RAF manoeuvre at first a long way off (4)
I believe the answer is:
afar
'a long way off' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'raf manoeuvre at first' is the wordplay.
'manoeuvre' indicates an anagram.
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'first' becomes 'a' (first letter of the alphabet).
'raf' with letters rearranged gives 'far'.
'far' after 'a' is 'AFAR'.
(Other definitions for afar that I've seen before include "from baseline to baseline?" , "Not in this neighbourhood" , "(From/at) a great distance" , "Pull out at a distance" , "Distant, not near" .)