aircraft maintenance technician

avionics technician

pilot

engineer

aeronautical engineer

Royal Air Force

Promote and encourage a practical interest in aviation and the Royal Air Force among young people
Provide training which will be useful in the Services and civilian life
Encourage the spirit of adventure and develop qualities of leadership and good citizenship
Cadet life is about learning through practical experience, especially in the great outdoors! Here's a taster of what's in store:

Camping - Work on your survival skills and learn your strengths in a team.
Easter/summer camps - As you advance in rank you can take part in these popular camps held at RAF stations around the UK.
Overseas camps - Spend 10 days in Cyprus with fantastic weather, swimming, sailing, and maybe even see the Red Arrows practise their displays (they train there). Head to Germany where you'll visit a city or cemetery from the First and Second World Wars. You may even get to fly in helicopters - another exciting possibility for cadets.
Adventurous training - A huge part of cadet training. We have two centres, at Windermere in the Lake District and Llanbedr in coastal Wales, both with stunning scenery. Rock climbing, abseiling, high-level hill walking, mountain-biking, canoeing, high rope work and sailing are all par for the course.

Gliding - Soar to success! There are fantastic opportunities to glide while you are a cadet, with the ultimate goal being a solo flight. Training is in three stages: a Gliding Induction Course (GIC), Gliding Scholarship (GS) and Advanced Gliding Training (AGT).
Air Experience Flights - Feel the thrill of powered flight, with a fully qualified pilot to guide you through taking control of the aircraft yourself. Not only have the opportunity to learn about the flying controls but you’ll experience aerobatics and low level flying too.
Air Cadet Pilot Scheme - The pinnacle of flying as a cadet, for advanced handling. Complete this successfully and you'll be awarded your cadet pilot wings. And if you do exceptionally well you could be recommended for further training which will help towards your Private Pilot's Licence!
Air Cadet Pilot Navigation Training Scheme - A great opportunity to use your navigation skills, this two-week course where you fly for up to eight hours is open to selected cadets. Success will lead to you gaining your 'wings'.

I’ll be as honest as I can for someone who spent most of his 20s in the service as a ground trade (none officer) 

I’d recommend only joining at 18-24 as career progression is slow (most trades) and each rank is only about £50-100 difference every month. Sure it increases very slowly over time but after 5 years there’s still only a few grand difference every year. Plus they’ve announced a pay freeze despite the inflation (was one was 1%.. laughable)

That being said it’s very good life experience and in most cases you’ll travel around. 

The reason I said choose aircraft technician is the NVQ level 3 you get goes a long way when you come out. Not only this once you’re trained up after 3 years or so you jump to about 33k a year which for a young lad is a very good wage. However you can only choose about 6 bases to be deployed and there’s none in the north west. 

However the longer you stay in and if you’re thinking about kids, marriage, home owning ect the salary doesn’t add up. 

Sure it comes with its benefits, if you have a partner who’s willing to get married to you and move away you can rent a decent military 3 bed house for peanuts. 

Now the pension. It’s alright but Do not for the love of god stay in just because of the pension. You get a lump sum at 12 years and 22 years. If you’re at 11 years then sure stay in but don’t be waiting more than 2 years just to get a small taxed lump sum.


All in all if you want to be undervalued, underpaid and constantly being told on civie street you have to earn your money, then join up. 

This was my first experience on 1st line large aircraft and I found it to be a slightly slower pace of life compared to fighter aircraft. However, this was mainly down to being manned 24/7, employed on a 12 hour shift system which included nights. As you may imagine, being part of the armed forces, comaradery with my colleagues was excellent, often providing light relief at times of highly stressful periods. I often feel proud to work on 99 Squadron, as it can feel like an important place to work, with provision of aeromedical evacuations from Afghanistan, repatriations of fallen soldiers, relief flights during humanitarian crisis and the slightly less important transporting of VIPs to different areas to visit troops. The pressure some of these requirements developed (particularly aeromeds) often lead to intense pressure to ensure that the aircraft was serviceable. This often felt like a challenge under which I and others would often thrive.

I think the hardest part of the job, from a technical point of view, is ensuring that all technical aspects of the work is carried out safely and on time. However, this does also bring about a great sense of achievement, that I can always deliver on what is asked of my in an ever increasingly demanding enviroment.

Due to the nature of my job there is no typical day, one day I will be extracting data to start a new build or updating an existing Mission Dependant Data (MDD) Set. The next day I could be validating the data I have colourised. Or I could be briefing management or industry about our current work products or future products.
I like this kind of work because every day is different, however stability is good too and having my own desk and work space gives me this. 
I enjoy working in a team and learning from other people more experienced than me. On the other hand i enjoy teaching people as well. As well as my primary job i also enjoy helping out on the Prince's Trust Liaison team and also the school engagement team were we v=either visit different schools and give then a question and answer session on a day in the life of a military person.
I don't really see any hard parts within my job, i try and get on with everyone and try my best to get everything done in a timely manor. I also manage to balance my work and home life equally however sometime i do need to swing more one way than the other but i find i do this with ease.
I enjoy my job because it gives me a sense of helping people. Without me doing my job people can not do theirs and i feel that doing what i do allows others to carry out their jobs with peace of mind.

