Off to the RAF

[TSR2]

good luck mate. Hope it all goes to plan.

[airboatr]

you couldn't buy the memories.

Dennis.

thats right , they accually pay You to gather them ...

All the best through the tweaking process Adam...... ie the yelling and whatnot.

[JimCooper]

Good luck mate, I started off as an A tech E (heaven knows what they are called nowadays).

Merged with Avionics several years back. Start off as an Aircraft Maintenance Mechanic AMM(Av), do 18 weeks at Cosford then off to a Flight Line for 18 months as an SAC (3-bladed prop) then back to Cosford for almost a year of Technican training and become an Eng Tech Av, SAC Technician (3-bladed prop inside a circle - JT rank now obsolete)

I have happy memories of marching down the hill every morning behind the Halton 'Pipes and Drums'. I bet they do not do that now either

Nope, they bus them down the hill so as not to give them stress fractures!!!
Pipes and Drums went out in the mid-80s just before I joined up! But they still had the goats up until about 1989.

Jim

[Trev Clark]

Thanks Jim, it seems another world now!

J/T's gone, what next :o , did they have to drop down to SAC or are they just not making any more new ones? The new system is like the old mechanic (for 3 years or so), before doing your 'fitters course' of a year (incl an old fasioned ONC). I think this turned out better tradespeople than the system I went through.

I was one of the 'direct entry' (HAFE) type, straight in from school with 4 O'levels and 'go direct to J/T and do not pass Go' at the end of a year and a bit at Halton, preceded by 6 weeks at Swinderby. We were a single trade version of the A Tech (the old 'true' Apprentice scheme), those guys did all three aircraft trades (and a bit of weapons too) and were the 'high flyers' of the RAF engineering team. Most got 3 stripes after 3 years out of halton and almost half were commisioned as Eng O's. I guess some of them probably run the RAF now!

[Hot_Charlie]

Adam,

What have you go...

...oh no, you said don't didn't you!

Have "fun" at Halton. I'm sure you've made a good choice, particularly in the current financial climate!

[ChrisHunt]

The very best of luck Adam... not that you really need that as you'll be making your own!

I think that Joint Helicopter Command means that there is not enough to go around (i.e. for all 3 services to have one each) so they have to be shared now.
;-)

Regards,
Chris

[ukmil]

i am now 19 years in, as a Rigger [Aircraft tech], and I can say, it is no longer the RAF I joined, nor did many of you here. I would NOT join today.

[Motormouse]

Ah Halton, I remember all the pubs in Wendover....
I was there for trade training 1979, 'rigger' trade (thats' Airframes);pipes and drums each morning
and marching down through the 'spinney' at the back of Halton House to get to the airfield.

Did 12 yrs,2 wars... whatever you'll hear, the 'old lags' will always say its' not the same anymore..(me included)...you might like it,you may not like it,but you will forge lifelong friendships and acquaintances and meet some er,'characters' along the way.

have a good time,make sure you get breakfast every day,and remember 'training' is not like what happens when you get to a real unit.

ttfn

Pete

[Pringle]

...you might like it,you may not like it,but you will forge lifelong friendships and acquaintances and meet some er,'characters' along the way.

Spot on, the guys I have met make me want to stay in until my 22 year point. Simply because they are such a reliable and dependable bunch.

The 'characters' however...

[hobby]

Fifty three years ago I cut off my sewn on brass Apprentice 'wheels' and bribed a Senior Entry App to make me a full set of drilled and tapped brass 'wheels'.

I was at RAF Locking taking the real three year apprenticeship to become an Air Radio fitter. I could never quite reason out how the RAF got away with 'passing out' the Senior Entry as J/Ts when sixth formers who went on to university did most of the same theory and 'passed out' with a BSc!! In my day Apps did not even get the chance to qualify as an ONC, let alone an HNC. But no matter what trade, everyone started out in those days by filing a solid brass rod exactly square on all six faces +/_ half a thou, one began with an illegitimate file and finished with very fine emery! By the way, every Apprentice also had to write a 10,000 word dissertation in the final year on a specified subject - not necessarily connected to electronics - marked by the Education Branch staff before one was awarded one's J/T stripe.

Wonderful days with a wonderful set of young men from all parts of the world - we had Rhodesians, New Zealanders, Ceylonese and Burmese guys all about 16-20 years of age with us - the Ceylonese never, ever, got into the habit of wearing boots and the always wore the most scruffy plimsolls combined with an 'excused boots' chit! Those were the days when Canberras were brand new and one could look forward to travelling the world at HM's expense with the possibility of entering Cranwell and following in Frank Whittle's footsteps. I was invalided out after eighteen months but by that time I had taken part in The Royal Tournament and been one of the first in my Entry to be promoted to L/A/A with responsibility for my own hut full of brand new Apps. We had a pipe band and, just like Apps at Halton a hill to march up and down twice every day.Our mascot was a Shetland Pony called Iain Brian Hamish McCrackers.

Just a footnote: we were issued with Lee-Enfield 0.303 rifles and WW1 type bayonets of extraordinary length and if you were of small stature you tried very hard not to be directly behind a Burmese when marching in column with bayonets fixed. Quite mesmeric watching the tip of a chrome plated bayonet wavering about just in front of one's left eye!

Those in power made it quite clear from the very start that Cranwell Graduates and ex Apprentices were the backbone of the Royal Air Force on which everthing depended. It bred an enduring sense of pride and confidence.

Good fortune to you Tweek.