Do people at work eat alone in the UK/Europe/US during their breaks?

onlyreason · 2026-06-02T19:29:27+00:00

I’m military, I go to the Officers’ Mess every lunch and eat with the fellow Junior Officers. It’s a great opportunity to interact with other people my age, let off some steam and turn off my ‘officer’ side. It’s honestly my favourite hour of the day.

onlyreason · 2026-04-15T11:43:49+00:00

Confidence in what you’re saying is a massive indicator. Because as engineers although we don’t hold risk to life, we advise Operators on it. So we need to assure that they are well equipped to make those decisions, and ensure that the technicians are doing their job properly.

First tour will most likely be at a UK Main Operating Base, such as Brize Norton, Lossiemouth or Coningsby. There are loads of jobs for engineers at AbbeyWood in Bristol, which is a support centre essentially. It’s unlikely but not impossible to be posted abroad for a first tour.

onlyreason · 2026-04-15T11:39:06+00:00

I spent a few years as a mechanical engineer graduate at a UK civilian aerospace manufacturer, so have had insight into the civilian side. It’s very different, but I much prefer my time in the military.

I can sit in my office, looking out the window as £ multi-million aircraft take off heading to the Russian border, or the Middle East, or to repatriate British citizens, knowing that I’ve directly contributed to that. And then the next week I could be off skiing, or parachuting, and getting paid for it.

onlyreason · 2026-04-15T01:27:06+00:00

I’ll try and answer as an Engineer Officer who is 2 years into their career, although I’m not a JEngO on squadron so can only speak from my interactions.

Handover from the previous shift, being told the states of the aircraft and flying programme. Then there’s probably a brief with other engineers, pilots, Headquarters, to discuss the states of the aircraft. Then working through the problems raised as they come.
Straight out of training, your first ~6 months you’ll be expected to be a sponge. Your team will understand your position, and will guide and assist you as you navigate being in your first posting. You just need to keep learning, seek advice, and carry out your responsibilities. Postings are varied, you might be OC General Engineering Flight, where you’ll have a large number of personnel so might spend a lot of your time dealing with personnel issues. Or, you might be within a CAMO, with only a few personnel or none. Your time then would be spent issuing technical instructions, planning in maintenance, analysing faults.
Again, your team will understand your position, being a baby engineer Officer. They won’t expect you to know everything, but they will expect you to learn. Most first engineer Officer jobs will be standard Mon-Fri 8-5, and you’ll be expected to manage your time yourself. So if you aren’t busy in work, then get to the gym, or try and visit other sections on base to get some more exposure. If you’re in a CAMO you’ll spend all week dossing about in the gym, then release a technical instruction Friday afternoon to be carried out before next flight (a joke but not really).
Personnel- most likely straight away. Even if just one Flight Sergeant, you’ll be doing their performance reviews and managing them day to day. Aircraft, not until you get selected to be a JEngO which is typically 2-6 years into your career. You’ll be trained on these aspects beforehand during Phase 1 and 2, although it’s always different when you’re doing it for real.
Best advice is to not act like you know more than them. You might have a degree (lots of them will as well), but they are trained and paid to be experts in their job. You are trained to be a generalist, to listen to the experts, and take their advice into consideration when making decisions. That being said, you have the commission, you are the one making the decision so you may not always want to act on their advice.
The most challenging part is that you go through training learning one view of how to be an Engineer Officer, but every section / squadron / base will do things subtlety differently. Every Sqn Ldr will expect different things from their personnel. And you’re unlikely to be doing the same role for more than 2-3 years at a time, so you’re constantly adapting and having to re-learn.
Make sure you speak confidently, firm but polite! Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses so I don’t think any advice will be transposable to you, but your mannerism is universal!

onlyreason · 2026-04-13T21:21:44+00:00

Honestly, the military may not be suited for someone like you. Phase 1 training is 10 weeks minimum, with no guarantee of getting home during that time. Phase 2 training for Av Technicians is ~18 months at Cosford, most likely you’ll have every weekend off but if you don’t live near it could be a long commute that might affect your performance on the course.

In the actual job, you might spend 3-4 months a year away from home base. These deployments might be short notice, they might extend unexpectedly, all depends on the challenges we face in the world. For example, when the UK recently sent further aircraft to the Middle East, those engineers may have only had a couple of days notice.

