Tuesday 3 November 2009

Welcome to the RAFairman Blog

Hello, and welcome.

The reason you are here I guess is because you already follow me on Twitter and you want a bit more information.

Well, we live in an information age, so I am going to do a bit of "ego-viewing". This is an invention of my own - a fake interview done by myself - to myself (yeah, sounds a bit schizophrenic on writing that), but it is essentially a FAQ. So here goes.

So, RAFairman. Where are you based and what do you fly?

Ok, obvious one question, but sorry, I don't fly. I am, by trade, an avionics technician, but right now I am working "out of trade" in an office job, doing a type of management consultancy type job.

Oh and I am based at RAF Benson, Wallingford, Oxfordshire. Here is where the RAF's Medium lift helicopter force is based - Merlin and Puma helicopters.

Oh. That sounds quite dull. What's THAT all about then?

It's called Continuous Improvement and it's our job to look at the sections, flights and squadrons on base here and see how we can make them better. Make them more productive and to make them happier places to be. In the writing of that it comes across as a bit of a dull job, but in fact...it's interesting in that you get to go into any section on station to see what goes on there and you get to learn about things that you everyone on station does. So whilst it's not sexy...it's at least interesting and you get a feeling that you are making people's lives a bit better.

Fair enough - not everyone can be a fighter pilot...how long have you been in the RAF?

Ha ha! No they can't. I've actually been in the RAF for just over 22 years. I joined in 1987. Originally as an Electronics Technician (Air Radar), but as the RAF has merged trades over the years I have changed my trade title. I am now officially Aircraft Technician (Avionics).

That's a fairly long time, where have you been based?

I did my Initial Training at RAF Swinderby (in Lincolnshire), and then my Basic Trade Training at RAF Cosford near to Wolverhampton. From here I was posted to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. On promotion I moved to RAF Leeming, in North Yorkshire, and then was posted back to RAF Cosford as an Instructor. On my next promotion I moved to RAF Benson - where I am now.

Varied then - what jobs have you done?

At Coningsby I actually did two jobs. The first was working on Tornado F3's as part of No. 29(F)Sqn. I was here for seven years and did a lot, went to a lot of places, and had a lot of fun. I then moved onto a trials and development team working on an Electronic Warfare bit of kit and fixing the Tornado's Defensive Aids.

At Leeming I worked in the Radar Bay, fixing the broken boxes that were removed by the people at First Line, and as I said at Cosford I was an Instructor.

It's difficult to chose a favourite tour, but I'm lucky to have had some fantastic jobs. The Squadron work was hard but fun, whilst the EW work was fascinating and technical, and then the instructing was where I figured out I like working with people and not just bits of electronics. This job is cool though, for the reasons I gave earlier.

Have you been, you know, out there...?

If by "there" you mean Afghanistan/Iraq then no. I've been lucky and I haven't (but I have a feeling that luck will run out soon and I'll get notice of a tour there in the next year or so), but in the past I went out to the desert for the First Gulf War (1991) and then I did a couple of trips out to Saudi in the mid 90's. I also did a tour in Italy as part of the Deny Flight Operations that NATO undertook over the Former Yugoslavia.

To be honest, in a slightly perverse way, I think I'd enjoy a tour "Out of Area" operationally. For two reasons - firstly to see how things have changed since my first war, and secondly because I feel a bit of a fraud in having not been deployed for a while. I feel a little bit guilty I guess. I mean I would miss my girl-friend and my kids, but being deployed is what goes with the job of being in the military now.

Where do you live?

Right now, I spilt my time between RAF Benson in the week and my girl-friend and mine's house in Birmingham. She is in the Army, and works at Selly Oak Hospital (on the main Trauma-Orthopeadic ward that the lads injured out in Afghan return to). In the week I live in the Sergeant's Mess. I have a room that is basically a crash pad for four nights a week and then on a Monday morning and Friday afternoon you'll find me on the M40.

Why do you Tweet/Blog?

Well, I love technology and gadgets, and I love the communication aspects that they bring. And I am a people person. I think we are all looking for connections in life, and the more we have the richer our lives are. I like to learn about people and what they do, and what makes them tick.

I was an avid Twitterer from very early on (when there were very few people Tweeting!) and often tweeted what I was doing from there. I decided to close my "own" account and open the "RAF" one simply because people were interesting in service life and I found there were huge gaps in peoples knowledge of what members of the armed forces actually do. There is an idea that we spend all day either doing nothing or else marching up and down all day, our lives are much more varied and richer than that - our jobs are often like what "normal" people do, but in slightly different ways.

I'm also dreadfully proud of being in the RAF. And I enjoy the amazing lifestyle it has given me over the years. I know that people are interested and so I decided to combine all the things I've talked about in a Twitter account.

This blog...hmmmm...I'm not so sure about that, but it's going to exist to add a bit of detail to what I get upto, and to add a bit of history to what I've done and where I've been. Maybe even where I'm going. Needless to say, just like the Twitter account, I'm making it all up as I go along.

Finally, is this an OFFICIAL blog?

No. Not at all. All ideas and opinions expressed in this blog (as well as on Twitter) are my own and should not be taken as either RAF or MOD policy. In every way, this is an unofficial web-page, that I intend to post my own thoughts and opinions. But, and there's always a but, I'll be doing it in line with the MOD's Online Engagement Guidelines, which may mean that there are times when I must, and will, say "I can't comment on that". 

I hope people understand that.

No comments:

Post a Comment