So some of you may know I have talked about joining the Army reserves. That has been mainly in part to location. I live on the south coast and there are reserve units all over the place, were as there are no local RAF units (I have always wanted to join the RAF though). As a medic this drops that number down even more. I have the choice of the oldest RAF base RAF Northalt or RAF Brize Norton which houses the only aeromedical evacuation squadron.

I looked at locations and while RAF Northalt is closer, RAF Brize Norton is the one to go for.

A big plus for RAF over Army is the commitment time each year. It’s the same amount of days but training is over the weekend rather than a mix of evenings & weekends. I have to do a 15 day camp then 6 weekends a year. I am going to aim for 1 every 2 months.

RAF fitness:

Initial selection

2.4km Treadmill run in 14:13min
8 push ups in 1 min
26 sit ups in 1 min

RAFFT

Bleep test @: 6.04-7.05 (good), 7.05-10.04 (very good), 10.05+ (excellent)
Press ups: 8-17 (good), 18-27 (very good), 28+ (excellent)
Sit ups: 26-31 (good), 32-45 (very good), 46+ (excellent)

About the only thing I can do now are the sit ups. I need to work on my run and I can’t even do one real press up. I am going to go to an information event on 22nd Feb so I ope to be in reasonable fitness by then even though this is just information gathering and no testing.

Once through selection basic training will be 5 days one month, 4 days the following month and 15 days the month after. I am away for a good part of May so a selection date of April/June with basic training from July would be ideal.

As RAF Brize Norton is a distance away I shall have to stay in a hotel/hostel the night before any training unless they offer accommodation.or training started on the Friday evening