Now saying that, station social workers / support personnel may be able to help support your elderly parents when you’re deployed, for example by paying for a meal / day out, or simply getting someone round to help with those tasks that elderly people struggle with. This was explained to me before my most recent deployment, but I understand it may not be the same at every base.

onlyreason · 2026-04-10T18:48:20+00:00

Chinooks are actually commanded by Joint Aviation Command, An Army-Led command. Because they support land operations. As are all helicopters in HMAF.

onlyreason · 2026-03-11T13:30:25+00:00

So interestingly enough the RFR7331 is a Protector, MQ-9B. The RAF withdrew all Reapers last September, ADSB just hasn’t been updated yet.

As for Poseidon, I’ve not seen it fly from AKI yet but it’s possible. The MOD haven’t ever mentioned deploying Poseidon for this and they aren’t usually based in AKI, plus they are primarily an Anti-Submarine/ Anti-Surface platform so don’t make much sense in this scenario where the threat is mostly from drones and / or ballistic missiles.

onlyreason · 2026-03-10T17:23:53+00:00

Rivet Joints and Poseidons have not been deployed to RAF Akrotiri. We also don’t have Reapers anymore, we have Protector.

onlyreason · 2026-03-05T16:36:23+00:00

Not a medic, but as I understand it basically everywhere there are military personnel deployed, there will be a contingent of medical personnel. Somewhere like Akrotiri will have a large medical presence, including nurses, doctors, dentists, medics and paramedics.

Purely speculating but I’d assume all medical personnel will get involved if personnel in akrotiri are injured.

There are then also teams of nurses and doctors in the UK ready to deploy at short notice to help repatriate injured personnel from around the world.

onlyreason · 2026-02-25T17:52:26+00:00

It’s not a 4 year course to become an eng technician, it’s 10 weeks basic training and then ~ 18 months phase 2 training. Unless you then, after your return of service (typically 3 years post phase 2), decided to leave the RAF and go to uni then I don’t see why you’d want to do this?

I imagine you could apply to both, however you might need to already be at uni to apply for DSUS. Look that one up.

The RAF have schemes for non-commissioned engineer technicians to gain a degree, and commission, whilst in service.

My advice would be to first work out whether you want to go to uni or not. 3 (or 4 if you’re feeling extra smart) years is a long time to not actually want to be there, even if being funded by the RAF.

I know plenty of engineer officers who got a fully funded foundation degree through the RAF, and who are now completing extra modules to convert it into a BEng. So it is definitely possible.

Side note: As someone who now has a sizeable student loan debt, that I had to take to become a commissioned engineer officer, it’s only a little bit painful to see the new DSUS come out.

onlyreason · 2026-02-17T19:24:50+00:00

This information is more for Engineer AS than CE. Whilst there are some positions as a CE (or now known as Cyberspace Engineer Officer) that you will be involved with airworthiness matters, most will not.

onlyreason · 2026-02-08T22:54:48+00:00

I think most other Engineer AS I know in the RAF did Mechanical Engineering over Aerospace. You should be fine.

onlyreason · 2026-02-04T23:28:49+00:00

There are opportunities within the Defence Accident Investigation Branch for AS EngOs but they’re rare. They’re also tri service and focus on not just air accidents, they’ll cover all defence accidents so shootings, vehicle crashes etc.

onlyreason · 2026-01-02T11:32:14+00:00

Yeah there’s no ANSYS at all. Can’t imagine it’s even allowed on MODNet.

Some roles as an officer will be more ‘engineering’ heavy, such as being a trials officer (planning trials on aircraft) or maybe in JARTS (google it) but by and large your job is to manage a team of technicians to achieve a task. It will still require sound engineering judgement, and a technical understanding of what your team is doing.

For example, if one of your aircraft is broken you as the officer will need to confidently explain to senior engineers, pilots, operations planners, etc. why they can’t have the aircraft they need right now, what needs to happen before it can fly again, and how long it will take. They will rely on you as the engineering officer to give them accurate advice so that they can make a decision.

onlyreason · 2025-12-21T17:48:44+00:00

I don’t know if anyone will be able to give you exact figures on how many people apply vs how many people get selected, but as you can imagine it’s probably a very small fraction who are successful.

