Career in the Forces? (IT Related)

cheets64 said:
Hedge I thought you was a Postman, you joining the Army?
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Im a postman.. Applied for the RAF, going in as an Avionics Technitian if all goes according to plan.

Ive had a very strange career path over my years lol .

Ive got NVQ 2 in Plumbing Studies. I have Domestic ACS gas certificates... ive worked in Marks and spencers, and ive worked as a postman haha.

I dont enjoy plumbing at all, so I only do it for family / friends mainly.

Ive never been the most driven of chaps, but ive had a strange desire to join the forces for years (originally I was drawn to the navy). Its always been in the back of my mind, so i figure I may aswell do it while im still young. (24 now)
 
Begbie said:
Start on Wednesday, but fly down on Tuesday. So my last day as a civvie tomorrow! :)
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Is that for your 9 weeks training or the 2 day pre joining course? I've just had my dates for 26th of February pre joining course and 16th of April for my 9 weeks at Halton.

I've not had any info on it yet apart from the dates really. This might be a daft question but I noticed you're in Scotland too so do the RAF sort out our travel down to Halton? Or do I need to organise it myself?
 
touge said:
Is that for your 9 weeks training or the 2 day pre joining course? I've just had my dates for 26th of February pre joining course and 16th of April for my 9 weeks at Halton.

I've not had any info on it yet apart from the dates really. This might be a daft question but I noticed you're in Scotland too so do the RAF sort out our travel down to Halton? Or do I need to organise it myself?
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The RAF will book you flights down, and you will get picked up at Luton. You arrive the day before hand with both PRTC and RTC, which imo is a great thing.

Us Scots and a couple of others definitely had a great time because of it. PRTC was a great insight and settles your nerves for RTC. You finally realise that everyone else really is on the same boat! :)

I found some amazing info on Student Rooms,http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=96 , some of the WOSP's post there too so if wrongful info is posted its normally sorted out.

There is also E-Goat but it aint as good as SR for noob info.


Best of luck! :)
 
touge said:
Is that for your 9 weeks training or the 2 day pre joining course? I've just had my dates for 26th of February pre joining course and 16th of April for my 9 weeks at Halton.

I've not had any info on it yet apart from the dates really. This might be a daft question but I noticed you're in Scotland too so do the RAF sort out our travel down to Halton? Or do I need to organise it myself?
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You just had your medical and fitness recently yeah?

With my medical being on tuesday im probably in a similar position as you mate.. when did you do your fitness?
 
Begbie said:
The RAF will book you flights down, and you will get picked up at Luton. You arrive the day before hand with both PRTC and RTC, which imo is a great thing.

Us Scots and a couple of others definitely had a great time because of it. PRTC was a great insight and settles your nerves for RTC. You finally realise that everyone else really is on the same boat! :)

I found some amazing info on Student Rooms,http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=96 , some of the WOSP's post there too so if wrongful info is posted its normally sorted out.

There is also E-Goat but it aint as good as SR for noob info.


Best of luck! :)
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Cheers for all the info, I'm really looking forward to it now :D

Hedge said:
You just had your medical and fitness recently yeah?

With my medical being on tuesday im probably in a similar position as you mate.. when did you do your fitness?
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Yep I done my selection interview, medical and fitness in the same day last week on the 13th, then 2 days later I had my dates for Halton. So I wouldn't be able to say when you're likely to get your fitness test but I don't think it would be very long if I got all mines in the same day. You just need to complete the 1.5 mile run in 12.11 seconds and then do 10 pressups in a minute and 18 situps in another minute.
 
touge said:
Cheers for all the info, I'm really looking forward to it now :D



Yep I done my selection interview, medical and fitness in the same day last week on the 13th, then 2 days later I had my dates for Halton. So I wouldn't be able to say when you're likely to get your fitness test but I don't think it would be very long if I got all mines in the same day. You just need to complete the 1.5 mile run in 12.11 seconds and then do 10 pressups in a minute and 18 situps in another minute.
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10 pressups in a minute, you can stop and start within that minute? (not that i need to, i can do 10 easy enough off the belt)

I think once my medical is done i can pretty much pick a time this week for my fitness, its a gym about 10 miles from me, i believe I just pick a suitable time and go do it.

been talking to Jason (Mad Jay) on msn and he calculated the speeds to run to get under 12 minutes, so ill just set the treadmill to that and go for it lol :)
 
Hedge said:
10 pressups in a minute, you can stop and start within that minute? (not that i need to, i can do 10 easy enough off the belt)

I think once my medical is done i can pretty much pick a time this week for my fitness, its a gym about 10 miles from me, i believe I just pick a suitable time and go do it.

been talking to Jason (Mad Jay) on msn and he calculated the speeds to run to get under 12 minutes, so ill just set the treadmill to that and go for it lol :)
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Well 10 is the minimum to complete within the minute, so you basically try to do as many as you can.

