Originally Posted by
1.3VStall
Meanwhile,
Down at Membury, home of Southern Sailplanes, expansion continues. New tractors and gang mowing machines have been procured, the strip has been levelled and extended and there is now talk of a new-build hangar.
Who is funding this burgeoning business empire? We are, of course: the taxpayers. With over 20 gliders now returned to the Air Cadets, at over £100k per airframe, and more that 20 more to go through, Southern Sailplanes are laughing all the way to the bank!
You couldn't script it!
Who'd blame them? SS have done many ARCs, Repairs, Annuals etc for people I know at reasonable cost.
But the amount of bureaucracy and work that the RAF are making the contractors work through to get these simple aircraft airworthy is staggering and unlike anything seen in civilian gliding for the same aircraft type, just look at how slow Syerston's engineering team was to get aircraft out! Without SS or a similar contractor, Air Cadet Gliding would be dead in the water.