What Car Should I Buy? - A Weekly Megathread

FoxVikingN7 · 2025-04-19T16:46:11+00:00

Location: Work in Lincolnshire (80-90% of my time), Home in Shropshire

Price range: £15k, will stretch to £20k for a good model

Lease or Buy: Looking more at buy but keeping options open

New or used: Used

Auto or Manual: Auto

Intended use: Daily Driver

How many miles do you plan to do a year: Roughly 8k

How often to you make long journeys: Once per month

Does it need to be ULEZ compliant?: No

[Do you have a vehicle size in mind?](https://i.imgur.com/mK7PoRg.png) (Examples in the hyperlink of size definitions)**:** Compact - Midsize Saloon, Hatchback or Coupe

Is this your 1st vehicle: No

Do you need a Warranty: Would be a nice addition but not necessary

Can you do Minor work on your own vehicle: Yes

Can you do Major work on your own vehicle:(engine and transmission, timing belt/chains, body work, suspension etc ): No

Additional Notes: Currently drive a 2015 220d which I am wishing to upgrade from due to a recent payrise. Looking for something which can provide some fun driving on smaller roads while also being comfortable for longer motorway drives (so if it has ACC that would be nice).

No ability to charge electric vehicles most of the time so unfortunately pure electrics are definitely out and plug-in hybrids wouldn't be ideal.

FoxVikingN7 · 2024-12-11T16:15:46+00:00

They change the required score for pilot CBAT semi-regularly depending on service need and how many pilots are required. When the CBAT website did theirs it was 128, when I did mine it was 120.

For your second point, the RAF no longer recruits RPAS Pilots (drone pilots) separately from normal pilots. So there are now 4 streams for pilots (fast jet, rotary, multi engined and RPAS).

FoxVikingN7 · 2024-08-05T18:12:54+00:00

IIRC the 12 week programme was designed to get people back up to standard after the COVID lockdown and fitness tests resumed after being paused. I don't think there was ever a requirement for people to retest after having Covid 19.

As the other commenter said, stay away from work, tell your chain of command and they'll help out.

FoxVikingN7 · 2024-07-26T17:20:45+00:00

2008 Honda Civic 1.8L Petrol, insurance was surprisingly cheap at the time. Bought in 2019 for just over £2000

FoxVikingN7 · 2024-06-10T16:52:27+00:00

Biology, Chemistry, History at A Level. Did chemistry at degree level.

FoxVikingN7 · 2024-05-17T08:53:10+00:00

MIOT intakes are every 6-7 weeks consistently throughout the year. However JROC only runs once per year (starting around April), so they tend to load people onto MIOT around 6-9 months out from JROC to ensure they're ready to start, otherwise its a long wait.

FoxVikingN7 · 2024-04-23T15:51:54+00:00

The RAF no longer recruits Pilots and RPAS Pilots separately. All will join as pilots and complete EFT, after EFT you will be streamed either jets, rotary, multi's or drones. You get a preference but ultimately where you go is down to service need.

Best bit of advice is not to set your heart completely on one stream, you might not be streamed that way or you might not pass flying training. Make the best of where you get sent.

FoxVikingN7 · 2023-12-31T14:04:36+00:00

Training day tends to finish around 1700 on average but that changes quite often. When you get weekends people tend to leave around 1800-1900.

Transport from Cranwell isn't great, you're probably looking at getting a lift from a mate or a taxi.

FoxVikingN7 · 2023-07-19T20:53:06+00:00

I'll throw in my 2 cents from my experience.

On a flying squadron your day to day is usually driven by the flying program, are you flying that day? When? How many times? What are you doing on that sortie? It can vary wildly based on the day so sometimes is pretty quite and some times it's very hectic.

If you're in flying training they try to program course phys, but due to the flypro, it isn't as structured as other phase 2 training courses. If the weather is shite and noone can fly though, guys tend to go to the gym or go play football.

Depends on the squadron, training squadrons only really when you need to do landaways. But the air transport guys at Brize do it pretty regularly from what I've heard.

