Anyone done a tour at RTS?

[JTforever]

I'm thinking about a tour at RTS. Anyone else done one? What did you consider the good and bad points of your time there?

Any other gen would be great, rough idea of working days/hours, quarters, local area etc etc.....

Also, to decide wether or not it's for me. Does anyone know if RTS hold visits/open days for potential instructors? (I would check the Halton interweb site but I'm not in work currently)

 

[busby1971]

Working hours

Working hours

Not been to RTS since Swinderby, however, Inch High DI on here works somewhere at RTS, apparently it's not at Swinders any more, drop him a PM and arrange a visit down there.

I hear it's long hours but very worthwhile.

 

[he_who_dares_rodney]

Not done RTS but did a tour of Halton
I enjoyed it nice area quarters didn't seem too bad when I went visiting and good access to London for travel etc

 

[Hu Jardon]

You could try pm'ing Portcullis - I thinks he's part of the establishment

 

[Joe_90]

Not been to RTS since Swinderby, however, Inch High DI on here works somewhere at RTS, apparently it's not at Swinders any more, drop him a PM and arrange a visit down there.

I hear it's long hours but very worthwhile.

Swinderby, that's some old housing estate isn't it? What's that got to do with the future of the RAF?DT_Xtremez_42:

 

[babysitter]

RTS does hold potential instructors courses where you can go down for a day or two and shadow some of the instructors on site. As said previously Inch High DI is your man who runs the courses.

 

[busby1971]

Move on

Move on

Swinderby, that's some old housing estate isn't it? What's that got to do with the future of the RAF?DT_Xtremez_42:

I think you'll find it's a brand new housing estate too, they set fire (blew up) to some of the old housing for a TV programme called London's Burning.

Our future is based upon our heritage, Swinderby was a purpose built Recruit Training School, unlike Halton that has been cobbled together to meet a need within a [small] budget.

Anyway this's way off topic and I never enjoyed a moment of my six weeks there so I'm not going to defend the place, now then Hereford that was a great training camp and it trained WRAFS and YTS at Phase One, neither of which am I.

 

[grumpyoldb]

Swinderby was a purpose built Recruit Training School,

Erm, if you look at the history of Swinders you'll find that it was not purpose built for recruit training.

"RAF Swinderby was a Royal Air Force Bomber Command airfield opened in 1940, one of the last of the stations completed under the RAF's expansion plans started in the 1930s" DT_Xtremez_14:

 

[busby1971]

You're not wrong

You're not wrong

Erm, if you look at the history of Swinders you'll find that it was not purpose built for recruit training.

"RAF Swinderby was a Royal Air Force Bomber Command airfield opened in 1940, one of the last of the stations completed under the RAF's expansion plans started in the 1930s" DT_Xtremez_14:

You are not wrong, and this is a bit more heritage that we shouldn't forget, Swinderby in the next couple of years will no longer be a memory for any junior rank within the RAF, unless they've bought a house there recently.

Off Topic

 

[mad_collie]

OK - there is a warfare history section if you want to carry on with this.

Back to the original question . . . . .

 

[shiny_arse]

Did 3 years at RTS and can quite honestly say it was the most rewarding time I spent in the RAF.

However it was at the beginning of the last decade and I imagine that a fair bit may have changed.

That said, my recollections are, the quarters down the back of the Rose & Crown are not too bad, Wendover & Aylesbury have enough to provide most of your shopping and entertainment needs. London is just down the road as required.

During my time the course went from 6 to 9 weeks long. First phase is fairly hectic with long days (inspections started at 0700 - day ended on occassions after 2100), working weekends for the first 2 weeks of the course, chills a wee bit during regt phase and final blues prior to passout. (0700 - 1730ish). Wee bit of man management within the flt usually meant that reasonable hours could be established during that time. As horrific as some of the 0800 - 1700 brigade may find those hours you do get quickly used to it.

Have a look at the RTS webpage on the intranet as there is a fair bit of info there, and I do believe that they hold the odd open day for potential instuctors to have a feel for the place.

Best advice is get as much info as you can - personally all the gripes and groans to do with the job disappears as you march on with your latest batch, RAF Band drums thumping behind you and the parents/friends start up the applause. Very proud moments and had the same feeling over 18 occassions.

 

[JTforever]

Thanks, that's just the sort of reply I was looking for.

I've never worked 0800-1700 yet in the RAF, always worked shifts so the working hours aren't a problem.

I'll get onto the Halton intranet when I get back to work to have read.

 

[Warwick Hunt]

RTS is one of those jobs that you'll either love or hate with a passion. I spent some time just after I got promoted as part of the RTS set-up, admittedly from the outside looking in, and got to see a bit of what it entailed. As has been alluded to, it is a hugely rewarding job where you are literally moulding the future of the RAF. The hours can be long, which gets in the way a bit of a normal family life, certainly whilst your flight is one of those going through and stress levels can go through the roof, especially when you have to stop yourself wrapping your pace stick round some little scrote's head! Leave, admin, duties, courses, etc have to be crammed in the period between intakes. But the guys who I knew who did it wouldn't change it for the world.