Perks of the Job

Something that was made apparent to me on leaving the RAF was that in civilian life employment isn't focussed just around salary, one also has to take the perks into consideration and that both renumeration aspects are negotiable.

In the Air Force one cannot do much about negotiating a higher salary but as we are all aware there are extras - Perks - within the service arena of which one can, if so minded, take advantage.  The sports facilities are one such aspect which comes to mind (try finding the same free facilities outside of the mob!).   However, Shiney Two and its reconnaissance Jaguars provided another opportunity to those of us connected to the squadron not commonly available to either those in civvy street or, at that time, the remainder of the RAF.

RAF Laarbruch was located just inside Germany by the Dutch border (I say, "was", because Laarbruch as a RAF station is no more).  It was generally accepted that the area was not one of the prettier parts of Europe but, no matter, we were well positioned to take advantage of more attractive areas.  One such area was the Eiffel Mountains some 150 kms to the south and a little beyond, the Mosel Valley.  For those of us who were into camping, this was a bonus indeed.  However, despite its proximity, the distance from Laarbruch made travelling to the Eiffels and the Mosel quite time-critical if one was to get full advantage of a Summer weekend.   Especially if one was leaving after work on a friday afternoon.

So it was that the scheme was devised whereby a sortie would be flown around friday lunchtime and one of our Jaguars would fly down an identified stretch of the Mosel with cameras running to check on availability on the various favoured camping grounds.  Armed with this knowledge we would then be able to set forth confident not only that there would be space available at the campsite of our choice but in most cases identify the very pitch where we intended to plant our tent.  The look on the faces of the proprietors when we displayed the glossy Black and White 10" x 10" print and pointed to the spaces we required was worth the journey alone.

Not too sure if they appreciated the earlier noisy intrusion by our aircraft in gathering the evidence and providing us with this particular Perk!

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