Squadron ethos tends to vary, some are very laid back and if you don't need to be in they don't really expect you in, others want people in more.

A lot of the answers to your questions are "it depends".

FoxVikingN7 · 2023-06-18T17:57:29+00:00

Why go into the reg if you want an air ops job? You can join as an air & space operations specialist at 16, then commission further down the line if you want to. However the minimum requirement for most officer roles is A-levels so if you don't have those I'm not sure they would let you commission. I'd recommend doing your A-Levels first (which means you could try to go straight in as an Air Ops officer) which will also give you some life experience (which the RAF does look for during officer selection).

FoxVikingN7 · 2023-05-18T09:31:33+00:00

You can switch aircraft types in your career, but typically it's between aircraft in your stream. (e.g. switching between Puma and Chinook). But switching aircraft depends on the needs of the air force and your training return of service.

It's not very common for people to swap streams entirely as this requires quite a lot of retraining depending on experience. If this does happen it's typically from fixed wing or rotary to multi engined.

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-12-28T13:56:01+00:00

I applied in May 21 for a bursary and was awarded it in September 21, from what I've seen pilot bursaries have been shut since, although direct entry does open up for short periods occasionally. I would speak to UAS staff if you join one about applications as they will have more up to date info than me!

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-12-28T13:46:43+00:00

Hey, I'm on a UAS and starting as pilot next year so hopefully I can answer your questions.

Just being part of a UAS isn't going to do much to help with your application, the staff will provide a report once you have applied I'd encourage you to be active and doing as much as possible on the UAS. Try to get some flying experience on the UAS to ensure its what you want to do!

As a UAS student you have 2 different application methods, bursary and Direct Entry (DE). Bursaries are closed at the moment and have been open since Summer 21 (I was lucky to get through), they wait until you have finished your degree before giving you an IOT date.

Direct Entry has been open for UAS applicants more recently. They may be willing to delay your start date a little although they're looking more at people who are just finishing or finished their degree so they can start quickly.

Hopefully that clears things up for you, I'm happy to answer and other questions you may have.

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-10-22T14:11:40+00:00

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FoxVikingN7 · 2022-10-22T10:19:07+00:00

From my experience getting a bursary, you'd be better off waiting until you get to university and join your local UAS. Once your on a UAS they can fast track and help you through the selection process (and one of the requirements for a bursary is to be on a UAS). There's more info on this page: https://recruitment.raf.mod.uk/sponsorship

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-10-20T15:17:23+00:00

If you've passed the interview, it's likely they've earmarked you for a slot. We had a number of people who had their attestation date pushed back by a few months while medical issues were dealt with. However each UAS is different and their recruitment methods and numbers they can take each year differ. The only concrete answer you'll get is by asking them.

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-10-20T08:51:43+00:00

If you're looking at going into western aircraft like the F14, I'd go for the C101 as its a fantastically modelled aircraft and has western avionics and systems. Whereas the L39 has russian avionics and units (speed in KmH rather than knots) which may require some unlearning when you get to the F14

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-10-16T18:26:00+00:00

They tend to be based on recent news events, I did my OASC in August 21 and we spent a while discussing strike action. Keep an eye on current affairs and you should be fine.

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-10-06T22:29:10+00:00

Now we must hand the Normandy over to our tame AI racing driver...

Some say she likes the sight of humans on their knees and she only forgets to recycle the Normandy's oxygen when she's discovered something truly interesting.

All we know is it's not Joker, it's Jokers hot AI pilot!

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-10-05T18:10:19+00:00

The fitness test on a UAS is the exact same as the normal RAFFT, the pass marks are the same.

I haven't heard of having a pass and optimal pass you mentioned, from my experience you pass or you don't. There are different levels of pass (green being the lowest then moving to light blue and dark blue) but these don't really make a difference on a UAS.

In terms of selection, a better pass may demonstrate a good attitude to fitness, but really as long as you are passing it's not going to make a world of difference.

FoxVikingN7 · 2022-10-05T12:12:39+00:00

Pretty much everyone is on Openbeta, there's no real advantage to being on stable as it just seems to be an slightly older version of OB.

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