RAF

In the introductin I said that you had to take an officer in the RAF reserve, or RAFR, and you'd hopefully end up with me. This is because my job is one that has, as far as I can tell, no mention on the RAF website. I am training to become a weather forecaster in the MMU or Mobile Meterological Unit. We are a specialist unit of forecasters that travel where the RAF or Army Air Corp need us to support flight operations.
We are sponsered reservists in the RAF. This means that when not in uniform we do the same job, usually on defense sites such as RAF stations, but for weeks and sometimes months we go on excercise or detatchment with the RAF and AAC to places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Latvia, basically where ever the RAF is operative. We're paid for by the Met Office, which is a trading firm of the MoD anyway. We are not volenteer reservists, the valuable people the work in so much of the RAF. The normal RAFR covers both the auxillary RAAuxF and the RAFR. More info on the official website. Ordinary reservists cover all areas of the RAF including the cadets, some of the nursing and transport areas. We are a bit different in that once we are in uniform there is no difference between an MMU Flight Leiutentant and another specialist of the same rank. We wear the same uniform, obey the same standing and other orders and if the situation requires it, we pick up our rifles and carry on.
We also have to pass all the entry requirements of the RAF. This is the problem for me at the moment. I'm trying to get fit enough to pass the, admittedly easy enough, Royal Air Force Fitness Test, or RAFFT. I've failed it once and I've got a few months left before I retake it. For a normally fit person the RAFFT shouldn't be any bother but I was really unfit.
If anyone wants it I can give a bit of advice about the RAF Officer Aircrew Selection proceedure or OASC. Basically, be fit and healthy and KNOW your current affairs for the last year, if you can, find something from each continent from about four to ten months ago and know the headlines and all the backgroung associated. The Week is a good magazine to buy as soon as you know you want to apply to the RAF and keep a record of the major events that have relevence.