When I done my fitness the gym guy told me what speed I need to leave it on to finish in 12 mins if I just left it there for the whole run, but you can change it up or down to what you like. I think it was about 7mph.
 
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If you're practising push ups do yourself a favour and do a full straight arm effort. Also you might find 10 easy but you'll be shocked when you get to training and see how many people fail their test on press-ups or sit-ups :rolleyes:
 
Captain Planet said:
If you're practising push ups do yourself a favour and do a full straight arm effort. Also you might find 10 easy but you'll be shocked when you get to training and see how many people fail their test on press-ups or sit-ups :rolleyes:
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Chest right to the floor, one guy on our block couldn't do 1 press up although told us he done the run in 9mins! He looked quite built too, chest nearly all the way to the floor.

Zefan said:
Good luck Begbie!!!
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Thanks Zefan, going to be a walk in the park anyway - nothing to worry about :rolleyes::p
 
The army training guide thats on the army.mod site says you also have to keep your elbows up against your body when doing press-ups. Which to me seems strange, when i tried doing it that way i couldn't do anywhere near as many as i could the way i was used to (my elbows out). So if you are going to train, make sure you train the exact way they expect you to perform the exercises.
 
Begbie said:
Chest right to the floor, one guy on our block couldn't do 1 press up although told us he done the run in 9mins! He looked quite built too, chest nearly all the way to the floor.



Thanks Zefan, going to be a walk in the park anyway - nothing to worry about :rolleyes::p
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How are you feeling about it all anyway begbie? you feeling aprehensive/nervous?

Im looking forward to reaching the stage you are at, but im worried at the same time. Being 24 im gonna be a bit older than a lot of the people ill be joining with so I might not get along with the little chumps :D
 
touge said:
You just need to complete the 1.5 mile run in 12.11 seconds and then do 10 pressups in a minute and 18 situps in another minute.
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When I had my P3 presentation last week the Sgt said they test you on your sit ups and push ups, but they do not fail you if you do a poor amount.

Not that I'm bothered, I can do the "required" amount easy. :D

@ Hedge,

You might not be so bad. My mate John who has joined is 17, he said he was the youngest there. a lot of the others where early to mid 20's he said.
 
Zefan said:
Take it one week at a time, sometimes you'll hate the thought of going back to training but the weekend always comes quicker than you expect :)
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Did you go home every weekend?

Hedge said:
How are you feeling about it all anyway begbie? you feeling aprehensive/nervous?

Im looking forward to reaching the stage you are at, but im worried at the same time. Being 24 im gonna be a bit older than a lot of the people ill be joining with so I might not get along with the little chumps :D
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Nervous a bit, not really thinking about it. I know its happening and I know am going to go through hell for 9 weeks. When I think about it it does terrify me, but thats just nerves and once you get down there with the guys, like prtc, am sure that will disappear quite quickly.

You'll be surprised about the age thing, the lads from Scotland we all (bar one) in there early 20's. The oldest guy there was like 36!! Although he was previously in the RAF.
 
Mad_Jay said:
When I had my P3 presentation last week the Sgt said they test you on your sit ups and push ups, but they do not fail you if you do a poor amount.

Not that I'm bothered, I can do the "required" amount easy. :D
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Yeah, you can only fail the run. Although when speaking to a few folk I did hear that one of them at PRTC failed the run and still got through.
 
I had my 1st proper bash at the 1.5 mile run yesterday at the Gym.

I just got on the treadmill and set it to 13kph, I do most of my running on the treadmill at 13/14kph and it was relativity easy, And I finished the run in 11 minutes 4 seconds.

Going again tomorrow evening after college. Going to attempt it at 14kph this time, shouldn't really see a problem with that either hopefully.

*edit*

Dammit this thread has got me excited again :D R.A.F paperwork everywhere, reading more and more info about the R.A.F. :cool:
 
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