Pegasus107 wrote:
You could start a whole new thread complaining about the number of RAF stations or squadrons now compared with during WW2, but whats the point.
Comparison with wartime strength is somewhat pointless, but comparison with the RAF at the time even of GW1 might be germane?
When I finished my UAS tour in 1993, at my dining-out I mentioned that, as a student, when the UAS moved from White Waltham to Abingdon, one of the QFIs said "At least they'll never close this place". Well, sadly they did - or rather it was squaddified. So we moved to Benson - when I said that this was just one of the 40 or so places where the RAF used to fly in the UK when I joined, but no longer did, the Group Captain spluttered "Good God...40?".
Back in the days when the RAF could afford its own training aircraft and QFIs, we had UAS Summer Camps at operational RAF stations 'to see the real RAF'. My first was at Thorney Island in 1970 - as well as the based aircraft, there were quite a few visitors including the last Meteor TT20 and Vampire T11 still being used for fleet requirements. A privilege to see the very last of the first generation jets still in everyday use.
But they can't afford the luxury of such training these days. Air Cadet gliding was the USP for the organisation; a few minutes in a plastic pig miles from the ATC squadron, or playing with a 'part-task trainer' learning bad habits simply cannot compare. Playing pongos and buggering about on 'adventurous training' can be done better by others - the 'Air'
must be put back into 'Air Cadets'!
Mind you, at a time when EFT graduates only have a couple of hours of PIC time on a course of over 60 hours, what hope is there for that?