30 weeks yes?) and then went on to train for my specific trade, lets say for arguments sake Pilot or Weapons Systems.......how long is the trade training usually? Is it usually at one base? The reason I'm asking is that I'm trying to figure out if it's feesible for my girlfriend to move to somewhere near the base while I'm doing my trade training and for me to live with her rather than on base.

Thanks in advance, sorry for the long question!

 

[vim_fuego]

Hi James...Sorry I can't answer your med problem but be patient as we have a couple of guys who frequent these forums who will be abled to steer you more on this subject (and with more authority)...

On the flying side and for pilot you'll do your basic flying training out of Cranwell then depending how you stream, either fast jet, multi engine or rotary, will dictate what happens next...mutil-engine training is carried out at Cranwell, FJ guys go Tucano then Hawks at Valley and rotary go to Shawbury...There will always be training bottlenecks as you wait for the guys ahead to get through the sausage factory...FJ guys can get holding posts for up to a year waiting for space to free up further down the line...There always seemed to be a holding baby pilot in ops at Akrotiri IIRC...Nice if you can get it!! Then at the end of it all you'll have to wait for an OCU slot...they tend to start every 6 months so you might get lucky but only so many slots exist on each one...

WSO (Nav) trains at Cranwell with a stint on Tucano's at Linton before going to your chosen jet...That could be FJ on tonkers, 10's, Tri's, Nims or if you're really unlucky Sentry's...

In summary you and your girlfriend are going to have to be real flexible, have a robust sense of humour and she is going to have to cut you a dump-truck load of slack whilst you ply your way through flying training...It takes a great deal of application, time and effort to get through it first time around and there will be times (I'm very confident of this) when your relationship will be strained to breaking point...It may not even survive...

Alternatively if you're serious enough about each other you could get married, live in a normally huge house for next to feck all...Every time the RAF move you they will pay you compensation in the form of disturbance allowance...If you should 'buy the farm' she will be looked after in most respects but most importantly in the financial department...As your girlfriend she'll get nowt...

 

[Nec Aspera Terrent]

Unless someone else beats me to it, I'll check the good book tomorrow at work and PM you with some news.

 

[jamesofdeath]

cheers guys, the answers so far are being really helpful