Training is very good and you could be employed to do almost anything especially in the aircraft engineering trades.

The Management system is terrible with a 2 tier system Officers/Ordinary Ranks.  At some times you can have too many bosses.  Imagine working in a building where 75% of the people there are your boss and can and will tell you what to do, which normally conflicts with what someone else has told you (an extreme example but I have been in that scenario several times).

My co-workers had a very can do attitude but are constantly being hammered by low morale.  When I joined the RAF there were 96,000 employees now I think it is bellow 40,000 now.  The actual work output has increased leading to long hours for some people and very little time off, morale is very low with a high attrition rate at the moment.

The management appear to be doing a good job of removing the "fun" aspect from the RAF.

Join as an Officer due to better pension and benefits along with having serve less time to get a superior retirement package 16 years v's 22.  Make no mistake though, the Officer Cadre are very elitist.

A typical day as an Aircraft Mechanical Technician involves maintaining a fleet of aircraft, anywhere from 6 - 20 platforms at a time. No day is ever the same as similar faults rarely occur. 
The RAF provide many qualifications, of which you get paid a good salary while you are learning. 
Most of the management have all been through the same experiences the most junior member has been through, and are very experienced in their line of work.
Military culture has its own reputation, which it lives up to. Working as a team is part of the job, so you must be able to work well with others. Most jobs require more than one person.
The hardest part of the job is not having the support to carry out work. As many cuts have been made in the public sector, the military also feels the strain. This reflects on day to day work, from having serviceable equipment to a lack in man power.
The most enjoyable part of the job is the experiences you gain that not many people could. You get to travel the world with work. You also get the highest level of support for sports and team events.

I have served 12 years in the RAF and in my short career I have noticed a considerable change within the forces. There is no longer any discipline or respect for rank. There appears no longer be a team ethos, many individuals present themselves and think of themselves before the team or service. 
Salary isn't enough for the roll and job that is carried out, for example the work I conduct within the service, I can be easily paid double if not triple my current salary and unfortunately the benefits that the forces give, in my opinion no longer out way the considerable negatives of forces life, such as pay, time away from family, unpredictability of the service, etc. 
Saying that, I do believe it provides a great foundation for anyone to develop themselves further if that be educational, life experience, etc. 

I learnt lots of different things whilst I've been in the RAF. Here are just a few examples.

Team Work - When you're working on a squadron you learn team work is a huge part of the job. In almost any task you are required to talk to another person within the process of the task in hand. We did team building days and they were always good fun e.g low ropes.

Time Management - You learn this very quickly on Recruit training as you have a certain time to be up and awake by. As well as if you had to be somewhere at a certain time. Also if you are late for work then you can get restrictions - you soon learn.

Trustworthy - When you're in the Armed Forces you can sometimes be deployed away with different personnel then those that you work with at home. If you're sharing a room with someone from the Army for example, then you have to be able to trust each other with you personal items.

The job as a new starter is attractive with good wages and a seemingly attractive initial education package. 

However, once you leave training you see that the job is filled with hurdles, such as a three year Return of Service to the military for courses that only last a few weeks. 

Major roles in each individual trade are being civilianised, so those who are in the military are mainly restricted to administrative jobs, and as soon as any technical work is required you need to call a civilian company to come do the work. Due to this, morale is incredibly low across the force as there is little to no job satisfaction. You never go home at the end of a day feeling like you have achieved anything.

As a Junior Rank, you get paid a lot of money (circa £28,000) for carrying out very little work whilst not deployed, and rates whilst overseas remain attractive.

I spent a career expanding my skills and gaining valuable experiences in a wide range of environments but have chosen to move on. The Defense cuts have seen a marked change in the modus operandi and as a consequence it is not the career it once was. The greatest attribute of the RAF is the people you get to work alongside and the camaraderie gained from the diverse working conditions. The hardest part of the job is simply the inability to control your own life with short notice deployments overseas for varying lengths of time. Strangely the most enjoyable part of the job was realising you had the ability to deal with everything that was thrown at you no matter how unusual the environment may have been. The RAF is a job for those that have little or no commitments outside of the fence line, in other words if family time is important to you then it is not perhaps the best choice of career.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Aircraft maintenance technician 25 salaries reported	£38,817 per year
Avionics technician 5 salaries reported	£39,669 per year
Pilot 8 salaries reported	£73,568 per year
Engineer 5 salaries reported	£54,626 per year
Aeronautical engineer 4 salaries reported	£41,803 per year

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