Tell all that to the families of the one that disintegrated in the air over Iraq recently,
I take it you mean Afghanistan. If you're going to try and slate me, get your facts right. And yes, I do have friend and colleagues who had close friends on XV230.
So Lossiemouth is in the north of Scotland... boo hoo. You don't join the armed forces in the knowledge that you'll be working from your childhood home, if you can't handle being 1 hours flight-time from anywhere in the UK , then you SHOULDN'T be in the RAF.
Mmm, and yeah, people think its great that they get to go to Lossie and Leuchars too. The difference is the RAF is now a lot smaller. Places like Kinloss used to be teeming with service personnel and their families. Nowadays, half the personnel are civvy contractors. Have you been to the mess at Kinloss? A huge mess, but on most nights, a quiet as a mouse. The only local place to go out, the locals love you. It's the only place I've ever been threatened with physical violence for being English.
You can jump on a flight from Inverness to London - but are you going to be able to book it enough in advance to not pay full whack. Probably not. Train. Inverness to London? A shade over