No doubt you’ll remember the good old days of 6442s? People desperately seeking certain numbers each year to make sure they got over the numerical hurdle to be considered - unless they got a Spec Rec of course. ‘I need straight 8s this year to be looked at!’
It was a while ago but it was somewhere like the Student Room or other internet forum.
Don’t listen to ‘crew room twaddle’. There are good and bad DE officers, just like there are good and bad ex rankers; surprisingly, there are also good and bad WOs (although not many bad ones).
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Absolutely. Promotion isn’t like the cadets where you can be a Sergeant within a few years.
It took me nine years, and I personally know people who have taken over 15 years to earn the rank of Corporal.
I’m afraid not, knocking on 12 years now. Only known the JPA appraisal system.
You didn’t miss much - JPA/SJARs/Boards similar to what officers always had seems much fairer to me.
It’s definitely male bovine excrement.
When I went through selection and IOT a number of years ago, the proportions were roughly explained as follows.
Say a branch has 10 spaces for new officers, the ‘right’ numbers for the role - to ensure that there’s the right mix of ages and experience in the branch going forward - would be;
approx 6 or 7 21/22/23 year olds straight from uni,
approx 2 or 3 ex-rankers,
approx 1 or 2 18/19 year old direct entry.
You need a mix of people and ages so that in 15/20 years’ time you’ve got people who have enough life and service time left in them so that they could be senior officers. That doesn’t work if the only people you’re letting in at the starting point are 45.
So to get to the high ranks like Group Captain and the Air Officers you’re going to need to spend many decades working up the ranks. As I can imagine to get to be a Air Marshal it could come down to who you know on the promotion board rather than merit.
Not necessarily many decades. In theory, if someone’s really good, they could hit Gp Capt at 40. And promotion to Air Marshal will definitely be down to who you know as there’s not many of them and even fewer to decide who gets there. Air ranks have to be pretty political as well, so they have to be Whitehall Warriors too and I would guess that the Civil Service and/or Ministers will have a say, especially when you’re looking at 3 or 4 star appointments.
Exceptional
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3 SJARs for Cpl, 4 for Sgt, 5 for FS (not sure on WO)
Exceptional gets you looked at on the board without the number of reports
I take it the people who decide who gets said rank are higher than that rank. Which means when you get to Air Chief Marshal theirs no-one left to promote you other than the Queen, (or more realistically Air Command). As even though being the biggest cheese in the RAF would be great, I’m not great at politics. So I better get talking to my local MP now to get my name in early for that Marshal of the RAF promotion 
The PM and Defence Secretary choose them.
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I just thought, as the Marshal of The RAF is the head of the RAF police, does that mean he is above military law in the same way the Queen is above the law because she is head of the country. I know that an MRAF doesn’t exist right now but just wondering.
No one is above the law.
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I thought the monarch couldn’t be arrested or brought to court weather civil or criminal, as said on the official website of the royal family: The Queen and Law | The Royal Family and even though it doesn’t directly say shes above the law, I think we’d have a hard time putting her in prison.
Let’s stick to your original topic shall we and not get in to something else.
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Usually, the Board is 2 ranks higher than the rank they’re selecting in to. So for Flt Lt to Sqn Ldrs, the Board is Gp Capts, for Sqn Ldr to Wg Cdr, they’re Air Cdres.
True in RAFAC, too, for the ‘automatic’ promotion Plt Off > Fg Off. When one of my officers was up for it I had to sign a form to say he was ‘efficient’ or similar.
Unlike the Army who have NCO pilots.