Esperanza

I have a student who did a lot of his training with Cabair in 2010. He apparently flew with Paul Easty; hopefully I have the name right. Anyway he took all of his written exams with the Bedford School of Flying. I understand that the school went into administration in September. I'm now trying to find a way of retrieving the results. Any thoughts/help would be appreciated.

bose-x

have you contated the CAA? i was under the impression that if you a school ceases operating then they either have to secure a custodian of the records or send them to the CAA.

Esperanza

Thank you. I'll give them a call.

Vortex Thing

Not trying to thread creep BUT the problem here is very similar to the that on the electronic submission thread. If all exams, medicals, and results were in their entirety submitted electronically.

It would serve as a backup in case of fire, flood and other disasters. it would also eliminate the issue of schools, instructors, etc querying what really happened. I.e like our bank statements you can either see it or not. Further it would prevent unscrupulous schools editing, loosing, or withholding things to get more money out of students as I have seen numerous schools do! allow better and instant capture of statistics. Improve oversight for the CAA and especially in the case of ceasing trading, insolvency, etc allow a student to move to any other TRTO/FTO and the org taking over Trg to have full and instant access to all Trg records, results and details.

Other countries have been doing this for literally years when are we going to get with the times in the UK we are the slowest to take on new technology at our peril.

taybird

Vortex - Apologies for continuing the thread creep, but given the issues I've personally experienced with the CAA computer systems, I'm not sure that would be wise.

OP - Good luck with retrieving your student's PPL written results!

Whopity

The examiner who administered the examinations has a responsibility to hold copies of all the results for a 3 year period. Regardless of what happened to the school, it is the examiner who you should contact. It is unlikely that the CAA will have them as there is no official process of dealing with such records. If you don't know who the approved examiner was, the CAA will have details of the custodian of examination papers as part of the registration.

The CAA has numerous computer systems, the result of ill conceived and underfunded projects over a number of years, so they have little ability to keep or maintain coherent records from examiners or anyone else outside the building.

Whilst all of these things could be done by computer, the infrastructure is not there and there is no funding to pay for it.

rmcb

My logbook went missing between check in and the destination carousel; three hours of PIC under LPC disappeared as a consequence; at CPL issue I had to either fly these hours or get examiner to verify I had flown this test and passed. So, a trip to the then ailing chap was made and he very graciously went to his attic, pulled out his logbook, verified the hours, wrote a letter to the CAA and didn't charge me a bean. Thankfully he hadn't thrown his record away or died in the meantime.

What happens with the petty bits of paper my examiner had to submit to the CAA after those flights? When I raised this point with Toady at the CAA I was given the impression that she feared the accountability to which they would be exposed.

I admire the world beating safety element of the CAA and the diligence with which they perform that duty. The licencing group activity is pathetic in its devising, system and execution. They disregard the whingeing of pilots who - shockingly - expect a service for their fee. There seems to be no understanding of the eye watering costs and anxiety needed to obsequiously part their doors and beg for the privilege of flight.

Either do the job required or farm it out to someone who will - I don't begrudge paying for a service given but I do when it's not. If funding is the problem, put up the fees - but give value!

PS - this isn't a dig at you, Whopity; just comments on your comments!

Whopity

Surely that is a contradiction! Licensing makes a profit that pays for those parts of the CAA that run at a loss. When you have a captive audience, there is no motivation to provide Service!

rmcb

You misunderstand me - I am suggesting after the business is farmed out to someone who can do it with a proper IT structure and prove its worth.

I have always maintained the CAA is a bloated behemoth monopoly; it's time to change. The CAA suffers from hubris of stupendous proportions. The DVLA has 'gotten its shit together', why can't the CAA?

Whopity

Whilst that might sound simple it would require a change in the law. It is the government who decide who issues the licences and the law requires that the CAA perform this task!

rmcb

This is heresy... Are you suggesting they should be regarded as civil servants?

Through bullshit and obfuscation they demoralise all. Time to change the law, I feel!