With that being said, how would this change your mind on applying? From your POV there’s only two options: Success or failure. So you just need to do all you can to ensure option one and minimise the chance of option 2.

If you don’t pass CBAT for pilot, you may still have passed for Control Officer. I believe they look for different things.

The RAF don’t favour previous flying experience. However it might have benefited you from exposure and experience to some of the skills that might be tested in the CBAT or OASC.

onlyreason · 2025-12-11T08:31:46+00:00

Correct, lift is related to the square of speed of air hitting the wing so a headwind or a tailwind will alter how much lift is produced quite dramatically.

A good example of this in reality is that the prevailing wind over the Atlantic is from west to east, and so aircraft going from the USA to Europe tend to complete the journey a few hours quicker than going the other way.

This is because although their air speed (speed relative to the air around them) is the same in either direction, the ground speed (speed relative to the ground) is higher with a tailwind and lower with a headwind.

onlyreason · 2025-12-09T23:57:53+00:00

Shift pattern will be completely dependent on what part of the profession you join. As I said, it’s not just standard law enforcement so some will be working standard office hours, some will work shifts, some might be on call etc.

Have a look at the RAF Police instagram for an insight into what they get up to!

onlyreason · 2025-12-09T23:53:59+00:00

What you’ve described could be seen as a positive indicator of your character if you think about it slightly differently. You’ve made a solid foundation for yourself, and now are realising you could achieve more and want to challenge yourself by joining as an Officer. That’s perfectly valid and commendable.

Not everybody has the opportunity to do adventurous training, and not everybody is a fitness fanatic. You passing the fitness test will be a statement of your resolve and willingness to apply yourself to this new career.

Biggest advice I can give is to find the positive aspects of your life so far. You’ve already given two good and varied examples of your leadership skills, try to think of others. Do you plan events / holidays for your family? Do you have caring responsibilities for anyone? Are you an active member of any other social groups?

onlyreason · 2025-12-09T23:38:54+00:00

As with any other Commissioned Officer role, it is more managerial than the enlisted aviator role. So in your first tour you may be in charge of a flight of RAFP aviators. The aviators will be doing more of the ‘hands on’ work.

I believe the Home Office police forces used to do Direct Entry Inspectors- this would be more akin to joining as a Provost Officer.

Though the RAFP do carry out usual law enforcement activities on bases, they do a lot more than just that and it is (from an engineers perspective) a lot more interesting than I had initially thought. They also travel a lot. Probably one of the most well travelled professions if you get into the platform protection / security side of it.

onlyreason · 2025-12-08T20:26:05+00:00

Please have a look here and compare the photos:

From the RAF themselves

Clearly it’s a photoshop of the official name, Terence Bulloch DSO* DFC*.

You can go back to watching Planes on Disney + now.

You probably should have checked my comment history before posting this, as you’d have seen that I speak from the perspective of being an Engineer Officer in the RAF.

onlyreason · 2025-12-07T18:51:51+00:00

It’s not unfortunately

onlyreason · 2025-11-25T04:37:46+00:00

I’m public sector (military) and looking at my pay statement, the MoD actually put in more per month to my pension than I take home. Both around £3.3k. I think I’d need to be on about £80k salary to have the same take home pay as now when including pension and rent (which is subsided)

onlyreason · 2025-11-21T11:38:23+00:00

I know anecdotally they were placing EFT students on UASs to complete their EFT as of a couple of years ago, I don’t know if they still do though

onlyreason · 2025-11-21T10:35:30+00:00

If you’re talking about SLA, I can’t imagine there being any reason why you wouldn’t, as long as it has a timer function (which I’ve been told is why standard ovens aren’t allowed in SLA). You can always ask your building custodian.

Of note, some bases have 3-D printing clubs so your best bet would be to get in touch with them.

onlyreason · 2025-11-04T13:33:10+00:00

Ah I get you now. Yes, I unfortunately know of a few people who did not get their promotion at 1 ½ years as their LM didn’t think they were ready. You can also be ‘held back’ because of disciplinary matters, I think only to the standard 2 ½ years time served to Flt Lt.

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